sruddy
Super Member
I'm starting this thread to document any upgrades I will be doing to my fathers old Empire 298. Also for others to give me input and guidance as I haven't had any previous experience with all the idiosyncrasies of crafting turntable sound. If possible I would like to to do upgrades in the order of most audible improvement first. Initially I reconditioned it to as close to stock as possible so I had a good baseline to start. My first audition was after complete dis assembly, cleaning, spindle oil change, re solder of broken cartridge leads, new power cord, and new RCA jacks under TT. Turns out this was a mod done when my Dad had it reconditioned once in the past. I did a thread on my first audition here. But basically the original stylus had a dried out rubber holding the cantilever and resulted in scratchy distortion. Also I was getting a fair amount of rumble. I went ahead and replaced the stylus with an aftermarket one and that fixed the scratchy high frequency distortion. I went ahead and replaced the motor mounts, and belt but these did nothing I could identify in sound improvement. So that left me with a reasonable close to stock baseline. The sound was far from what I wanted but good enough to inspire me to go further.
My first upgrade was the cartridge. I took the advice of Empirelvr and went with the Shure M97xE. I'm now running this with the stock stylus and feel it is a considerable upgrade to the stock Empire 880 cartridge with aftermarket stylus. I hear much more music and detail. This had no affect on rumble so the next mod was to add vibrapods under the base. This got rid of the rumble entirely and I can play at volumes to loud to enjoy with no rumble at all. I forgot to mention I did add some dynamat under the plinth during initial reconditioning. So this is were I am know. Here are some ideas I have about going forward.
I have already ordered the interconnects. I went with Straightwire Encore II to take the signal from the preamp to the SSP. I have these cables for my disc player and really like the sound. So I hope I like them for the TT. One thing I'm not sure about is the Chorus AG interconnects I went with for the TT to preamp. I just went with Straightwire's suggestion on that. Then I started reading and learning about capacitance and am not sure what it is for that cable. I would like to stay in the range of my preamp since it's not adjustable. I know it's going to boil down to personal preference but I would like to tie that to a number for future reference. All I know is the cartidge says 47 kilohms, 200 - 300 picofarads/channel, including tone arm and amplifier input but I don't know how to measure that.
The pre amp Input impedance is 47kOhm and Input capacitance 220pF so the only thing I know for sure is the input impedance is ok. I'm assuming if my input capacitance is 220pF that would be the sweet spot according to the pre amp specs.
I have learned quite a lot already about what affects sound but I feel I have a lot more to learn. For example I am still hearing high frequency scratchy distortion now and then. For example I was given Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" for Xmas and one side one track one at the beginning and end of the track is a muted trumpet and when it plays that certain frequency I here scratchy distortion. So how do i tell if this is in the recording or is it an issue with something else?
Also I purchased HI_ FI News Analog Test LP and am having trouble with identifying resonant frequency of the cartridge/arm. I see no needle wobble and can't really tell where the pilot tone starts to warble if it does. Then there are 4 Bias or anti skate adjusting tracks. Well my arm doesn't have those but I noticed by adjusting the VTF I was able to get three of the tracks to play with no problems. BTW my my copy is a little warped. Should I exchange it? Thanks and I look forward to all of your comments!
My first upgrade was the cartridge. I took the advice of Empirelvr and went with the Shure M97xE. I'm now running this with the stock stylus and feel it is a considerable upgrade to the stock Empire 880 cartridge with aftermarket stylus. I hear much more music and detail. This had no affect on rumble so the next mod was to add vibrapods under the base. This got rid of the rumble entirely and I can play at volumes to loud to enjoy with no rumble at all. I forgot to mention I did add some dynamat under the plinth during initial reconditioning. So this is were I am know. Here are some ideas I have about going forward.
- New Interconnects
- New Jico Stylus
- Different Tone Arm
- Different Preamp
- Platter Dampening
- maybe different cartridge but if so as a last thing to play with.
I have already ordered the interconnects. I went with Straightwire Encore II to take the signal from the preamp to the SSP. I have these cables for my disc player and really like the sound. So I hope I like them for the TT. One thing I'm not sure about is the Chorus AG interconnects I went with for the TT to preamp. I just went with Straightwire's suggestion on that. Then I started reading and learning about capacitance and am not sure what it is for that cable. I would like to stay in the range of my preamp since it's not adjustable. I know it's going to boil down to personal preference but I would like to tie that to a number for future reference. All I know is the cartidge says 47 kilohms, 200 - 300 picofarads/channel, including tone arm and amplifier input but I don't know how to measure that.
The pre amp Input impedance is 47kOhm and Input capacitance 220pF so the only thing I know for sure is the input impedance is ok. I'm assuming if my input capacitance is 220pF that would be the sweet spot according to the pre amp specs.
I have learned quite a lot already about what affects sound but I feel I have a lot more to learn. For example I am still hearing high frequency scratchy distortion now and then. For example I was given Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" for Xmas and one side one track one at the beginning and end of the track is a muted trumpet and when it plays that certain frequency I here scratchy distortion. So how do i tell if this is in the recording or is it an issue with something else?
Also I purchased HI_ FI News Analog Test LP and am having trouble with identifying resonant frequency of the cartridge/arm. I see no needle wobble and can't really tell where the pilot tone starts to warble if it does. Then there are 4 Bias or anti skate adjusting tracks. Well my arm doesn't have those but I noticed by adjusting the VTF I was able to get three of the tracks to play with no problems. BTW my my copy is a little warped. Should I exchange it? Thanks and I look forward to all of your comments!
