Dual is a brand name of audio and video electronics

Electronics

Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...

.

History

In 1927, Gebrüder Steidinger, a German gramophone

Phonograph

The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...

 power supply manufacturer, adopted the name Dual in reference to the dual-mode power supplies it pioneered. The power supplies allowed gramophones to be powered from mains electricity

Mains electricity

Mains is the general-purpose alternating current electric power supply. In the US, electric power is referred to by several names including household power, household electricity, powerline, domestic power, wall power, line power, AC power, city power, street power, and grid power...

 or with a wind-up

Wind-up

Wind-up or windup may refer to:* a verb for terminating the existence of a company or other entity with a view to its liquidation and dissolution* pain wind-up, central sensitization caused by repeated stimulation of C nociceptors...

 mechanism. Soon thereafter, Dual began producing turntable

Turntable

A turntable is generally a rotating platform, and may refer to:-Music:* Turntable, a motor-driven platform that normally rotates a gramophone record at a constant rotational velocity as part of a phonograph....

s of its own.

Throughout 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Dual introduced audio cassette players, VCR

Videocassette recorder

The videocassette recorder , is a type of electro-mechanical device that uses removable videocassettes that contain magnetic tape for recording analog audio and analog video from broadcast television so that the images and sound can be played back at a more convenient time...

s, CD players

Compact disc player

A Compact Disc player , or CD player, is an electronic device that plays audio Compact Discs. CD players are often a part of home stereo systems, car audio systems, and personal computers. They are also manufactured as portable devices...

, and other consumer electronics.

In 1993, rights to the Dual line of turntables were acquired by the German firm Fehrenbacher who have continued to produce them in the Black Forest

Black Forest

The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres ....

 town of St. Georgen.

In 2001, Schneider Rundfunkwerke AG

Schneider Rundfunkwerke AG

-History:The origins of the company trace to 1889 in Türkheim, Swabia, Germany when Felix Schneider founded a company manufacturing industrial woodworking tools...

 then owner of the Dual franchise—declared insolvency. TCL Holdings, a Chinese

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 company, purchased the Dual assets and brand, and it began marketing its own products under the name. In 2002, Namsung Electronics, a Korean-American company, bought the rights to use the name in the Americas

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

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

External links

• Dual Electronics Corp., the U.S.-based subsidiary of Namsung Corp.
• Fehrenbacher, manufacturers of the Dual turntable line
• Unofficial Dual website with history and reference sections
• Vintage Cassette Decks' collection of Dual vintage cassette decks