Some Empire Turntable History

I joined the Empire club! Found this 398 in its original box with original paperwork at a garage sale. I have the MAAS polish out and I'm about 1/3 of the way through this thread. Feeling impatient and decided to post.

It is cleaning up nicely. The issue I have is I'm only getting sound out of one channel. I have yet to clean the contacts on the cartridge. Sled pins look OK to me. RCA cables seem to be fine. I fear it may be a wire on or within the tonearm, which I believe is not an easy fix. It looks like the sled wires may have been re-soldered at some point. I also notice that the tonearm seems a little loose on the base. Hopefully some cleaning will sort it out.

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I joined the Empire club! Found this 398 in its original box with original paperwork at a garage sale. I have the MAAS polish out and I'm about 1/3 of the way through this thread. Feeling impatient and decided to post.

It is cleaning up nicely. The issue I have is I'm only getting sound out of one channel. I have yet to clean the contacts on the cartridge. Sled pins look OK to me. RCA cables seem to be fine. I fear it may be a wire on or within the tonearm, which I believe is not an easy fix. It looks like the sled wires may have been re-soldered at some point. I also notice that the tonearm seems a little loose on the base. Hopefully some cleaning will sort it out.
The wiring on that sled looks really dodgy to me, and the clips look really tarnished and corroded. I'd definitely look to there to be the source of your trouble. I'd order one of the new sleds that are for sale on ebay, mount the cart on it and try it. Other than that, it looks like a nice sample of a 398. Congrats! :)
 
I am getting ready to upgrade to a MC cartridge on my VPI TT and it has a newer Ortofon 2mm black on it. I was thinking of moving it to my empire 698 to replace the 2000/lll. Has anybody tried this cart on a 698?
 
We talked about some more exotic stylus matches for the stock 980 tonearm. I think another one that could be a potential winner would be the Goldring 1042 and 1022 GX. They have a way better stylus tip compared to that Denon DL-110, weight is similar to Stanton 500 v3, and they can track at 2.5 grams. It may be trickier to dial in azimuth.

I plan on getting one in a month or so and will let you know my results. Pretty eager to check it out. I like the Denon DL-110 on my 298 but it is a bit lacking in bass, and you do lose a little bit of volume level compared to that Stanton 500 v3, but the DL-110 is terrific at practically eliminating IGD and sibilance... so anything that shares those characteristics but is a better match to the 980 arm I am very interested in listening to.

These carts seem very expensive on needledoctor (pretty much everything seems out of control prices on that site imo), but you can have them for about $300-$350 on ebay from international sellers.
 
I picked up a 398 a couple months ago and I'm just absolutely enamored with it. Not just the looks, but the sound. It's so clear and strong. The separation is phenomenal. I had been using a Technics 1200mk1 before and I was happy with it, I wasn't looking to upgrade, but I could never go back now. I saw the Empire pop up on CL and I immediately fell in love. I had to have it. Great price too. I'm the third owner (the guy I bought it from bought it from the original owner and didn't really use it). It looks like it just came out of a time machine from the 60's. It was really cared for and loved, and I am doing the same. I'm also impressed by the simplicity of the engineering. Maybe thats partly why it still works so well 55 years later! There's just so little to go wrong on it. The Dynalift is nice and smooth and the 980 arm tracks like a champ with a Stanton 681. The pop-up 45 adaptor is so sleek. Even the click of the button when you power it on adds to this overall feeling of solid construction. What a great turntable! Thanks empirelvr for all your help and information in this thread!!
 

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Beautiful TT, it looks brand new. I have a 698 and love it. If you have not read this tread thru out, there is a ton of useful info here.
 
Empire knew how to make a beautiful TT, that's for sure. Not a dud in the bunch. I am very slowly making my way through all 83 pages of this thread, haha! What a treasure trove.
 
I just recently put a Denon DL-103 on a 598 mkIII. It's not quite broken in yet, but it seems to be a great match with the 990 arm, very musical and great dynamics.
 
Jeepers creepers, that's absolutely gorgeous, ateal. You don't see ones that look absolutely like brand new very often.

Actually, basplin, yours does too.

Doug
 
Here are some shots of my '61 208 with 98 arm and original 108 cart. Excellent condition and even had its original stylus until recently.
 

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Wow, that's beautiful, ateal! Blackburn, yours looks pretty new too. Yeah, I got lucky on mine for sure. One of the prettiest turntables out there, IMHO....
 
Ateal, beautiful. The manual for the 980a tonearm is available from Vinylengine.com. It shows the counterweight with the larger diameter towards the pivot (photo at the end of the manual). This makes sense since the most mass is closer to the pivot that way.
 
Ateal, beautiful. The manual for the 980a tonearm is available from Vinylengine.com. It shows the counterweight with the larger diameter towards the pivot (photo at the end of the manual). This makes sense since the most mass is closer to the pivot that way.

Thanks for the clarification John, that does make sense.:thumbsup: I'll switch it around.
 
I just talked to a good friend locally who was saying he has an Empire 498 that he wanted to get running again. He said the cartridge connection is bad, I told him I had heard of someone who is making new ones. I know it was in this thread, can you guys point me/Lawrence in the right direction.
 
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