Newbie cartridge question

[albundy]

Hi, I hope I'm posting this in the right forum... I'm very new to the world of analog and I just got my hands on my uncle's old Dual CS604. I'm all ready to get this baby going except I need to get a cartridge and stylus for it. This is where your guidance and wisdom is much needed by a newbie

My journey begins with a trip to Rene Rivo. I was hoping he could assist me as "older" equipment is his forte. Upon visiting sir Rene, I was advised to check out Audiophile about their Shure cartridges as he had none on stock. Off I went to Audiophile. When I reached Audiophile, they inspected my turntable and advised me that they did not know exactly what kind of cartridge my Dual needed. None of theirs seemed to look right for the job. I was advised to try the shops downstairs to see if they might know. Sensible Audio could not assist me either. They all gave me the same answer... "mukhang kumplikado yan".

Help! Anybody have any experience with the Dual CS604? It seems that the arm of the Dual has a different kind of mount for the cartridge.

[KD]

I am not familiar with this model but to satisfy my curiosity I looked it up on the internet. I managed to download a data sheet from here. In the "Cartridge" section it says this:

"Removable cartridge holder, accepting any cartridges with 1/2" mounting and a weight from 4.5 to 10 grams (including mounting hardware)."

This spec is wide enough to encompass the majority of phono cartridges sold today, so I am now speculating that the cartridge holder may have been removed from your turntable, thereby confusing the audio dealer who was accustomed to seeing a more standard mounting. Would you have pictures?

[KD]

Re: Picture



Does the turntable look something like this? The "removable cartridge holder" might be like a headshell. Does your ttable come with one?

[albundy]

Yes, my turntable looks exactly like that. What the dealers were telling me was that there was no holes on top of the arm for mounting the universal type cartridge, and neither were there sockets at the end for the other type of cartridge they were showing me. They couldn't figure out the wiring either. I'm sorry I have no pics of the TT. About the removable cartridge holder, I'll have to ask my uncle about that. Maybe he forgot to include that when he turned over the Dual to me. Thanks KD!

[arnoldc]

isn't this P-mount? what did the others say?

[albundy]

They didn't know what kind of mount it was. Audiophile showed me the Shure M92e and said that it didn't seem to fit, even with the universal adaptor.

[m_shoe_maker]

The Shure M92 is both a "P-Mount" cartridge, as well as a standard mount cartridge when used in conjunction with its adaptor.

I am not surprised that both P-Mount and standard mount are not applicable with your Dual. I used to have a different Dual model before, and it too had this strange (not universal) headshell, cartridge and stylus.

I'm not sure if this would be applicable to your model, but with my Dual, there was a replacement stylus made by Dual which can be purchased separately. I got mine at "Cardinal Audio" located at Virra Mall. I'm not sure if Cardinal Audio still exists, and if they do, I'm not sure if they still have this Dual replacement stylus. I got mine about 2 decades ago.

[albundy]

Hmmn.... this is getting more and more complicated. Maybe I should just get my uncle's Technics TT. He did say I could have the pick of the two. I was in a bit of a rush when I went over to pick it up so I wasn't able to choose nor see the two turntables. Inabot lang ng boy nila yung Dual.

[setup2]

Try checking out this site:

http://www.ol-technik.de/Dual/dualindex.htm

It might be that you are missing a part of the headshell... I had a Philips turntable before and it has a part where you will mount any standard cartridge and you will slide it under the headshell... It was like a pcb... If you look at the 'exploded view' of the 604 at the above site, I think it is part no. 31...

Hope you solve your problem...

Regards,
Joel

[albundy]

Hi Joel,

Thanks! I think I am definitely missing part no. 31. I'll have to get back to my uncle on that. Hopefully this solves everything for me so that I can start listening to the vinyls I got.