Stylus doesn't quite fit...

[Zaimejs]

Good day, I have an Empire 20 (200/2000) cartridge on my Garrard 95B. I purchased this stylus for it. This stylus fit in the past.

However, when I try to insert it, it goes in fine, but it kind of wants to just pop out when it is inserted all the way. It's like the plastic is too long or something and it doesn't want to stay in place.

Is this my fault? Anyone know how to make this work?

On another note... it seems the cartridge itself doesn't want to play both channels. I tried two headshells... and I don't know what's going on. Is there way to test the cartridge?

Thanks,

[Alec124c41]

Use a digital multimeter across the pins of each channel. They should measure several hundred ohms, and be closely matched. If you find an open circuit, the cart is toast.
Right: red - green
Left: white - blue

Cheers,
Alec

[Zaimejs]

Do I need to do that while a record is playing or some data is going into the cartridge? How does that work? More info plz.

Thanks, Alec. You are always here to answer questions!

[Doug G.]

The cartridge need not be playing a record or anything like that. The measurement is just the static resistance of the coils in the cartridge.

Just touch one meter probe to one pin and the other probe to the other pin and read the meter display. As Alec said, there should several hundred ohms (probably around 1000 ohms) of resistance and the two channels should be relatively close in measurement.

If the display remains blank or displays an over range condition, the channel coil is open and the cartridge is lost. That's pretty rare, however, and you want to exhaust every other possibility before condemning the cartridge.

Doug

[Doug G.]

Oh, and on that type of Empire stylus, the upper extension sticking out in the back is a kind of latch. You can see how it kind of humps up at the end. This is supposed to clip into the cartridge to hold the stylus in. The bottom short extension is the part enclosing the magnets.

Doug

[Zaimejs]

Wow... I just wasted $30 on a new stylus for a dead cartridge. Anybody need an Empire 2xxx series stylus?

It was so cool to see my Ohm meter actually working just like you said. It took awhile to get it to work. It seems that every time I go to fix something, I have to go through 2-3 other steps before I can even get started. I had to fix the fuse in my Ohm meter in order to get it to work... then it was money. No left channel at all in the Empire.

Luckily I got that new tonearm with the digitrac which sounds pretty good. How do I know how much life is left in that stylus?

Thanks for the help. Is there any way to resurrect a broken cartridge?