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| From Empire 398 |
My review, and opinion, is based on my previous experience restoring and using two other turntables from the same vintage: a Thorens TD124 mkI and a mkII, both with SME 3009 II tonearms.
Here's one of my Thorens:
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| From McIntosh + Vi... |
I'll start with the first impression which was visual. I believe the Empire turntable is much better looking than the Thorens. Especially the way I have it set-up right next to a gold-faced Fisher 600 from the same vintage.
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| From Empire 398 |
Compared to the SME 3009, the Empire tonearm looks like a part from a transmission, but I find it attractive in a very retro way.
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| From Empire 398 |
With the new belt, speed was within 0.2% of 33 1/3 - yeah!!
The platter spins evenly and is dead quiet. The motor on the other hand emits an audible "white noise", but not too disturbing. Very, very, little vibration is transmitted from the motor to the chassis.
I LOVE the fact that the platter comes up to speed, and stays at the right speed in a couple of seconds. The TD124s took their time and were very subject to the vagaries of the AC.
Having to use the shell-adapter to mount the cartridge has advantages and disadvantages. It's easier to mount a cart, but the way it's attached to the arm with a big screw is a bit clunky. It would be great if spare adapters were not so hard to find.
I mounted a Shure M97XE since inmates said that my favorite budget cart (AT440mla) would not play well with the Empire 980 tonearm.
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| From Empire 398 |
I did the set-up using the HiFi News test record and the Shure VTF scale (and various other little tools like a mirror overhang adjuster).
After some experimenting, I set the VTF to 2.0gm with the Shure brush down. With this set-up tracking was OK on the first 2 tracking torture tests on the test LP.
No antiskate to adjust ... one less thing to worry about :-).
One of the things I noticed while testing the tracking, and the only thing that's bugging me a bit and I want to try to track down and fix, is that the 300Hz and 1Khz tones on the test LP modulate (like a vibrato or tremolo) a little bit with a frequency between 1 and 2hz. I don't know how to describe it better except that the tone are not rock solid. Sounded a bit like standing waves reinforcing/cancelling but since I can also hear it on the headphones is probably not a room problem. ANY HELP/HINT FROM INMATES ON THIS WOULD BE GREATLY WELCOME.
The resonating frequency tests show very low (sub 10) resonating frequency. I tried putting a small amount of blue tack to change the effective mass but it do not do much - I did not have too much time to do a lot of trying. Could the resonating frequency be related to the modulation problem.
Finally I put away the test disk and played some music.
I am not a huge fan of the M97XE (since I've had my 440mla) but now, with the speed problem gone, the turntable makes some warm and nice music that I really enjoyed listening to.
When I bought this table I was not after high-end sound - after all it's matched with a 45 year-old receiver - but a warm soothing sound and a great vintage look. I believe I got those in spades. I love the way my birthday system (i.e. the system as old as I am) looks and - as long as I don't compare to my main system and keep my expectations at the right level - I really enjoy listening to it.
I hope you found this review and the pics interesting. If you are into vintage turntables, the Empires are definitely worth a look and a listen. Great addition to my collection.
If you have hints or suggestions for the tremolo/vibrato problem, please let me know.
Thanks,
Alberto
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