Dual CS718Q

A well-built turntable…

The Dual CS 618Q strikes a nice balance between high performance and crowd-pleasing convenience. It’s built around a quartz-stabilized brushless direct-drive motor that offers reliable speed stability and very low vibration. It features a solid MDF plinth, heavy die-cast aluminum platter, and stabilizing feet that reduce unwanted resonance, so you hear only the music. An ingenious twin-gimbal design with pivot ball-bearings allows the lightweight aluminum tonearm to read a record groove with extreme precision.

…with very convenient features

The included Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge is a real gem — the audiophile-quality 2M line is renowned for balanced performance and sonic accuracy. The ‘table plays 33-1/3, 45, and 78 rpm records, and a switchable built-in phono preamp lets you connect to a standard RCA input on your receiver, amp, or powered speakers.

I love the semi-automatic function, which stops the motor and lifts the tonearm automatically at the end of a record. Now, I’m aware that many audiophiles don’t like this feature, so here’s the good news: there’s a switch on the back of the ‘table that lets you defeat it if you prefer to operate your turntable manually.

About Dual turntables

Dual is a legendary name in consumer electronics. The company started in Germany in 1907, and they introduced their signature “dual-motor” for powering gramophones in 1927. The dual-motor was so popular, it just made sense to call the company Dual from then on. They’ve been through some changes in the century-plus since the company was founded, but they’re still headquartered in Germany, and they’ve continued to build on their reputation as a first-rate turntable manufacturer.