Systemic Development > Analog Devices

this is a great turntable... (f/s; not mine)

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doug s.:
prices for these have been going up; this is still an excellent deal, has been well serviced, and will go toe to toe w/anything new at ~10 times the asking price.  i'm certain the only reason it's still f/s is the owner doesn't want to ship.

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649596770-empire-398-turntable/?utm_campaign=new-watchlist-added&utm_source=transaction&utm_medium=email


doug s.

Folsom:
Aren't they usually heavy arms?

doug s.:
the arm looks quite the beast, no?   :mrgreen: in reality they have an effective mass of ~17g, which while on the heavy side, they actually work well w/many cartridges, due to the design; not just low-compliance ones.  there's lots of info on them on the web.  vinyl engine has the manual for download:
https://www.vinylengine.com/library/empire/980.shtml

the turntable could be improved by a different arm, but the reality is that the arm is actually very competent.  even w/o anti-skate, tho a few have anti-skate added, and you could always fabricate the needed attachments if you wanted.  there's a guy on ebay who sells updated i/c's for the empires, and he'll make you basically anything you want.  i lucked into one that had the anti-skate already installed, but i've heard these w/o and they are still superb...


doug s.


--- Quote from: Folsom on March 17, 2020, 11:07:05 PM ---Aren't they usually heavy arms?

--- End quote ---

Nick B:
Doug,
I wouldn’t have known about Empire turntables if it weren’t for you. It’s in decent shape and it would be a very nice project to completely restore it. I cringed a bit when he described his paint job.... One of these days I’ll get my vinyl going, but that’s about 4th or 5th in the queue.
Nick

doug s.:
this deck has been restored more than enough to be used as-is.  if you look at the pics of the tonearm, it's plenty decent enough, imo.  it looks better than mine, and i have no desire to make mine look any nicer...

you have a killer deck yourself, but you could buy something like this and get at least 90% of what you have now, sound-wise; then sell yours and fund lotsa winyl purchases...   8)

doug s.

--- Quote from: Nick B on March 18, 2020, 12:41:00 AM ---Doug,
I wouldn’t have known about Empire turntables if it weren’t for you. It’s in decent shape and it would be a very nice project to completely restore it. I cringed a bit when he described his paint job.... One of these days I’ll get my vinyl going, but that’s about 4th or 5th in the queue.
Nick

--- End quote ---

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