Dual is a brand name of audio and video

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

History

In 1907, brothers Christian and Joseph Steidinger began manufacturing clockwork and

gramophone A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physic ...

parts in the

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

town of St. Georgen. In 1927, Gebrüder Steidinger (Steidinger Bros.) created the Dual-Motor, consisting of a spring loaded clock work and an

electric motor An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a electromagnetic coil, wire winding to gene ...

. It proved successful and the company adopted the name Dual in 1935. Dual began producing

turntables A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...

under that name the same year.History of DUAL (by Dual Phono Germany)
/ref> After World War II, Dual became the biggest manufacturer of turntables in Europe, with more than 3,000 employees working in several factories. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Dual introduced

audio cassette The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog audio, analog magnetic tape recording format for Sound recording and reproduction, audio recording and playback. Invented by L ...

players, VCRs,

CD players A CD player is an electronic device that plays audio compact discs, which are a digital optical disc data storage format. CD players were first sold to consumers in 1982. CDs typically contain recordings of audio material such as music or audi ...

, and other

consumer electronics Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, Communication, communications, and recreation. Historically, these prod ...

. But when Japanese consumer electronics started entering European markets in the 1970s on a large scale, Dual as most other traditional German manufacturers underwent a big crisis: Japanese products usually offered more features at a cheaper price in a much more modern package. Dual went bankrupt in 1982, and was sold to French electronic manufacturer

Thomson SA Vantiva SA (formerly Technicolor SA, Thomson SARL, Thomson SA, and Thomson Multimedia) is a French multinational corporation that provides technology products and services for the communication, media and entertainment industries. Headquarter ...

. In 1988, Thomson sold Dual to German manufacturer

Schneider Rundfunkwerke AG Schneider Rundfunkwerke AG was a German manufacturer of mass market audio equipment. History The origins of the company trace to 1889 in Türkheim, Bavaria, Germany, when Felix Schneider founded a company manufacturing industrial woodworking tools ...

. Dual GmbH filed for bankruptcy on November 15, 2022. In March 2023, it was reported that an unspecified consortium of investors had taken over the company. In 1993/4, Dual was finally split off into * ''Dual Phono GmbH'', i.e. the Dual line of turntables, which were acquired by the German company ''Alfred Fehrenbacher GmbH'', which has continued to produce them in the Black Forest town of St. Georgen. Dual turntables

Made in Germany Made in Germany is a merchandise mark indicating that a product has been manufactured in Germany. History The label was introduced in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Britain by the Merchandise Marks Act 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. c. 28) ...

are manufactured on the same traditional product line. They are easy to identify with the manufacturing code beginning with CS xxx. * ''Dual DGC GmbH'' (Germany) sells mostly rebranded consumer electronics made in

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

, including turntables (production code DT xxx). DGC products are exclusively sold in Europe. * For the American market, after the insolvency of Schneider Rundfunkwerke AG in 2001,

TCL Holdings TCL Technology Group Corp. (originally an abbreviation for Telecom Corporation Limited) is a Chinese partially State-owned enterprise, state-owned electronics company headquartered in Huizhou, Guangdong province. TCL develops, manufactures, a ...

, a

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

company, purchased the Dual assets and brand, and it began marketing its own products under the name. In 2002,

Namsung Electronics Namsung (; ) is a South Korean multinational company headquartered in Seoul. Namsung was founded by Yoon Bong-Soo in 1965 as an OEM electronics manufacturing company. Namsung's subsidiaries include Namsung Telecom, Dreamer, Namsung Internatio ...

, a

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

company, bought the rights to use the name in the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

and began selling lower-priced (but generally well-reviewed) consumer electronics under th
Dual
marque. The main product lines are home audio, mobile audio, marine audio and GPS receivers.

References

External links

Vintage Audio HIFI Auction

Dual Electronics Corp.
the U.S.-based subsidiary of Namsung Corp.
Fehrenbacher
manufacturers of the Dual CS turntable line
Unofficial Dual website
with history and reference sections
Vintage Cassette Decks
collection of Dual vintage cassette decks {{Authority control Audio equipment manufacturers of Germany Companies based in Baden-Württemberg Phonograph manufacturers Electronics companies established in 1927 German companies established in 1927 Consumer electronics brands German brands Sankt Georgen im Schwarzwald