A shot of my Empire

[bktheking]

Got this unit last week, Empire 698, what else is there to say? Beautiful units with some design flaws. Be gentle with the 698 or you can get into trouble with the head shell mount which can crumble from what I have read. I installed my Empire 4000 xl III cart, sounds nice.

 

[prime minister]

That is a lovely turntable. How does the arm feel? I always wondered if that would seem as heavy as it looked.

 

[bktheking]

Very light actually, it's a fairly low mass arm so high compliant carts like the v15 are supposed to work well with it.

 

[Shelby1420]

Very classic looking table there Brad, bet it sounds awesome!!

 

[bktheking]

It's work in progress, the empire cart on it is imbalanced, I think I have to isolate the cart from the headshell, the integrated ground is causing an issue I think.

 

[Pioneer Vato]

A very handsome turntable.

 

[fiddlefye]

About as purty as a table gets. When it comes to tonearm mass looks can deceive and often do.

 

[bktheking]

I finally have it running perfectly, needed some adjusting- tonearm height was off.

 

[Former Member]

Pretty table. I know someone who refitted a Technics arm wand and head shell onto this table due to a damaged cartridge sled. It seems to be a nice solution.

Great looking turntable though, I bet it sounds quite nice.

Regards
Mister Pig

 

[Arkay]

Congratulations on your Empire. Always thought that was one of the overall prettiest, most "classic" looking turntables. It has long been on my short-list of "buy it if you see one" TTs, but the only one I've seen was way too overpriced. Perhaps one day.

 

[el84bill]

Beautiful!

 

[JohnVF]

I still think those are the most beautiful tables ever made. What Empire cart is that? I need to get new stylii for some Empire cart bodies I have laying around. They sounded pretty good even with old generic stylii.

 

[Redboy]

Empires are something else, aren't they? Gorgeous.

 

[Shelby1420]

Now that you have it working perfectly Brad, what are your thoughts as to its sound??

 

[TubeHiFiNut]

Very pretty 698.

I put a Dual 701 aside in 1977 in favor of a 598. Cartridge was a Denon 103. The combination sounded sweet and so I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Empire tables.

One of these days a 208 or 298 will be mine.....

 

[Shebang]

I was given an Empire 698 for the price of $0. It's a beautiful little rig but it's been stored away for 30 years. Turning it on resulted in a lot of noise. I expect I will need to disassemble the motor and check, clean, lubricate bearing surfaces. Also, needs lube on the platter bearing. Hopefully, I can get this baby up and running.