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New Needle and Cartridge for Dual 606 Turntable

post #1 of 18
4/7/07 at 7:09pm
Thread Starter 
i want to replace my needle and cartridge on my father's old dual 606 turntable. any info about replacing a cartridge would be greatly appreciated or any advice on cartridges that will fit my turntable will be greatly appreciated. here are some pictures of the cartridge.





thanks in advance
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post #2 of 18
4/7/07 at 9:21pm
For a needle replacement, you'll need the Dual/Ortofon needle DN-155E for the ULM-55E cartridge (more or less the same thing as an OM(B)10) - shouldn't be hard to get, as these are still made by Ortofon. If you want to mount standard 1/2" cartridges, you'd need the Dual 1/2 " adaptor kit G. But I'd recommend to keep the original cart and just go for a replacement needle, 'cause for one thing adaptor G is hard to find these days - and in addition you'd kind of ruin the ULM concept that way...

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

P.S.: The 606 is quite a good direct drive Dual, btw. Market introduction ~ 1979, iirc.
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post #3 of 18
4/7/07 at 9:57pm
Your father sure did good by getting one of those. One of the few direct drive decks that still have a following today. A bit of wood polish and a general clean up and you'll have given it a new lease of life. I don't remember ever seeing one coming in for repair when I worked as a repair engineer even though our retail branches sold quite a few. So reliability wise its amongst the best of its days I would say. Experiment with one of the thick but soft mats if you can get hold of one. I found that the Ortofon produced less rumble and stiffer bass with those type of mats on the direct drive decks.
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post #4 of 18
4/7/07 at 10:03pm
The best needle/cartridge resource I've found is here:

http://www.needledoctor.com/

They should have whatever you need to get your deck back in shape.
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post #5 of 18
4/7/07 at 11:19pm
http://www.garage-a-records.com is very good too and a bit cheaper.

See ya
Steve
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post #6 of 18
4/8/07 at 4:31am
Thread Starter 
hmmm interesting
the deck itself is in very good condition. its been in a box since the mid 80s. i have a black, soft mat.

hmm...i was hoping i could just shove a grado cartridge on and call it a day.
i took off the needle and looked it up
http://www.needledoctor.com/Ortofon-...=2&category=63
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post #7 of 18
4/8/07 at 10:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by feh1325 View Post
hmmm interesting
hmm...i was hoping i could just shove a grado cartridge on and call it a day.
Nothing stopping you from doing that. But memepool is your man for that sort of advise I would say. I personally have had no problems fitting any cartridge to any arm. The combination can be tweaked afterwards.
I'll have a look through my old TT stuff to see if I have any technical notes on the 606 that could help you.
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post #8 of 18
4/8/07 at 1:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Herandu View Post
Nothing stopping you from doing that. (...)
Unavailability of the adaptor G might stop him, as already mentioned above...

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
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post #9 of 18
4/8/07 at 1:56pm
Try a cheap but good sounding Grado cartridge.
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post #10 of 18
4/8/07 at 1:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Herandu View Post
Nothing stopping you from doing that. But memepool is your man for that sort of advise I would say. I personally have had no problems fitting any cartridge to any arm. The combination can be tweaked afterwards.
I'll have a look through my old TT stuff to see if I have any technical notes on the 606 that could help you.
Kind of you to say but I defer to Lini's superior knowledge on this one and concur that the Ortofon OM series are pretty much a perfect match for the Dual ULM arms. Although they may be a bit expensive in the USA.

You might find the adaptor kicking around somewhere amongst your dad's turntable bits and pieces or else look on ebay for a compatible Dual headshell. I am sure ebay sellers in Germany will have spares and they are relatively cheap to ship over.

If you can find the adaptor the best carts for these kind of low mass (7g ?) arms will be the Shure V15's (also ebay) or else an Audio Technica AT440ML.
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post #11 of 18
4/8/07 at 4:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by memepool View Post
(...) You might find the adaptor kicking around somewhere amongst your dad's turntable bits and pieces (...)
Hopefully...

Quote:
(...) or else look on ebay for a compatible Dual headshell. I am sure ebay sellers in Germany will have spares and they are relatively cheap to ship over.
Well, good luck on that - over here people already started buying complete tables (preferably defunct ones) just to get hold of one of these bloody adaptors... *sigh*

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

P.S.: Oh, and those 7 g include the stock cartridge, btw (Dual always specced effective mass that way) - the arm alone is 4.5 g.
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post #12 of 18
4/8/07 at 4:47pm
Thread Starter 
since vinyl is just a toy and i can't afford a new needle at 70bucks, i'll downgrade
can all those ortofons fit on mine?
thanks for all your replies
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post #13 of 18
4/9/07 at 10:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by feh1325 View Post
(...) can all those ortofons fit on mine? (...)
No, afaik, only the Dual/Ortofon needles DN-140S, DN-145E/S, DN-149S, DN-152E, DN-155E and DN-160E would fit to your cartridge body. But there are also aftermarket clones of these needles (probably from Pfeiffer, I'd assume), which are a good bit cheaper - e.g. over here the original DN-155E is ~ 60 Euro, while the clone goes for ~ 20 Euro.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
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post #14 of 18
4/9/07 at 11:48pm
This seems to be a cheap option: http://cgi.ebay.com/Pfanstiehl-4542-...QQcmdZViewItem Incidentally, I'm looking at the same one for my Dual 1257 with ULM 50-E cart.
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post #15 of 18
4/13/07 at 4:09am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by lini View Post
No, afaik, only the Dual/Ortofon needles DN-140S, DN-145E/S, DN-149S, DN-152E, DN-155E and DN-160E would fit to your cartridge body. But there are also aftermarket clones of these needles (probably from Pfeiffer, I'd assume), which are a good bit cheaper - e.g. over here the original DN-155E is ~ 60 Euro, while the clone goes for ~ 20 Euro.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
thanks, this is just what i want to hear!
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