September 17, 2024, 8:31 am | Read time: 8 minutes
The German turntable manufacturer Dual can look back on an impressive history, albeit one that is not short of trials and tribulations.
Dual. There was a time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany when this name was almost synonymous with the record player per se. A brand name that, like TEMPO for paper handkerchiefs, had become a generic term. However, the history of the phono manufacturer from the Black Forest is much older than that of the Federal Republic of Germany. Moreover, it was not always as brilliant as it was in the 1960s and 1970s. What became of record player manufacturer Dual” First things first.
Overview
- The early years of record player manufacturer Dual
- Quantum leap thanks to the microgroove record
- Flying high thanks to the 1009 dual record player
- Compact system trend brought Dual strong sales growth
- The beginning of the 80s marked the start of the company’s temporary decline
- More than just a Dual
- “Real” Dual turntables were still being produced at the headquarters until 2020
The early years of record player manufacturer Dual
On February 1, 1907, the brothers Christian and Josef Steidinger founded the “Gebrüder Steidinger – Fabrik für Feinmechanik” in St. Georgen in the Black Forest. Here, 25 employees primarily produced watchmaking tools but also spring-driven gramophones. In 1911, however, there was a split between the brothers. Josef received the value of his shares in the business from Christian in the form of components for spring movements. In the same year, he founded “Perpetuum Schwarzwälder Federmotoren und Automatenwerke; Inhaber Josef Steidinger.”
Christian, on the other hand, decided to expand the gramophone product range in particular. In addition to pure production, he also pushed ahead with product (further) development. He also did so at a time when the emergence of radio threatened the company’s existence. In 1927, he was able to present a spring drive combined with an electric motor to the public. This was given the name Dual.
Quantum leap thanks to the microgroove record
It is unlikely that Steidinger had any idea at the time that this name would later become synonymous with high-quality record players made in Germany. However, he had initiated a development that would gain momentum from 1933 onwards when he handed over the management of the company to his sons. Oskar Steidinger was now responsible for the commercial side of the business, and Siegfried was responsible for the technical side. The three other sons, Christian junior, Richard, and Erwin, as well as Kurt Anton, the brothers’ brother-in-law, also held positions in the company. During the same period, they expanded the product range to include electric pickups and loudspeakers. These were also under the new brand name Dual.
From the mid-1930s onwards, the steadily growing interest in electric record players prompted the Steidinger clan to focus their attention on developing and manufacturing record players. This was followed after the Second World War by the record player for shellac records – shellac is a resinous substance obtained from the excretions of the lacquer scale insect after sucking on certain plants – and then, from the 1950s, the record player for microgroove records. These records, which we now call vinyl for short, are made of PVC plastic instead of shellac.
Flying high thanks to the 1009 dual record player
The microgroove record was a quantum leap at the time. It led to a significant increase in both sound quality and playing time thanks to smaller styli. It was not only product development that made great progress; the company’s infrastructure also advanced. In 1956 and 1958, two more factories were built, in Meßkirch and Mönchweiler. The fourth plant followed in St. Georgen in 1964.
The introduction of the “1009” model – the first German record player suitable for hi-fi – in the early 1960s laid the foundations for the company’s rise to become Germany’s largest record manufacturer. The “1009,” which was to undergo constant further development, also established Dual’s reputation at the time as a manufacturer of probably the best record players ever. This phase, the most successful in every respect in the company’s history, was to last until the late 1970s.
Compact system trend brought Dual strong sales growth
Dual’s success at the time was not least due to the trend toward compact systems. It combined a tuner, amplifier, cassette recorder, and record player in one housing and quickly became a status symbol. This is not only because of its design, which also turned the compact system into a piece of furniture in the individualistic, post-modernist style of the 1970s.
For example, the German hi-fi manufacturer Wega advertised its compact systems with the slogan, “The technology delivers what the form promises.” Almost all German hi-fi manufacturers at the time, from Wega to Saba, Grundig, Loewe, Nordmende, and Metz to ITT Schaub-Lorenz, relied exclusively on Dual turntables. Dual itself also offered compact systems, naturally with record players from its own company. The other components came from well-known manufacturers such as ITT Schaub-Lorenz or Asahi.
In 1971, Dual took over the former “Perpetuum Schwarzwälder Federmotoren und Automatenwerke” of the long-deceased Josef Steidinger. The company had been renamed several times after his death in 1925 and had around 1,400 employees at the time. From 1936, and the marriage of his daughter Hermine to the Stuttgart manufacturer Albert Ebner, the company traded as “Perpetuum – Ebner, Fabrik für Feinmechanik und Elektrotechnik, Steidinger & Co. KG”. For Dual, the takeover meant further growth, just as double-digit sales growth and constant expansion characterized the first half of the decade.
The beginning of the 80s marked the start of the company’s temporary decline
However, this was to change in the second half of the 1970s. At this time, the company began to feel the increasing pressure from Japanese competitors. This led to a slump in sales in the domestic market and the North American market, which was so important for Dual. However, this is said to have been only one of the reasons. There were also rumblings internally, and later statements about massive mistakes in management made the rounds. In 1981, the company had to file for bankruptcy, and Dual became a takeover target.
The French Thomson Group ultimately secured the German quality brand following its previous acquisitions of Telefunken, Saba, and Nordmende. As a result, the workforce shrank from 2000 to just 650 employees. Despite market adjustments and some strategic decisions, such as Dual’s development of the first compact disc player manufactured in Germany, Thomson could not revitalize the brand. This was not least due to the appearance of the CD, which quickly overtook the vinyl record and made the record player obsolete. In 1988, Dual was therefore passed on to the German company Schneider Rundfunkwerke AG.
More than just a Dual
A fate that was to befall the once world-renowned market leader many more times. In 1994, Schneider sold Dual to Karstadt AG, but retained the brand name for analog record players. Karstadt ran Dual as its own brand, under whose name it wanted to sell various consumer electronics devices (with the exception of record players) in the chain’s department stores. However, this worked reasonably well at best, so the next sale was due in 2004. And now things got complicated.
While the Dual usage rights for Europe went to Linmark Electronics Ltd., those for the Asia-Pacific and North American regions were sold to Namsung Corp. in South Korea. Namsung, in turn, founded a subsidiary in Florida under the name Dual Electronics.
In 2009, however, Linmark Electronics Ltd. also had to file for bankruptcy. The brand rights for Europe were soon secured by Dual GmbH, based in Fuchstal, near Landsberg in Bavaria. The turntables developed in Germany still bore the Dual name. However, they were now produced in China for a Korean turntable specialist. From 2021, turntables bearing the Dual name were once again produced in Landsberg. Here, the aim was to at least visually show a relationship to the classic Dual models.
In 2022, however, Dual GmbH filed for insolvency; in April 2023, a consortium of investors took over the company. And there, in Fuchstal, they are still confident they can continue producing record players (including DAB+ radios) under the Dual name.
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“Real” Dual turntables were still being produced at the headquarters until 2020
But what happened to the production facility in St. Georgen, Dual’s headquarters? Alfred Fehrenbacher GmbH has owned the production line there and the product range of analog Dual turntables since 1993. The subsidiary, founded in 2002, Dual Phono GmbH, acquired all license rights to use the brand name for turntables from the previous rights holders by 2007. Classic Dual turntables were once again produced in St. Georgen until 2020.
However, Dual Phono GmbH was then refused to extend the license, which had since expired. Initially, the successors of Alfred Fehrenbacher, who died in 2018, tried to sell turntables under the name “Rekkord Audio.” These differed, at best, marginally from the Dual models and were of absolutely the same quality. At the beginning of 2022, however, the company finally had to file for bankruptcy.
There was a last glimmer of hope in St. Georgen when Abundantia GmbH stepped in a few months later. The name Abundantia was intended to evoke the Roman goddess of prosperity. However, the company, named after the goddess, abandoned all hope after just one year. The plant in St. Georgen, which still employed just nine people, was closed for good in October 2023. As a result, record players bearing the Dual name are now exclusively developed, produced, and distributed by Dual GmbH.