Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Recalling that Dual was one of the names in hi-fi in the USA back in the 1960s, and in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s, it is apt that Dual and its rivals – then called Perpetuum Ebner and Benjamin Miracord, now PE [HFN Sep '17] and ELAC [HFN Jul '17] – have returned during the LP revival. Dual has the honour of longevity, starting with the production of spring drives in 1900. Electricity was added in 1927, with an electric motor backed up by spring drive, thus providing the company with a cool brand name, 'Dual' referring to the combination of what it called the 'DUAL-Motor'. A decade later, at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris, Dual's turntable won its first award. After the war, in 1949, the company introduced a record changer, the Model 1000, by which point Dual was producing 200,000 units per annum. Over the years, tape recorders, tuners, speakers and compact systems joined the catalogue. With the arrival of CD and the subsequent decline in vinyl sales, after a decade-plus of owning the UK budget sector, Dual suffered like most brands, but in 1993, Alfred Fehrenbacher GmbH took over the production of the complete turntable programme. Now they're back, along with their revived rivals, so it's nostalgia time all over again.