lo123

I am considering having my early 70s vintage Dual 1229 refurbished at a local shop. It has sat for about 10 - 15 years. With the general teardown and relube I'm thinking I might get lucky and spend only around $100 to $150 to get it back in service. Then, the Stanton 680EE cartridge has mucho hours on the stylus. Looking for replacements, it seems the 681EEE stylus will work. Needle Doctor has these for around $70 as I remember. So, I'm looking at around $200-300 ballpark to have my old pride and joy back up and running, assuming this 37 year old cartridge is in good shape and would benefit from a new stylus. Let's be generous and say I can get everything reworked and get the new stylus for $200. I have also come across these Technic 1200 series models in web searches. They seem like a standard for DJ usage, however I'm just looking to clean up some old records and enjoy music I do not have on CD or cannot obtain on CD. The Dual has a great reputation and I got used to its solid performance with over twenty years of usage. But with a new turntable for around $400, perhaps I can use my Stanton and just get a new stylus and avoid the issues with an older turntable. I would like to eventually have a separate preamp and tube setup for two channel, but for the near term, my Denon AVR-1800 is the whole enchilada. So, this will likely be a growing experience. Thoughts on new turntable verus resurecting the Dual? My patience level for tinkering with older stuff has decreased the last couple of years. I'm tempted to just bite the bullet and get something new. I'm interested in comments regarding the sound quality of the Dual versus newer table along the lines of the Technics unit. Anyone have similar setups or experience?

Last weekend my wife treated me to a concert for my birthday. If you have a chance to see Rain, the Beatles Experience, I would recommend it. While they did not try to overhype or act out their parts as "the Beatles", they did an amazingly good rendidition of the songs on their playlist that night. One of the highlights was "Day in the Life", just superb. The audience vibs seemed to be as important as the musicianship after the first couple songs. Highly recommended just for the "memory" of all these songs. In your case, a new exposure to a slice of music history. Some of the songs Rain performs were not performed live by the Beatles to the best of my knowledge. They cover the spectrum of early Beatles thru the final days. Even a couple of John Lennon songs during the encores. First concert I've been to in a long, long time. Google for their web site and schedule.

I'm in the process of getting my Dual 1229 back up and running after probably 15 years of inactivity...... Looking at the various types of record cleaners available. The Nitty Gritty pops up from a Google search but they seem to run over $500 new for a semi-automatic unit. Does anyone use these cleaners and have good or bad experiences to report?

I have had very good success with Blue Jeans products and services. They are responsive to emails and their quality is very good. Nice folks to do business with.

Friend at work sent me this link, thought someone here might appreciate it. http://www.audiotubes.com/shirts.htm Larry

Thought reel-to-reel lovers would enjoy this link - bring your wallet! http://www.tapeproject.com/

I'm not coming up with an overwhelming reason to change other than better WAF for the small footprint RT series. Thanks for the comments. Anyone hear the 13 inch SVS ultras?

I've had an SVS PC-Ultra for about 18 months. It's the only sub I've ever had and one of the few I've heard in a home environment. For my purposes it has provided some very good times, especially on movies. The rest of my system is RF-35 towers, RC-35 center and R-5800W in-walls. Equipment is in a cathedral ceiling family room with large openings into other rooms, entry foyer, etc. I have a corner on the wall facing the towers where the SVS is currently located. When I bought the SVS it seemed like a good compromise with my wife's decorating trend. Well, that may be changing and I'm wondering if anyone has had experience with the PC-Ultra (I have the 12 inch driver, not the new 13 inch) versus an RT-12D in their home system. Searched past posts and there are a lot of RT-12D references but could not find this exact comparison. The corner design of the RT-12D may be better suited (spelled W-A-F) to "our" decorating down the road, but I don't have a clue if the two subs are comparable in sound. The RT has more power and has room correction, both pluses. The RT price is not a plus, especially since I would be selling the SVS and definitely not making money. The smaller footprint is the only reason I'm entertaining this possible change. I'm happy to keep what I've got, just wondered if anyone has done this comparison in case I have to consider going this route........

I played all the cards except "I'm about to jump ship to satellite" and got an offer for the charter cable phone service at a discount rate for six months instead of the promo three months. Asking multiple ways how I could qualify for the current advertised specials just got the same answer - be a non-customer for 90 days so you can qualify. I'll probably wait a month or so and get this decision out past the holidays. Easier to consider alternatives when you're not in a panic mode for changing service providers during a family gathering intensive period. Maybe the supervisory chain will give me more leeway when I do call back, however I get the impression that Charter basically wants to hook you and then charge you the higher rate forever. Probably about the same as the satellite service when the special promo rate expires. I checked the satellite offerings by level of service versus what I get with just non-HD Charter digital now. I would have to upgrade into the third or fourth satellite tier to get a couple of channels we get now. So, some tradeoffs for early in 2008. Thanks for all the constructive comments and suggestions.

Thanks JT, should have thought to look for some user forums. From the looks of the discussions on that link I'll be awhile filterring quite a lot of information. thanks again -

So far, Dish seems to be getting more favorable press. Driving around my subdivision, most if not all antennas have the DirecTV logo. Maybe it's the NFL package, not so much an item in my family. Looking at the tradeoffs for hi-speed internet, digital (non-HD at this time) TV and phone service, I have been researching the various "bundles". Boy, this is worse than shopping for a new car. Bottom line seems to be that since my promotional period has expired with Charter for the hi-speed internet and dig TV, I do not qualify for one of their bundles since I can only add one service,namely my landline phone. To qualify for a bundle I have to be a non-customer for 90 days. My wife will not do without the TV stations she has grown accustomed to for a 90 day outage period, so I have to stay with Charter or go with one of the satellite providers. Goes downhill from there with 12 month contract, 18 month contracts, etc. My favorite so far is fine print on the local phone company mailing for hi-speed internet for 12 months at $15/month. Turns out it is low-high speed, namely 256 Kbps. But it gets better. To actually get the $15/month rate I have to extend another 12 months at $25/month or pay a penalty. That takes the cake. If not for the wife I'd pull the plug on everything for 90 days every 12 months and stay with the Charter service that is already wired into my home. Looking at the cost tradeoffs, though for the near term, I cannot get anything to provide a big savings (like $50/month) unless I constantly plan to rotate between providers periodically. Avoided this issue for years but now we're spoiled so I guess we're stuck with the bill in one form or another. If money was the only factor in my house, this would be a great time to get back into vinyl, don't think that would have a good WAF versus the cable TV stations......

I currently have Charter for digital TV and internet in the St. Louis area (St. Charles county). My bill will increase from $80/month to $114/month in January. Time for a change. Looking at options for the TV signal. What experiences have people in the St. Louis area had with the two main player, Dish and DirecTV? Our local phone company has a phone/internet hi-speed/satellite TV bundle that is probably around what Charter wants just for TV and internet now. Any recommendations or bad experiences for the two satellite TV providers? I hate to add a dish and more wiring to my house, but Charter has just priced themselves out of the market.

Merry Christmas from St. Louis! In the 50s here, snow from last week is all melted, no white Chrstimas this year. Have a blessed holiday and enjoy your system! My RF-35s are moved to the back bedroom while our eight grandkids are here today, I am much less stressed that way! Have to rely on the RC-35 center and the R5800W in-walls to get us thru.....

mcp, you have PM Re: your Dual turntable experiences

Couple inches outside St. Louis for now, more to come later they tell us......still fluries, good day to stay in!

Hey Wayne that would be great! Current schedule is either Jan or Feb sometime, probably several trips over the first six months of 2008. Fighting some equipment issues in our setup in San Diego right now. If we get those fixed something will certainly be happening as noted above. Keep the Cornwalls warmed up......

Hi Wayne - Possible trip back to San Diego in early January, would love to catch some good coffee and good tunes!

I bought nice cable from Blue Jean, then used RG-6 in my walls to route to eventual sub location. Seems to work OK for me.

Thanks, guys, couple of avenues to pursue, all sound better than 70% stuff.

St. Louis PBS Channel 9 airs Wedesday night 28 November at 9 PM (t-35 minutes and counting)...... entire schedule for this channel at; http://www.pbs.org/includes/tvschedules/new/programinfopopup.html?title_id=GPER&display_feed=756&display_format=list_airdates&feeds=756&station=KETC&zipcode=63366&transport=&provider=&channelsuppress=f&supersite=&program_title=Great%20Performances Oh boy........

seti - you have pm and email about the local Fortes you mentioned.

In a previous life, I ran a Tandberg reel to reel and a TEAC casette deck. I typically used drug store isopropyl alcohol to clean the heads and tape path hardware. Went to the local drug store today to get some isopropyl alcohol to clean up a recently acquired TEAC dual casette deck. Noticed the label on the bottle indicated 70% isopropyl alcohol, other ingredients are water. Hmmmmm. I've been involved in some fiber optics equipment at work lately and we use very high percentage isopropyl alcohol, much more than 70%, to clean the contacts. Is there a reaonably priced commercially available equivalent for cleaning tape heads and tape path components?

Sometime back I looked up the Paul Klipsch school of engineering at New Mexico State University, see link below. http://abacus.nmsu.edu/~shoran/ece/ece_home.htmhttp://abacus.nmsu.edu/~shoran/ece/ece_home.htm'> Has anyone in the Klipsch company considered sponsoring a student (or two!) to attend the yearly pilgrimmage and make a short presentation and/or demo of an engineering related project, audio related as a bonus, during one of the Saturday daytime or Saturday evening events? As an engineering student in a previous life, I think it would be a great experience for some lucky and talented young men and women to see the Klipsch facilities and to get first hand feedback on the lasting impact of PWK from his products and his engineering / scientific contributions to the field of audio. Since their engineering school is named for PWK, a pilgrimmage related trip and exposure to real world engineering with Trey, Roy, et. al., would seem like a natural fit. Any comments from Klipsch folks?

Some thoughts. 1. Check your CD/DVD player to be sure it is setup correctly. 2. Forget Avia for the moment. I used it and finally just set things up by ear for my room, which is a family room with huge openings to other rooms, not a controlled home theater space. By trial and error I have a good feel for where my Denon AVR should be set to give what I consider the best sound for various DVDs and CDs in this room. Try increasing your L/R mains volume settings on some CD source material you are familar with and see if a higher setting gives you the results you're looking for.

Hey Wayne! Glad to hear from ya, hope the fires stayed away from you. I was in San Diego two weeks ago but long days and no way to even think of coming up your way. One guy working with us lives in Riverside and commutes to Coronado Island, said it took his carpool nine hours to get home one day during the fires. Austrailian PInk Floyd is here in STL the next two nights, one of my kids has tickets. Your demo on the HT setup (DSOTM or Pulse, I forget which) is still a benchmark sound in my Klipsh listening experience, the Fortes and Quartets really sing. I'll have to struggle along with my RF-35 setup for now! Glad to have you back -