Hi Mr. Monster,
I remember a while ago, you posted about your Empire 698 had a broken H-lead on the end of the tonearm. I had the same issue, and found a tech that can properly fix it. I had him add a standard female headshell connection on the end of the tonearm, and it works great! looks damn near stock too. Very hard to tell anything has been modded. Let me know if you want pictures or more details. Good luck!