anyone else running vintage Empire carts?

gadget73

junk junkie
Subscriber
I just fitted my Empire 66 E/X to my Garrard Zero-100 in place of the Stanton 680E.V3 and I have to say I'm really liking it. Its got a better bass line than the Stanton had, and it hasn't lost the highs. The mids are a little weaker but its actually pretty nicely balanced. This stylus only has about 5 hours on it at most though, so I expect it may improve with playing. Not too shabby. The cart came with my AR/XA and I bought an NOS Empire elliptical stylus for it for 23 bucks.

Who else has one of these things in rotation? Whats it bolted to?
 
Gadget

I currrently have a 66 QE/X with the OEM nude .2 x .7 stylus mounted to a JVC QL-A7 and it sounds great. I got it included in a TT deal before Christmas and never even tryed it until last week. Kind of reminds me of the Shure M91-ED, it just needs to be loaded in the 400-500 capacitance range to sound it's best.

Jack
 
I have a 2000E/III with an lpgear stylus($40-$50 model) on my living room Technics SL-Q3. It has been there for awhile, and it sounds alright. It is my "won't cry too much if my toddler breaks something" set up.:D She's been really good with it, so I may try something else there someday. Maybe even bump up the stylus option when this one is done.:scratch2:

I also have another couple of bodies that are the same/similar. They are waiting for a stylus.

And I have another, newer Empire. I think it is a TC40. There isn't a ton of info on these. Apparently they were from when Benz owned Empire. That's what was mentioned in a thread I started, anyway.
 
I have a 2000E/I that I bought from a fellow AK'r last year. It's been on a HK T35c and seen plenty of play time. It was my primary until upgrading to an MC, now it's used for first plays of used records to test their quality. Still sounds great.
 
I have:

2000 E/I
2000 E/III
2000Z
All with genuine Empire styli
OP4 with S400TC (genuine Empire) stylus

For CD-4 Quadradiscs:

4000 D/I
440D
Both with genuine Empire styli

I like them all.

Doug
 
RM 50 body with S77LAC stylus
440D with OEM stylus
EXL 30 with S915E stylus (basically the same as a 2000Z with its 0.2mg moving mass spec)
 
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I somehow came to own a 100s with no stylus. Ordered a 200e stylus for it from JICO, and I'm surprised at how much I like it. It seems to be a more lively sounding cart, in the vein of ATs and Stanton's I've had.

I also was recently given a 808e, which is pretty old, and fairly low inductance (390mH)
I'm investigating stylus options for that one. A lot of output (8mv!) from the 808.
 
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I have a 888E with *new stylus (about 3 years old). It gets about 5 albums per year. Sure is a loud cart. I wouldn't call it accurate or musical. Tracks fine, but doesn't trace fine. Sounds better than the ADC QLM36 mklll I had and Linn K9. <~~~<< prolly the worst cart I ever owned.
 
If your turntable has a metal headshell and it is grounded to the turntable base, you have to make sure you have the metal cartridge body completely isolated from the headshell or a ground loop will be created since there will end up being two ground paths from the cartridge.

The other way of eliminating it is to remove the little ground strap at the rear of the cartridge but I don't like doing that.

Doug
 
If your turntable has a metal headshell and it is grounded to the turntable base, you have to make sure you have the metal cartridge body completely isolated from the headshell or a ground loop will be created since there will end up being two ground paths from the cartridge.

The other way of eliminating it is to remove the little ground strap at the rear of the cartridge but I don't like doing that.

Doug

Thank you. I reinstalled it on a Technics headshell. All good now. :banana: Last time install was on a generic silver headshell. Back to the thread.
 
Empire OP-4. That's a "Chunky" body, with a .4 x .7 elliptical stylus, I believe. Sounds so-so, tracks surprisingly well. It's not my fave, but worth keeping in the lineup.
 
Gadget

Kind of reminds me of the Shure M91-ED...
Jack

Funny you say that. I had this on the AR/XA when I got it, and I swapped it for the Shure M93E that I have. I also thought they sounded similar.


Multiplex, when you say the "chunky" body, do you mean the wide body that clips into a spring steel clip? If so, thats what my 66E/X is. It seems Empire made a pile of cartridge bodies that were the same and fitted a lot of different stylii to them and called them various different models. Everyone else did that too, so I guess its no surprise.
 
No spring clip, actually. These are black with a square-ish, bulky design that seats right against the headshell. The cool thing about these is that they have threaded holes, so you don't have to worry about those obnoxious tiny nuts. The plastic stylus pull is translucent green with a flip-down stylus guard.

I don't know what this design is called, but I have heard of them referred to as "chunkies" here on AK, and found that an appropriate title. Maybe later on tonight I can shoot a photo and post it. These seem to be hard cartridges to find any info about, for some reason.
 
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They's just weird, that's what they is. I call 'em Chunkies because their chunky-looking mounting caps initially struck me as comical and possibly even too wide to fit in a standard headshell. About the threaded holes, though. Those are actually square black plastic nuts friction-fit into slots in the sides. A good jostle will make some of them fall out; ask me how I know. If you have your Chunky nuts, you're a lucky man.

Jocularity aside, the 'Chunkies' (real name: Dynamic Interface) followed the EDR.9 into the marketplace around 1981, and this series pretty much replaced the metal ovoid ones Gadget was thinking of.

And yes, they made a smothering blizzard of both types. The metal blob kind came in 3 different inductance flavors, so you have to be careful to put a given body with a stylus that was "voiced" for it. The Chunkies are a little easier, with only two, one for the early few high-falutin' ones and one for the rest of us.

Geek note: Even though Empire had already reached a significant milestone with the previous series of metal-bodied carts, namely the claimed 0.2mg ETM (effective [ie, moving] tip mass) of the 2000Z/T and their clones, they didn't go there again until the 800 UFR Chunky and then the svelte-looking series that followed the Chunkies but used their styli, the GT or "Golden Touch" series.

The EDR.9 reached down to 0.3mg, but during the reign of the cartridges that actually looked chunky, the styli had ETMs no better than 0.6mg, the same as the old 2000 series. The 800 UFR is the single exception. But then the GT series hit. Their styli have gold-coated cantilevers and have a claimed ETM of 0.18mg. The interesting thing is, they were voiced for 700mH bodies, so the cheapest Chunkies can use GT styli-- if you can find them.
ad for 1000GT and 900GT excerpt.jpg
The same strategy goes for the 800 UFR. If you can find it.

To put this all in context, Empire's own CD-4 quad carts (4000D family) were 0.4mg. The 1000ZE/X was 0.5mg. A V15 Type III was 0.33mg and a V15VMR was 0.179mg. All figures are those claimed by their manufacturers, of course. The claimed figure for the first-gen ADC XLM was 0.15mg. Figures from different mfrs can't be directly compared without fudge factors, but you can get a general idea.
 
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wualta, would you be so kind as to expand on the "inductance flavors" and the different styli that go with the differnt carts.
 
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