The Empire 2002 is an excellent MM cartridge! I have one in my collection. Might be difficult finding a NOS replacement stylus for it. No need to upgrade!
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@rocky1313 The “Z” version is the better one due to being equipped with an elliptical stylus. If it has the OEM stylus (if the stylus guard is gold and has “EMPIRE” embossed on it), it should sound quite good. Back in the day, several aftermarket companies made generic stylus replacement that were inferior to the OEM, but none looked like the genuine article. The best cartridge Empire made was the 4000D/III that had the “4 dimensional” stylus, their version of a shibata stylus tip with a special tapered aluminum cantilever. It was one of the best sounding MM cartridges ever made. I was lucky to have bought a NOS 4000D/III and two NOS OEM stylus replacements years ago when I bought my 698. The combination sounds very good. |