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Empire Thread of Inductance & Resistance for 2000 style bodies

Got the meters to the two Empire cartridges I have.

The 999TE/X body reads (L/R) 296mH/298mH and 514 Ohms/537 Ohms.

The 2000Z reads (L/R) 531mH/695mH and 1064 Ohms/1283 Ohms. Those inductance readings sound off.
 
The inductance of that nicely-balanced TE/X [Improved, right?] is on the low end yet still within the "halo" for a 66 clone, but you're right, that Z body is surprisingly off-balance, although one channel is right on spec, the first example I've seen that isn't up around 800mH. No reason you can't continue to enjoy that cartridge, though, and if you can actually hear a channel imbalance, you've got a balance control. Well, I hope you do!
 
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No, it was t'other way 'round.
EDIT: I should explain that there are two models that are loosely called "999TE/X". There was the one third in line below the 1971 1000ZE/X, and there was the 66 clone called "999TE/X Improved", which to some people implies compatibility. They're not compatible, however, and we should be extra careful to use the complete model names.
 
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wualta said:
It's worth getting a 4000D because it was an all-out effort to produce a cartridge that would play CD-4 reliably at 1g or slightly above, and it succeeded. The styli were the only Empire line-contacts until the EDR.9 and are hard to find, but at least you don't need a 4000D body; you could probably play CD-4 in a 66 clone with no trouble-- Doug G. would be the guy to consult with on this. For mere stereo, piece o' cake.
The question of how much money you'd want to throw at a 4000D is something else. Unless you buy lots of used records, I'd still stick with the Z as currently the higher bang-for-buck proposition.
Click to expand...

I turned my early 2000 E/III (the one that's low inductance, which is close to the 4000D body) into a CD-4 cartridge by putting a 4000D stylus on it. However, it seems I remember trying the same thing with my later 2000 E/III (the one with higher inductance) and it worked, too, which it really should.

Doug
 
I should add that the reason you want to use a line-contact stylus to play used records-- once they've been cleaned, of course-- is the taller contact patch rides over the wear marks/gouges/ground-in crud on the groove walls and the record sounds more like new. That's been my experience.

Doug, as I recall, none of the early CD-4 cartridges had inductance as high as a 2000E. Does that jibe with your memory? In fact, most of the first-gen carts were special low-inductance versions of their stereo carts (Pickering UV-15, Shure M24H, ADC Super XLM, Audio-Tech AT12S, Excel ES-70EX4, &c), weren't they? I always figured they were trying to make darn sure that 30kHz carrier was going to be strong enough to make it through the chain.
 
Yup, they were all designed with a lower inductance working into a higher input resistance (100 kOhms vs. 47 kOhms for two channel) to keep the 30 kHz carrier at a high level without attenuation before the demodulator (such cool pieces of equipment for CD-4, back then).

However, I have always thought it might almost be a wash since a cartridge with a higher inductance will have a higher output than a lower inductance cartridge which is probably why my later 2000 E/III works, too. I guess I trust the engineers at RCA and JVC more than my own empiricalities, though.

BTW, another good Empire thread.

Doug
 
Pure "Black Diamond Gold"
It sounds Fantastic!!!!!!
Words alone can not even start to describe the sounds I am able to hear with this cart.......Truly amazing!

Along with the 2000Z.........I'm where I always wanted to be.......immersed in Empire goodness.
 
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Where Luke gets his turntable back and Leah says it sounds just as good as it did 40 years ago because it still has its original Empire cartridge on it!

BTW, the 440D is pretty much the same as a 4000 D/I.

Doug
 
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