Empire cartridges

[Malcolm2010]

Hi, There is a company in England selling New old stock Empire CD-4 cartridges. I am not familiar with the brand, are they any good?.

Link here

https://shop.mantra-audio.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Empire_5.html

Malcolm

 

[Old Rusty]

Currently awaiting the arrival of an Empire 4000/D1. Will post again when results are in!

 

[Bonzodog]

Here's some info from the day.

(Anyone remember what SuperStereo Was?
Refresh my memory. It required a CD-4 cartridge.)

 

[Old Rusty]

Damn! You got me on 'SuperStereo'. What the...

 

[ChristopherLees]

I think they were trying to emphasise that their cd-4 cartridges with a good reponse to 40k and above also sound better in stereo ,than the non cd-4 cartridges....
in short the stereo is better .. so it's super !! ( or superior to their cheaper range...without actually saying the word cheap)

I'd like to see how those cartridges performed at 1/4 gram.....there was (for a while) ,quite a race to see who could come up with the lowest tracking weight claim....a knee jerk reaction to bad ceramics that tracked at heavy weights....the cartridge might work at 1/4 gram but I bet it sounded better between 1 - 1.5 grams

 

[quadtrade]

The add mentions all the matrix schemes also, which leads me to believe it is geared toward some early lps in Japan called Super Stereo. Not sure how it developed, perhaps marketing to a new unaware public, or appealing to stereo crowd? Here is couple examples from an early Teichiku Lp in RM. They turned to produce many CD-4 lps, after the initial rm issuings which seems around 20 lps or so.

 

[Old Rusty]

Finally got my Empire 4000D/1 in the mail, hooked it up, ran the needle in for a few hours on various records then plopped on my SQ version of 'The Planets' by Gustav Holst. In a word: WOW! I simply could not believe the sound coming out of my system. This Empire cartridge/stylus combo is the finest I have ever had the pleasure of listening to.

Leonard Bernstein & the New York philharmonic deliver an astounding performance of this music. The sound quality of this record is nothing short of amazing & the quadraphonic mix gives the listener an immersive experience second to none. I will purchase nothing but Empire from here on in and look forward to getting more classical music in the quad format.