Empire 2000E
Empire's mid-line moving-iron pickup was the cartridge countless turntables were sold with. The spec sheet shows why.
Overview
The Empire 2000E is a moving-iron phono cartridge. The "2000" family ran from budget pickups up through the exotic - the 2000Z, the EDR.9, and the 2000E/III. The plain 2000E sat in the middle. It's the one that turns up most often today, usually still bolted to the arm of a vintage turntable.
The 2000E/III has a 0.2 x 0.7 elliptical stylus and a tracking force range of 0.75 to 1.5 grams (HI-Fi-Stereo-Buyers, March 1978, p.78).
The period press was less romantic about it. HI-Fi-Stereo-Buyers (March 1978, p.78) tested the 2000E/III and called its sound quality "typical for its price range," listing it at $70.00. The same report gave the manufacturer's recommended vertical tracking force as 0.75 to 1.5 grams, but found best results at 1.5 grams and advised against running it any lighter. So the light end of the range may be within spec, but it isn't where the cartridge wants to live.
By 1981 the picture had shifted. A High Fidelity (1981, p.170) roundup of Empire's line lists the 2000E/III at $85, while the 300 ME sat at $70 and the 100S at $40. Read together, those listings show the family logic. The 2000-series bodies were shared across a spread of styli and price points, and the "E" variants - elliptical - were the ones buyers were steered toward.
Which brings up the naming problem.
What the 2000E has going for it, decades on, is that it was built to be a working cartridge rather than a collector's object. It tracked at forces light enough to be kind to records, It is, instead, the cartridge that a generation of listeners actually heard their records through, which is a different and arguably more interesting distinction.
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