The Dual is a nice little belt drive turntable. I would immediately receommend a new belt and oiling the plattter bearing. I don't believe that these turntables came packaged (at least not from Dual) with any cartridge. Not until the late Dual/Ortofon series did the turntable come set up from the factory. Reliability should be good, as it is with all Duals. The tone arm is an excellent one, and properly set up will not harm you records. I am not familar with this Shure cartridge and would recommend a new Audio Technica or something similar that would mate well with the Dual. You will need to get an outboard phono preamp to plug into the line stage of your preamp. Music Direct has a few low cost models that are very musical. Enjoy, your on the road to a life long addiction. :)
My First Turntable
I picked a Dual 1237 today. This is my first turntable. I just wanted to try it. I don't know much, but I took the advice of a local guy that seems to be pretty knowledgable. He seemed to think the dual would be a good first turntable. The cartridge is a Shure RXT5, does anyone know what these were delivered with? Also, I do not get any volume. My pre-amp is a PS Audio 6.2. Could I have a mismatch problem with my preamp and the cartridge, like a MC cartridge paired with a MM preamp?