Buried Treasure ......turntables

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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Re: Buried Treasure ......turntables

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

Empire carts are under the Radar. I have a 1000 GT it is very good. And now a 999sex which is good but not as good. part of my collection, 12 up to now.

Chopsaw54
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Re: Buried Treasure ......turntables

Unread post by Chopsaw54 »

I've never tried an Empire cartridge. Well no that's not exactly true. There is one on the Empire arm that I removed from my turntable. I played a few sides of some unloved records before replacing it with a slightly less clunky Notts Spacearm. Can't say I was impressed though someone did remark that the Empire arm may very well suit a Denon DL103. It's certainly heavy enough and in my view not at all suited to Empire's low tracking force cartridges.

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Re: Buried Treasure ......turntables

Unread post by _D_S_J_R_ »

I think the Doc has a 1000GT which has slightly higher tracking force - 1.25g I seem to remember rather than the 1.7g of a ZE/X. Sounded excellent on the PL71 and would have stood well above other MM's at the time I think.

Other Empires were all but killed with ultra high compliance and the best arms for say, the old top ZE/X and similar era top ADC's was the Transcriptors Fluid arm. I've got a 2000E/IV (little online about this as the E/III was the one at the time) which needs an old low mass SME and 1.25g tracking if 'wobble' is to be avoided. Like other Empires below the very top models I gather, the diamond is a rough looking bit of coal with only token elliptical efforts made when it was ground - a modern AT95E has a far better diamond on it if mine is anything to go by.
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Re: Buried Treasure ......turntables

Unread post by Chopsaw54 »

I think it's fair to say most AT carts are blessed with a decent stylus.

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Re: Buried Treasure ......turntables

Unread post by Lindsayt »

There was an exhibitor at Kegworth that was using a ceramic cartridge. He prefered it to the MM's and MC's he's tried.

I'd be checking these cartridges out myself if I weren't running two EMT's.

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Re: Buried Treasure ......turntables

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

There are good ones and there are terrible ones. They can never be frequency accurate due to the nature of the crystal or ceramic strip involved.

Remember crystal sets (radio), we kids built them back in the 50's and 60's. Manipulating a crystal or artificial version - ceramic, creates a voltage.

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Re: Buried Treasure ......turntables

Unread post by _D_S_J_R_ »

In my stash I have a collection of ceramic pickups. They need a 1M to 2M load which means you can't plonk them into an amp 'Aux' socket without dire noises coming through, but load 'em right and they're huge fun! The sound is very 'direct' but the downside is surface noise and 'roar' is far higher than with a magnetic type pickup. Favourites for me are the Sonotone 9TA-HC and the identical internally 3559/KS41C, together with the Acos 104 and BSR SC11/12M. I also have an 8g tracking Ronette Stereo 105 and this is surprisingly good too, despite marginal tracking (it needs a heavy cast tonearm such as BSR and Garrard used to use before plastic and tiny aluminium tubes took over)
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way...The time has gone, The song is over, Thought I'd something more to say...

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