best turntable for 500$ or less

What about a Music Hall MMF-5?

I have a couple suggestions regarding your dual/ortifon use. First, I don't know how old the cart is so keep an ear out for mistracting, which will sound like a buzzing or harshness during peaks or certain passages in the music. Also, if you are into experimenting a little, try a peice or electrical tape on the tonearm. stretch in lenthwise along the arm and wrap it around tight. The reason for this is the duals from that time were made with very light, low mass arms that were meant to be used with low mass carts, with the idea that the resonent frequency would be above the music, as opposed to how they are made today, which is the opposite philosophy. The result is the arms on duals ring like crazy. The tape will serve many functions- first, it may put the arm and cartidge at a better match, it will dampen the arm quite a bit (which may be a trade off evan if it makes the arm/cart match worse), it may help with tracking having that little bit of extra mass, and above all, having to readjust the setup with the tape and without and listening for improvements will gain valuable experience, as well as listening for various changes in sound qualities.
Also, if you can solder or are willing to do it, you can add a pair of radio shack rca's and wire the tonearm wire to them and experiment with different cables for phono. If you are succesful at this, rewire the tonarm leads at the headshell directly to the cartridge clips. (if you do this, be sure to locate the rca's in such a position to have enough slack as you will lose some at the headshell).
One more thing- keep an eye on the speed control mechanism, and experiment with different lubricants if nessesary.
With these, it may actually be possible to have the tt perform on the level of your cdp. Evan surpass it in some areas.

basement,when i got the dual the previous owner had either done a DIY or had a tech install rca outs on the back so i have allready been trying out different cables,i like that that mod was allready done for me.

according to the dealer that pretty much gave the dual to me the ortafon cart was supposed to be unused & from his own stock & he has always been good to me so i gotta take his word.

im not much for tearin into stuff & soldering stuff even though i replace my own led's & such im not experienced enough with headshells & carts to be comfortable with getting in there just yet.

im going to try your black tape tweak tonight,ive been listening to the dual for a few weeks now & for a cheapie tt it really has suprised me on how good it sounds & by the lack of the snap crackel pop that i remember from my youth.

re-lubing also sounds like a very good idea but im unsure as to what kinds of lube wouldnt hurt anything,will regular 3 IN 1 oil work or do you have any other types that i might try.

thanks,mike.

sometimes oil can cause more noise than grease. I thing I did use 3/1 oil before in a dual and it worked well, but if it doesn't, than I would try some type of grease- just listen for noise.

Hello Basement, I snipped and jacked the phono wires coming out of my Dual 503CS ten years ago - it's a great idea. Recently I upgraded the interconnect to Cardas Neural Reference "PHONO" RCA/RCA and wow on top of wow.

Just tried the electrical tape on the tonearm. It works to clean up the hash in the upper midrange. There was a loss at the very top end trebble though. I was able to rebalanced the tone and trebble extension with some support base tweeking (tempered glass under the table sitting on three squishy audio pucks).

Thanks for the tips.