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Empire 2000 E/II Cartridge on Pioneer PL-41

N

NightRaid

New Member
Hello, first time poster, long time lurker.

I recently purchased a PL-41 at auction for about $130. It defintely needs a bit of work, and that's what drew me to the purchase as well as the love that a lot of people on AK show it. It came with what seems to be the original headshell, as well as an Empire 2000 E/II Cartridge. I also have Ortofon OM PRO S on their SH-4 headshell.

A few questions:
1) Can anyone offer insight into their experience with the Empire 2000 E/II?
2) Is the Ortofon a better option for this TT?
3) What other MM cartidges should I look at to upgrade from the two above?

Thanks!
 
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1) The 2000E/II is a very capable cartridge with its original blue made-in-USA stylus. Its performance depends heavily on the stylus that's on the cartridge now.
2) Yes, if only due to the greater ease of finding genuine styli for it compared to finding original styli for the Empire.
3) I'll let the experts expound here.
 
Pioneer supplied their own cartridge with the 41, a PLC9. Although I don’t have my manual with me I seem to remember them listing that cartridge as relatively low compliance. That is the key to finding a suitable match with the heavy tonearm. I didn’t care for the PLC9 or a couple of Shure MM cartridges on that arm. I, and others like it with a Denon DL-103 LOMC.
 
A lot of us have professed our liking the plc9 on this tt and as I have said , there’s one on auction site for $89

Pioneer PL-41 Cartridge/Stylus Question

Hello, I have a freshly rejuvenated PL-41 and have gone through the Forum topics and threads about this turntable. I've learned an incredible amount of useful info but could not find anything about a Shure M97xE Cartridge and stylus and how it would perform on this TT. Right now I have an AT 96E...
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That tonearm is one heavy boat arm so it needs a low compliance cart.
Your main concern should not be which is “better” or an “upgrade” but rather, which will work in that tonearm?
I would stick to that funky head shell ( should have screw head on top) too.
I don’t know of any modern mm carts that will be happy there .
Outside of the plc9 or pc35 and pc50 ( all three are early AT carts from the 60’s) another one to consider is the shure m3d.
I have an m3d but I never got the styli it needs so I have never tried it but I think there are a lot of happy m3d users out there .
 
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