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Vintage Dual 1228 Turntable : worth to upgrade cartridge ?

I have from my college days (1977) Dual 1228 with original fitted Shure M95ED cartridge .  It is maintained well , not used for about 20 years in between , but just cleaned , lubricated , resoldered some loose connections , etc and just runs great for me. 
I am not too much into analogue , so not planning to do big time investment into new TT , Phono preamp , but if  can get larger benefit by replacing the Shure M 95 ED with some new cart upto $ 200-300 , I would like to do it . 
My Phono preamp is very low end Cambridge Audio MM 551P . To go with new upgraded cartridge , I may even consider to buy used Phono with budget of $1000 . 
I would appreciate advice form FMs here , where I should spend my money to get most benifit on sound improvement . New cart , new phono ? 

radni
radni OP
96 posts
 
Your TT most likely only needs cleaning , and lubricating. It has set for many years, so some grease is dried up or the lube is lost. So all moving parts need through wiping, cleaning with alcohol and fresh lube or grease . Electrical and RCA contacts also needs cleaning, etc.
You can DIY if have any liking and time for it. In that case there are good videos on You Tubes.
For service : I find ( on google search ) two places in NY area :
1. DJ Fix, 343 Broadway , Brooklyn
2. Analogique Service Lab, 27 W 20th St. # 406.

I have no experience of these shops , but appear worth visiting to try. Better to call them before going if they will take up Dual 1228 for service .

cliffkhz
47 posts
 

I just had my Dual 1246 cleaned and serviced at Fix my Dual.com.

EXCELLENT service!  Had it back in 1 week and it works like new.

radni OP
96 posts
 
I visited website of fixmydual.com . They are prefect, in my opinion, for service of a Dual TT. Charges seem to be reasonable ( $150 - 175  plus shipping ) .They seem to be located in Austin , TX.
rwmeditz's avatar
rwmeditz
36 posts
 
Sorry for the late reply, I wasn't able to complete the process and set up my Dual 1228 correctly until just recently. Thank you so much for all your excellent advice Radni and Cliffkhz. I opted to send it to Bill at fixmydual.com, where it only needed to be cleaned and lubed, just as you thought. Bill was great, also checked my cartridges and found that one stylus was bad and suggested a nice replacement. He then guided me patiently and kindly in setting it up properly when I hit a roadblock. I have now been listening to my old vinyl for 2 weeks and can't get enough! The sheer musicality on good recordings is amazing, so much so that the rare pops that bothered me eons ago and hastened my switch to digital are barely even noticed now. The very slightly smaller dynamic range of analog and more frequent intermissions' needed to flip the LPs on symphonic works or operas do make listening slightly disjointed, but for most rock, blues, folk and jazz are not issues at all. It is really fantastic to have the wonderful analog sound of vinyl back, all thanks to you and Bill!
cliffkhz
47 posts
 
I'm glad to hear your happy, Bill sure is knowledgable with Dual.Happy listening!
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