Please help identify this empire cartridge

ksweezy

New Member
Hey AK family, I've been following this site for several years now and have much love and respect for everyone who contributes here. I finally have a question myself. I've just acquired a pioneer pl50a turntable and it came with an empire cart that only bears the marking "empire MK III." I tried to find another image of this same cartridge, but all I find are the empire 2000 series when I search "empire mark iii" as is printed on my cartridge. All of these carts have "2000" in the print somewhere.

Any helpfull opinions as to what exactly this guy is and stylus info would be great. It looks like the 2000 series elliptical "changer only"20180225_114703.jpg stylus to me
 
I think I can give you literally the same info I had for somebody else yesterday:

Probably a "private label" cartridge, that is, it's the same as one of their better-known ones, but was given a "special" designation for one particular retailer. A lot of manufacturers played this game but Empire was one of the worst.

I'm sure our Empire experts will be chiming in shortly but until then, just search our big, all-encompassing Empire thread for "blob on clip." Really, that's what everybody is calling this style.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/anyone-else-running-vintage-empire-carts.468129/
 
Warning: because of this cartridge's private-label status as explained above and the fact that the stylus in it is obviously a generic replacement and thus no help in establishing an ID, we're going to ask you to give us an ohmmeter reading of the cartridge. I have nothing on the Mk III myself. See you in the Big Empire Thread.
 
If the color of the stylus grip is standard with Empire styli...
empires.jpg
If it's a 2000 series, the cartridge becomes whatever stylus is used....they are all interchangeable.
 
If the color of the stylus grip is standard with Empire styli...
If it's a 2000 series, the cartridge becomes whatever stylus is used....they are all interchangeable.

But, as wualta said, the stylus is a generic so all bets are off.

John
 
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