[BsFaninCGY]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

The issue is likely that your current amp needs to be recapped. The electrolytic capacitors have probably dried out and failed with age and a few other components can be replaced. It should be pretty easy if you have a soldering iron as all tech of the era had great service manuals.

New speakers are probably a safer bet because old speaker cross-overs likely also need re-capping.

Vintage amps are almost always better than anything new or current however.

Are you sure the issue isn't in your turntable? One channel could be cutting out because of oxidized components on the tonearm or wiring down the chain. Have you replaced your stylus at all? What stylus are you even using? The Dual is a little more complex for replacing the stylus and getting it properly aligned via pro-tractor than another turntable where you can just swap head-shells. If a particular style of music is what you are after, it's really the stylus that affects that the most. A dirty, worn, or damaged stylus will also only reproduce one side.

I do know how to do some basic soldering, and have found the service manuals for most of my gear. Might be a fun little project to get me more confident with the soldering iron. And no, I'm not positive the issue isn't with the turntable. I think I might pull everything out of it's cabinet and do some more troubleshooting. The stylus is a Shure M75-6 - and upon closer inspection definitely needs cleaning!

Originally Posted by Baron von Kriterium

In my opinion, you should make a list of what equipment interests you and purchase the item(s) that become available. I say this because you might be waiting a long time for a set of speakers. Meanwhile, a turntable appeared and you missed out on it. The good stuff gets snapped up quickly if you aren't nimble.

It is difficult to make general recommendations because everyone has different tastes. I like direct drive turntables; others prefer belt drive.

For speakers, I will always recommend Boston Acoustics. For the floor standers, look for the A150, A200 and A400. For book shelf, look for A60 and A70. I have had a set of A150s since 1987 and I love them and I will never sell them. The A150s are rare; the A200s and A400s even more so.

I prefer the "East Coast" sound so I like Acoustic Research, Advent, KLH, EPI, Genesis, Polk and Reynolds. People will say that these speakers are more suited to jazz and classical than rock, but I'm a rocker and they're fine to me.

My only non-East Coasters I own are JBLs: 4301B and 4401. Both of these are control room monitors. There is a strong following for the non-pro L series JBL. My only experience with JBL was with a set of LX-66 (made in Denmark). These were monsters with twin 8" woofers, but I wasn't all that impressed with them. L100s/L300s command way more money.

If you're looking to rock out, then there is nothing wrong with the older Cerwin Vegas, Realistics (Mach 1 primarily), Altec Lansings, Pioneer HPM, and the rest of the Japanese 'Kabuki' speakers. If you can find them, Mitsubishi put out very nice speakers and they aren't well known, so pricing is reasonable.

I don't have any experience with British and Canadian speaker manufacturers.

Dynaco A25s are very nice, too.

I have no experience whatsoever with new speakers.

Any of the 70s Japanese silver face receivers/int amps are fine. The Toshibas, Sanyos and Hitachis of the world fly under the RADAR due to poor marketing in North America, but they are no slouches. I own three different Pioneers but I prefer Kenwood (can never find them). The black Sansuis command more money but they aren't any better, in my opinion. Ditto for Marantz. Lots of hype because they look cool with the blue lights.

Have you checked out www.audiokarma.org ?

Great info in here - thanks! I did find audiokarma along with several other forums last night and will start trying to wade through all the information in there.

Being nimble is a great way to put it - I'm going to start researching a few other components, so hopefully if I stumble across something good I'll know it when I see it. Thanks again!