A Call For Humor!

[Ken1951]

as a not-particularly-humorous aside, VM's last gasp was in the form of the wildly (if briefly) popular BIC turntables of the late-70s/early-80s.

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Yeah, so it might get stuck on a curb...

Hadn't seen one of these, or even thought about them for half a century. The company I worked for way back when was a dealer. Sold a bunch of them and the speakers as well. Not great stuff - but affordable.

 

[mhardy6647]

BIC owned the 'entry level' for a few years for 'turntables' with the (to their credit) belt-drive 940/960/980 line (quickly expanded down to the 920 and up to the 1000).
These changers, as I understand it, were designed by VM at the very end of their corporate viability.

Jeez -- I've gone off topic in the humor thread!
HAVE I NO SHAME?!?

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

^^^ been through most of the Dual series, including their last-gasp electronic contender.

The 1019 and 1219 were a PITA to refurbish, with that little plastic thingy that always failed. Greatly prefer the ELACs though. Still have their original 10 (not 10H), which is simplicity itself, both above and below deck. Lube, replace the idler, you’ll get another 10 years of reliable service, rinse and repeat. Tank.

 

[xanalog]

...which is simplicity itself, both above and below deck. Lube, replace the idler, you’ll get another 10 years of reliable service, rinse and repeat.Tank.

What are we talking about?

 

[Bwaslo]

less magnetorhetorically -- I look at that suspension meme... and I think to myself...
yup, DUAL record changer...
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Compare the good old Voice of Music changer of the late 1950s...
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My father was a huge VM fan. He hated working on DUAL and Garrard changers.

You should take a look at the mechanism under a Beniamin Miracord changer. I used to go into serious depression if one of those came to my shop for repair.

 

[antcollinet]

LoL... I never repaired many Dual turntables because I had bigger fish to fry but when I was first starting out I was given a pretty nice Dual turntable with a auto return failure. I looked at the levers and all the assemblies underneath and was amazed that all this worked. The auto return was not operating and I analyzed that thing for about 25 minutes and determined nothing wrong with the assemblies. I was very perplexed. So my mentor was chuckling away and smiling giggling at the matter. He walked over with a container of liquid silicon of the factory specified heavy thick sticky weight and tells me to put a little glob @ a very specific location and so I did and then he said now try the auto return about 10 times to work that liquid silicone grease over the parts and let the mechanism get sorted out by itself. Just like he said, I kept using the auto return function as it malfunctioned and progressively with each iteration of engaging the auto return it commenced getting better with each attempt. Finally it settled in and voila... It worked perfectly and then customer was a happy clam. I was amazed that such a complicated sophisticated mechanism with such large heavy metal levers would rely on a heavy thick sticky liquid silicone but it works very well when setup properly.

I did similar with a Sony turntable. Except I just gave a liberal spray of GT 85 to loosten everything up a little. It's still working fine.

 

[Waxx]

 

[Buckaroo Shanzai]

Overly complex = unreliable.

When the headlight bulb of my BMW blew, I had to replace it. The headlight assembly is accessed from the front wheel well. To get at it: turn the front wheel, remove a panel, stretch your arm forwards and feel the back of the bulb, undo some screws which you can't see, then remove another panel. The bulb is mounted on another panel which is held in place with some clips. This requires some complicated manoeuvring to get out. Replace the bulb, then reverse the procedure. Unnecessarily complex.

In my old Toyota, just pop the hood and access the headlight assembly from the top.

Acommon side effect of building too cramped (BMW 1 series?) I heard such stories about some Renaults too, small cars and minivans (short hood) especially.

 

[Audionaut]

 

[Audionaut]

Best Freddy Costume ever

 

[Audionaut]

 

[Audionaut]

 

[Buckaroo Shanzai]

Dual automatic turntables all have a single point of failure, the steuerpimpel - a small piece of plastic that disintegrates over time due to the contact with grease. I once replaced one with a piece of stripped wire insulation.

More on the matter: https://www.steuerpimpel.com/

 

[Audionaut]

 

[Audionaut]

 

[Audionaut]

 

[Audionaut]

 

[Audionaut]

 

[Audionaut]

 

[Audionaut]