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New stylus for Empire P50NS or new cartridge?

T

tmpsx

New Member
I'm very new to vinyl and turntables so hopefully this all makes sense... I recently acquired a Technics SL-D3 and it came with an Empire P50NS cartridge, I believe this is the way it was purchased 40+ years ago. I was hoping to replace the stylus and I'm seeing prices from $15 to $90 for various replacements, all made by some other company. Will the new stylus sound better? When looking through the manual for the turntable it states that it came with a different cartridge all together, the EPC-270c, is it better to get one of those instead? Or is there a different cartridge that would sound better? I'm not that budget conscious, and the sound coming from the turntable isn't necessarily bad, but it seems like it would need to be replaced after 40 years right? So many questions. Thanks!
 
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Neither cartridge you mention is made anymore. Empire went out of business around 1986 or so. So they don’t make styli anymore either. Original styli can be scarce and expensive. Hence, other companies now make replacement styli.

In my opinion, that Empire is a good cartridge. (Cartridges as a rule don’t wear out or go bad. But styli do.) Turntable Needles and LP Gear make decent replacement styli. The original stylus was a nude 2x7 elliptical on a tapered aluminum cantilever.

The $18 Pfanstiehl stylus is a bonded conical tip, not elliptical.
 
Last edited:
Wolfie62 said:
Neither cartridge you mention is made anymore. Empire went out of business around 1986 or so. So they don’t make styli anymore either. Original styli can be scarce and expensive. Hence, other companies now make replacement styli.

In my opinion, that Empire is a good cartridge. (Cartridges as a rule don’t wear out or go bad. But styli do.) Turntable Needles and LP Gear make decent replacement styli. The original stylus was a nude 2x7 elliptical on a tapered aluminum cantilever.

The $18 Pfanstiehl stylus is a bonded conical tip, not elliptical.
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Thank you, this is very helpful. I'll try one of the replacements and see how it goes!
 
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