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Empire 2000 E/III new stylus, much sibilance,

hamraisin

hamraisin

variable optimist
Just picked up a new stylus (Tonar 667 elliptical) and the sibilance is awful - like razors to the ears, cymbals are torture chambers. Lots of high distortion as well. It sounds much worse than the stylus it is replacing.
Cartridge is aligned, have it running at 1.5 grams - what are my options here?
Running it on a Pioneer PL-540 with a Yamaha CR-800 reciever.
 
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Examine the stylus with strong magnification and make sure that the azimuth is correct. The diamond tip should point straight up and down, not off to one side or the other. If wrong it can probably be corrected. Aftermarket styli often need more tracking force than their OEM counterparts. I am going to assume that this stylus is a 0.3r elliptical and in this case you can try increasing the tracking force a bit at a time up to 3.0 grams. It may or may not work to tame the sibilance errors and this force is still safe. If it works then you can decide if you are comfortable using the higher tracking force on an elliptical. It would not bother me in the least.

The OEM Empire 2000E/III is quite a nice stylus and you may have a bad time trying to achieve that level of performance from an aftermarket. My suspicion is that the replacement stylus may be more similar to the 2000E (with no suffix).

Hopefully some Empire knowledgeable people will chime in soon to offer other suggestions.
 
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I recently bought that exact same stylus and it's fine tracking at 1.5. It was claimed to be Japanese made which I assumed Jico or Nagaoka so I thought it was a reasonably safe bet. Mine came from an online store with a 4 hour time difference and I was surprised how fast my e-mails were responded to. Maybe you got a bum one. Are returns accepted for defective exchange?
 
Get the owners manual from vinyl engine, look at figure #3 and use that to set up your cartridge. 49mm is the distance you want from the stylus to the headshell where it connects into the tone arm. I usually align the cartridge parallel to the headshell and don't bother with the protractors any more. Try it and it will work.
 
Interested in this topic , I was just about to order one of these replacement stylii today. Some say jico others evg yet they all look the same
 
You should be using a protractor. Aligning with the headshell is rarely optimal. Using a mirror to check azimuth is best.
 
Bugler said:
You should be using a protractor. Aligning with the headshell is rarely optimal. Using a mirror to check azimuth is best.
Click to expand...

I can setup a cartridge a lot faster and more accurate than using a protractor. All protractors I tried weren't even close when it comes to overhang. Maybe I just figured out a way that works for me without one. Always start with the owners manual for distance of stylus to headshell into tone arm. After that you can use a protractor to align right to left. A mirror more than likely works, but just listen to if one channel is louder than the other and adjust azimuth accordingly. Before you try to to adjust azimuth by ear, be sure DC Offset are near eqeul. YMMV
 
The OP swapped the stylus into his existing setup. There should be no need to realign, unless the new one doesn't match the original's dimensions. A quick side by side comparison of the styli would reveal that.
 
Even when new back when we sold them for $27.50, these Empires were not known for their high frequency tracking ability compared to a number of like priced or slightly higher priced cartridges.

I would certainly expect a replacement from a generic supplier to fair even worse than a original.
 
preston1000 said:
I can setup a cartridge a lot faster and more accurate than using a protractor. All protractors I tried weren't even close when it comes to overhang. Maybe I just figured out a way that works for me without one. Always start with the owners manual for distance of stylus to headshell into tone arm. After that you can use a protractor to align right to left. A mirror more than likely works, but just listen to if one channel is louder than the other and adjust azimuth accordingly. Before you try to to adjust azimuth by ear, be sure DC Offset are near eqeul. YMMV
Click to expand...

Most likely you're not using the protractor properly then.
 
here is the protractor I am using - https://www.turntableneedles.com/Ortofon-Turntable-Cartridge-Alignment-Protractor-Tool_p_3911.html
this is the stylus - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Turntable-S...685330?hash=item4d5225b792:g:7yYAAOSwx-9WuOex
indeed it seems to be hard to suss out the lineage of these on the internets - I'll futz around with it today and see if I can get a better sense of whether its operator error or defective.
It does look like the cartridge is a tad bit lower on one side than another - this could be my problem, no?
The problem with adding more tracking force is that the cage of this cartridge starts hitting the record at about 1.8 g - I can't add any more weight without it dragging on the surface
 
That Empire 2000e III was my first cartridge/stylus in 1970's. They weren't consider particularly high end. Nice, but a somewhat bright sound. If I recall, not known for smoothness at high end as I switched to a Shure to tame it a bit. Probably prone to sibilance.
 
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