Originally posted by grey goat Nice image! Which model Dual is that? And . . . Coral . . . I'm not familiar with that cartridge. . . .
Thanks!
The turntable is a Dual 1229 which I refurbished some years back.
Technically, the cartridge is an Andante E, but the Andante E & S and the Coral 555, and a couple of others are identical, or nearly identical, clones of the body used for the Sumiko Pearl and Black Pearl cartridges. I have the original elliptical stylus assembly for the Andante, but the cantilever end is broken off. But the cartridge came to me with a nearly new Coral 555-S (spherical/conical) needle, so it is the essentially about the same an Andante S. It also is very similar to the Sumiko Black Pearl, except that the Black Pearl has a .6 mil spherical, while my Coral 555-S stylus is a .7 mil. So for fun, I have been referring to my combo as a "Sorta-Sumiko Gray Pearl."
My 1229 came to me with a Pickering XV-15 cartridge, so initially I became a fan of Pickering and Stanton cartridges, and probably my best cartridge is a Stanton 881S, but I also love some Shures, and a few single-copies of other makes. As I have acquired more Dual cartridge holders, I can quickly swap cartridges, which is fun!