new to the world of turntables

[noviceatbest]

Thank God for the internet and this website.
I decided to start listening to my old albums once again. It's been 45 years now, never wait that long.
I bought a thrift store turntable, a Dual CS 506 and a few thrift store albums at .50 apiece. I know, the dirt, the dust, the age, etc., but I now I have discovered that MY generation of turntables is called "vintage" and they are costly. I don't know if I want to regenerate the hobby of buying vinyl so don't want to invest a lot yet. Hence, used equipment.
Having said that, I also purchased a used (but clean) older Yamaha receiver for $40. I had this model and gave it away because I needed more HDMI outlets. It seems to be fine. I plugged in the used Dual turntable and naturally it sounded rough. But I can replace the needle if i decide to keep it. The problem: a lot of audio noise coming from the speakers. The Dual has a component (white and black) cable that I plugged into the "phono" outlet in back of the Yamaha receiver. With this racket -is it the component plug or am I doing something wrong? I am using Energy bookshelf speakers, which sound fine ordinarily.

[Wasatch]

Can't say for sure, but the LPs are dirty and need to be clean. The stylus needs to be replaced.

[Bob in STL]

Thank God for the internet and this website.
I decided to start listening to my old albums once again. It's been 45 years now, never wait that long.
I bought a thrift store turntable, a Dual CS 506 and a few thrift store albums at .50 apiece. I know, the dirt, the dust, the age, etc., but I now I have discovered that MY generation of turntables is called "vintage" and they are costly. I don't know if I want to regenerate the hobby of buying vinyl so don't want to invest a lot yet. Hence, used equipment.
Having said that, I also purchased a used (but clean) older Yamaha receiver for $40. I had this model and gave it away because I needed more HDMI outlets. It seems to be fine. I plugged in the used Dual turntable and naturally it sounded rough. But I can replace the needle if i decide to keep it. The problem: a lot of audio noise coming from the speakers. The Dual has a component (white and black) cable that I plugged into the "phono" outlet in back of the Yamaha receiver. With this racket -is it the component plug or am I doing something wrong? I am using Energy bookshelf speakers, which sound fine ordinarily.

Wow, 45 years out of vinyl? You missed the 70s then. To bad, that was a vinyl heyday.

A couple of changes have happened in 45 years.

1. We clean records to get them to sound good (read the forum on record care some time).
2. We replace old bad needles and align cartridges using free down loadable protractors from the "tools" section above.

Vintage eguipment can be excellent but you have to be willing to do some work along the way. You could acquire a great sounding system of used equipment that is not at all costly but that will take some research and effort. Not a lot, but some.

Here are the manuals for your CS 506. It is a good starter turntable. Consider replacing the belt and doing some basic lubrication to the motor and the spindle. Your turntable is old and most likely needs it.

http://www.vinylengine.com/library/dual/cs-506.shtml

Sounds like you know already the Energy speakers are in good working order so the and two unknows are the turntable and the Reciever.

What is the cartridge model? It probably needs a stylus and that could be your problem.

Other things to check: Are your turntable RCA phono plugs in good condition and clean? Is there a good ground wire that you connected to the Reciever?

What model number is the Yamaha receiver? Does it have a phono input? Does it play FM without distortion. Can you plug a CD player into it and get good sound? Try to eliminate some of the variables.

Bob

[noviceatbest]

Maybe my subtraction was wrong. Let's see, I had Rumors and Dan Fogelberg, Emylou Harris, and Jackson Brown. But I lived in a canyon with only a one channel black and white tv. We listened to one fm station, kzap, out of Sacramento, and had a terrible 8 track in a truck that ran on propane. So that was circa 1978 and i dont remember what i played my albums on. But i think im off about 10 years, more or less. Anyway, i am familiar with setting up t surround sound systems for my home and those terms are familiar.
My newer Yamaha receiver, about 16 mos old, just stopped working over the weekend and is going to b fixed tomorrow. It has NO phono input, this is why i purchased t used Yamaha at thrift store. It is vry clean w few scratches, etc., and HAS the phono input. Tomorrow i can try the other aspects of the older yamaha, the cd player.
I paid $15 for t turntable. Although t dustcover is marred and scratched, t inside deck is spotless, minus some dust. The wooden case is in great shape. I am dismayed that it didnt just plug in to the yamaha and work because now i am facing t decision: is THIS t turntable i want to invest my time and money on?
The older yamaha i bought today seems to b functioning ok with amfm reception. I live in mountainous foothills of sacramento where reception for radios varies, but i do have amfm antennas. Yes, i did hook up the grnd. wire from Dual tapedeck but when i plugged in rca cord it started to make a sort of humming/slightly buzzing sound and t quality of a rather clean Pretenders album sounded lousy.
I think the Dual cable plug, the black one, looks a bit oxidized and t cable, well, is probably 25+ years old? What could i do about that?
Is this refurbishing of an old turntable smthing a novice like me could do? I am a great cook and gardener, but didnt come w much mechanical ability. No, that is not my strongsuit but im willing to try. Or, i just re-sell this Dual and buy smthing refurbished.
And to think, i just originally wanted to play a few old albums and get nostalgic.

[Alec124c41]

In the Dual forum, there is a stickie that tells you how to get into the Dual, if you don't already know. Many Duals had RCA plugs inside, too, which makes it easy to swap out the cables for new ones. Make sure all RCA plugs are a tight fit on the connectors.

Cheers,
Alec

[noviceatbest]

Thanks. Tonight - I'm going in...

[Bob in STL]

You never posted what kind of cartridge you have.

Read the markings on it. You might need a stylus for it. I suspect you will unless you know for a fact the previous owner replaced it. The bad sound could be the stylus or even the tracking force that the stylus is set at. Post pictures if you can.

If you have any electrical contact cleaner use it on both ends of the RCA plugs. Then make sure they are firmly seated. If they are not and they slip then you need to slighting pinch the outer portion of the connector to make it fit tight. I will repeat slightly.

Also, I am curious as to what model Yamaha reciever you picked up. They had some good ones. Please read the model number right off of the unit and let us know.

good luck, Bob

[eljorge]

have you connected the earth/ground cable?, normaly this gets ris of a lot unwanted noice.

[noviceatbest]

The Yamaha receiver I picked up at a Sacramento, CA thrift store for $39 is RX-395, well before we even had HDMI. I rarely find a receiver in my weekly thrift store hunts, so this was very timely in that I not only found one, along with the Dual turntable, and it has the PHONO option. It is very clean for its age and all the knobs are intact and not loose. So far the TUNER and PHONO seem to work but with the audio distortion and the fact the receiver has not been mine until now, I don't know if the problems are with the turntable or receiver. My newer Yamaha receiver, RX - V467BL, like so many other newer ones, doesn't have the PHONO option so cannot test the Dual turntable with it unless I buy the preamp, which I hadn't intended on doing prior to this. The audio distortion I'm hearing happens as soon as I plug in the Dual turntable's RCA plugs to my thrift store Yamaha receiver and NOT when I try to play a record. Although the old RCA plugs, black and gray, are old, they are not loose at all. Should I try to replace this cord with a new RCA plug? Certainly I could do that along with the stylus and see what happens. I guess I am reluctant to dump money into this with absolutely no experience or much mechanical ability when it may not fix the problem at all and then I'm out another $50, more or less. I guess that's my decision though. I just adapted all my speaker wires with banana plugs and, whew, that was not hard at all. If I can get the stylus off easily and also replace the RCA plug and enjoy some success here, it may just give me great pleasure in knowing I was able to trouble shoot this with all of you helping me and can then enjoy all those great old albums I keep finding in the thrift stores. And the other funny thing is, I also found an old "all in one" Sanyo, for $10, that is working well enough to listen to the albums until I put together something a bit nicer looking and, hopefully, nicer sounding.

[chairmanphil]

wow 45 years! thought my 11 years turntable absence was good going! bet you will be buying vinyl again soon enough! since i joined this forum i have cleaned about 300 of my old favs and have brought about 30 new/old ones and cleaned them too. if it is anything like my Renaissance you are going to have a ball!

[kelvinMunson]

The audio distortion I'm hearing happens as soon as I plug in the Dual turntable's RCA plugs to my thrift store Yamaha receiver and NOT when I try to play a record. .

Can you expand a bit on this; do you mean that the radio or CD output becomes distorted when you connect the TT to your receiver ?

[Bob in STL]

The Yamaha receiver I picked up at a Sacramento, CA thrift store for $39 is RX-395, well before we even had HDMI. I rarely find a receiver in my weekly thrift store hunts, so this was very timely in that I not only found one, along with the Dual turntable, and it has the PHONO option. It is very clean for its age and all the knobs are intact and not loose. So far the TUNER and PHONO seem to work but with the audio distortion ....

Does the Tuner or have the same distortion as the Turntable with the TT completely disconnected? Please be clear on this. If it does then you have a problem internal to the receiver and we still have not really tested the turntable.

Once again, what is the make of the cartridge? Please report the markings on the cartridge.

Pictures would help.

thanks, Bob

[noviceatbest]

Thanks for question. I have two issues: I bought a used Yamaha receiver at a thrift store at the same time I found the Dual turntable. The Yamaha is in pretty clean condition for its age and I bought i mainly because it has the PHONO outlet which my newer Yamaha does not. So it's unproven. Second issue: the turntable. As soon as I plug in the RCA's to the PHONO output it has a loud humming sound. This is aside from anything else I do with the turntable, like put on an album. So I decided over the weekend to buy a new stylus and eliminate that possibility. Once that is in place I will see if that humming remains. I have been advised to use Scotcbrite on the RCA's, and I will do that, and the other good news is the RCA's are solid and not loose anywhere. Using fine and moderate scratch remover creams, soft cloths, and various fine cloth sandpapers, I was able to bring the old Dual dust cover into presentable terms - enough to want to keep it now. I will try my cd player on the thrift store receiver and see how it performs, the tuner works well with none of that same sound distortion that I get when I plug the RCA's into the PHONO outlet. Once I have exhausted all possibilities with what I have, and if things don't get any better, I will attempt to find a friend with a receiver that also has a PHONO outlet so I can try the turntable on theirs.

[kelvinMunson]

Have you taken the TT out of the plinth and checked that the RCA connectors are clean and tight at the TT end ?