Dual CS 618Q Manual HiFi Turntable
German turntable manufacturer Dual has negotiated the ups and downs of the turntable industry very skillfully since its formation in 1927. Without giving you a turntable worldview history lesson, Dual, and its numerous iterations ended up in the hands of Alfred Fehrenbacher GmbH in 1993 and by 2007 were making ‘tables in the original Black Forest town of St. Georgen. Finally, in 2020 the company changed its name back to Dual GmbH and is now located in Landsberg am Lech in Germany. This is where the CS 618Q turntable was designed. It sells with an MSRP of $1299.99/incl. arm and cartridge (Ortofon Blue).
My first turntable was a Dual. My wife and I (as newlyweds at the time, forty years ago) stopped by Metropolitan Sound in Toronto during a trip from our home in Montreal. The owner (Fred) was a wonderful guy and let us play with all the toys. We happily drove the purchased Dual ‘table back to Montreal and had many happy years using it. Only when I got serious about high-end audio did I begin thinking of upgrading (to Rega products).
Once again, Dual has started to entice novice audiophiles with well-made German turntables for very reasonable prices. There are three ranges, Automatic, Manual and Reference. The top Reference series has one ‘table, the Primus Maximus at $12,000 of which only 100 are being manufactured. The Manual and Automatic series have more from which to choose. The CS 618Q under review is the top turntable in Dual’s “Manual” range.
It may be helpful to watch our video “A Tale of Two Turntables”, the other tt being the Thorens TD 1600. You’ll get a basic overview (and some closeups) of the 618 in the video. The video was shot at Victoria’s Atlas Audio Video. I would like to thank them for the use of their Dual CS 618Q for our review.
Features and Specifications
The unit is beautiful and well-made. Visually, a treat for $1299.99. And then there’s that little blue nugget hanging off the end of the arm. Another treat. And that’s before you play a record.
The 618Q is a direct drive system, which Dual says is: “renowned for quality and reliability. The rumble-free direct drive in the CS 618Q keeps the RPM stable while operating without noise or vibration.” I can attest to a pitch solid presentation throughout the review period. There is no outboard speed controller.
The tonearm adds to the presentation and is an advanced twin gimbal design with solid aluminum construction and a precision pivot ball-bearing. It has both adjustable tracking force and anti-skating. The bearings seem solid and it performed without a hitch. The turntable was delivered and set up with the Ortofon MM Blue ready to go. And for those sleepy-time guys and gals, the Dual has an auto-stop feature that includes an automatic tonearm lift. The dust cover is removable and Dual has provided elastomer vibration absorbers inside each of the four feet. The substantial platter is die-cast aluminum (you get a good close-up in the video) and a rubber mat is included. Speeds of 33/45/78.
Finally, the direct drive is quartz stabilized and its cordless inductors eliminate vibration. Additionally, double-shielded Rotor magnets are used to eliminate any stray magnetic fields.
The 618Q ‘s bearing has a hardened steel spindle and brass bushing integrated into the direct-drive.
Wow & Flutter:
< ±0,07 % (DIN WTD)
Tonearm
Bearing:
4 x Pivot ball-bearing /twin gimbal mounting
Effective length:
221,5 mm
Offset Angle:
25,6°
Overhang:
19 mm
Type:
statically balanced
Stylus Pressure Range:
0 g to 4 g
Cartridge Weight Range:
5 g to 9 g
Diameter:
305 mm
Weight (incl. Mat):
1450 g
Plinth
Material:
MDF, folded
Surface finish:
Vinyl veneer / Black
Option: Gloss / Black
Option: Veneer / Walnut
For even more plug-and-play fun, the CS 618 comes with an onboard MM phono stage. We switched the phono stage slider (just to the left of the RCA outputs in the photo above) to “line” and used a Hegel V10 as the phono stage. The ultra-quiet, very functional V10 ($1500) costs more than the turntable’s complete package. You can do the math. But as a starting turntable, a young gun vinylphile will be in Dual heaven. The onboard phono stage is functional, but a quality dedicated phono really ups the 618’s game.
Sound
The unit had a few hundred demo hours on it, including the cart. I usually play a side quietly to warm up the ‘table and cart before beginning a serious listening session.
From the first record on, Lyle Lovett’s new album 12th of June with as tight a stage band as you’ll hear, the sound had punch, drive and gravitas. Reeds snarled, brass emphasized and the drummer’s punches were equally emphatic. This opening track of his new album took me by surprise. Once again, if you’re smart in the music business, surround yourself with excellence. So many musicians’ egos let them down. Lovett comes out smelling like a musical rose.
Because the Lovett LP was so tightly recorded, I couldn’t tell if the ‘table bloomed in the right places or not. A real tell with quality turntables. More non-classical, this time Aja in the magnificent pressing from Analogue Recordings. “Peg” had me tapping wildly and the unique “Mu Major” progressions invented by the Dan had me shaking my head at their brilliant musicality. Along with the plethora of superstar session guys helping each chart to sing, the 618’s punchy character left an impact. Besides the toe-tapping and the head shaking, I was left with a fairly complete musical picture. So, the timbres were pretty accurate and I think the players would have been satisfied with the playback.
Classical music did not fare as well. The impact was not the same—orchestras making their own bloom using the hall’s ambiance (in this case, Chicago’s Symphony Hall) could only do so much with the ‘table’s limitations. As such, I found both Reiner choices, Strauss Waltzes and Pictures at an Exhibition, exquisite natural recordings from the late ‘50s, to be two-dimensional and compressed. However, it was not unpleasant and there was the impact any solid vinyl setup would give.
The opening Strauss waltz, “Wiener Blut” (“Vienna Blood”) Op. 354, has a rosy glow around the strings and wind at the opening and uncanny recording of natural instrumental timbres and layered and voiced as only Reiner, that orchestra and that hall could do. Much of it was missing on the CS 618’s playback.
Twas the same for the Mussorgsky/Ravel. Trumpeter Herseth’s opening promenade was good but all too soon, the brass accompaniment congealed slightly as if compressed in a sandwich; momentum was sustained but some of the beauty was gone. Impact and energy returned with “Gnomus” but some of the super fine details I listen for—ppp snarling “stopped” 2nd horn screwing up his sustained “echo” just after the start—were not heard.
In the vinyl big picture, at $1299.99/incl. arm and cartridge with an onboard phono stage, these somewhat negative remarks about the classical playback are to be expected and, if this is your budget, should be pretty much ignored. The well-made, very functional, and perfectly adequate turntable for most repertoire, is under 1300 bucks. End of.
Conclusion
Well, sort of. I remind our starting vinylphiles or even those getting into vinyl later in life, there is always Rega. I lived with a Planar 3 for many years and it’s about the same price as the Dual, with an inferior Rega cart but with the exceptional benchmark RB330 tonearm (but no onboard phono stage). English apples and German oranges. Just be sure to listen to both if you can before deciding. If you can’t, you won’t go wrong with either.
As I continued to review this excellent value-for-money Dual and all its functionality, I thought back to when I was ready to buy my first turntable at 20. If I was buying this particular Dual at that time of my life, I’d have been in vinyl heaven.
Further information: Dual
