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Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

RE: Question for Empire 598 II owners re: cartridge alignment

Yes, the arm on the 598 (all versions) use a plastic cartridge "sled" or carrier that the pickup mounts on. It's not the easiest platform to work with, as many don't have the shoulder nuts that used to be used to screw the cartridge screws into. I'd use small thin washers to help prevent distorting the plastic. It's also a good idea to not torque down tight on those screws either. The plastic is pretty soft and can lose it's shape without much effort.

All things being equal, it's not hard to align a pickup on this arm. You can do a two-point alignment, although using Empire's method of aligning the tip of the stylus right to the edge of the plastic "sled" gets you 99.99% there to start with. It can be a pain trying to align it any other way due to you having to take the sled off everytime you go to move the cartridge.

More problematic is the sled itself. You have to be careful it isn't warped, cracked, or deformed from being screwed in too tightly to the headshell over the years. Many times you'll see that tightning the sled changes the VTA because the sled "bends" from age. It is a delicate dance you have to do. And naturally, the part is unobtainium.

The only drawback to the 'table used to be that you couldn't fit another arm to it, but Esoteric Sound offers a Jelco sourced arm that is being touted as a drop-in replacement. You also have to inspect the finish to make sure you can live with any staining or wear of the finish from use or the pot-metal having flaws.

Last thing, getting a proper sized belt is key. There are many posts on AudioKarma that make informed reading concerning belt size(s).


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