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Styli have to be "voiced" to give flat response with a given C (capacitance) and R (resistance, not be confused with impedance) load (from the preamp and cabling) and the amount of inductance in the cartridge body's coils. Think of all those hidden electronic parts as effectively forming a tone control that [usually] you can't see and [all too often] can't change. If different cartridge bodies have different-size coils, then the "tone control" settings are different and the cantilever and suspension have to be adjusted to hit that flat-response-curve goal.
We're fortunate that mfrs could get consistency in production; otherwise each cartridge would have to have its own unique inductance to match the idiosyncrasies of its moving system to deliver a flat response curve-- if they were lucky. If that were the case, replaceable styli would be impossible. The fact that the market demanded replaceable styli kept the mfrs on their toes-- they couldn't change a given model drastically or all the replacement styli already on dealers' shelves would sound wrong.
Inductance (again, not to be confused with impedance) is the important thing to know. We only use resistance, which we've learned to correlate with the inductance of Empires, to help identify cartridges because most people can get hold of ohmmeters but very few have inductance meters. Resistance readings are especially handy when we stumble over an outlier like your 66QE/X. By the way, this kind of error is not unique to Empire. I have a handful here from ADC, Audio-Technica, Technics and Shure.
I think Empire, in using the same body shell for all their '70s models, ran the risk of something falling into the wrong bin between the assembly line and the printing/labeling line. I doubt very much that there was a change in production, although stranger things have happened. But the solution in your case is simple-- just treat your 66 like a 2000E. You already have two other 66 clones, so there's no loss. In any case, feel free to pop'n'swap between the two families. Pick the sound you like better. Any errors from a mismatch will be confined to the high treble, so it will be a tweak rather than a night and day difference.
Our best information is that Empire began to run on empty toward the latter part of the '70s. Some employees may have had their gruntle ration reduced. This may explain some of the Empire weirdness.
Styli have to be "voiced" to give flat response with a given C (capacitance) and R (resistance, not be confused with impedance) load (from the preamp and cabling) and the amount of inductance in the cartridge body's coils. Think of all those hidden electronic parts as effectively forming a tone control that [usually] you can't see and [all too often] can't change. If different cartridge bodies have different-size coils, then the "tone control" settings are different and the cantilever and suspension have to be adjusted to hit that flat-response-curve goal.
We're fortunate that mfrs could get consistency in production; otherwise each cartridge would have to have its own unique inductance to match the idiosyncrasies of its moving system to deliver a flat response curve-- if they were lucky. If that were the case, replaceable styli would be impossible. The fact that the market demanded replaceable styli kept the mfrs on their toes-- they couldn't change a given model drastically or all the replacement styli already on dealers' shelves would sound wrong.
Inductance (again, not to be confused with impedance) is the important thing to know. We only use resistance, which we've learned to correlate with the inductance of Empires, to help identify cartridges because most people can get hold of ohmmeters but very few have inductance meters. Resistance readings are especially handy when we stumble over an outlier like your 66QE/X. By the way, this kind of error is not unique to Empire. I have a handful here from ADC, Audio-Technica, Technics and Shure.
I think Empire, in using the same body shell for all their '70s models, ran the risk of something falling into the wrong bin between the assembly line and the printing/labeling line. I doubt very much that there was a change in production, although stranger things have happened. But the solution in your case is simple-- just treat your 66 like a 2000E. You already have two other 66 clones, so there's no loss. In any case, feel free to pop'n'swap between the two families. Pick the sound you like better. Any errors from a mismatch will be confined to the high treble, so it will be a tweak rather than a night and day difference.
Our best information is that Empire began to run on empty toward the latter part of the '70s. Some employees may have had their gruntle ration reduced. This may explain some of the Empire weirdness.
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