Dave in ABQ Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Congrats on the find. I found a 208 about a year ago, but don't have a tonearm for it yet. Looks nice and the motor spins quietly. Its sitting pretty in a display case until I can get her fully operational. You can download the owners manual here after registering. http://www.vinylengine.com/library/empire/298-troubador.shtml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr T Posted September 18, 2010 Share Posted September 18, 2010 Marty: Did you get that Empire going. I'm about to start working on mine so I have become curious of your progress. Anthony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryC Posted September 18, 2010 Share Posted September 18, 2010 I dropped out of this thread too soon. I have a NG whose pump hasn't worked for years (I had it repaired once, but the fix didn't last long). So, I've simply been manually squirting the fluid on the little (felt?) strips and think it works just fine. Actually, when the old NG strips wore out, I stuck on a pair of Disc Doctor strips, and they work fine, too. I also believe in a heavy plinth, but one that's engineered as part of the table, as in Basis's tables. I doubt I could do it that well with DIY weighting. Basis's AJ Conti seems to do indepth work in whatever he's done to eliminate resonances and make his tables sound that good. 'Course they do cost.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebes Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 Hello Mr. T and welcome to the Forum. sorry I'm just replying but I was away on vacation. My table has been up and running for quite some time and brings mounds of pleasure to my tired old ears. Aside from a lot of cleaning, and trying different feet and belts there's little to do. Oh, I did replace the cables with new ones from Fini, but with no audible difference that I could detect. If you keep your you might want to clean up the contacts on them. Also if you keep the stock arm, you should probably readjust everything and use a test record to see if the cart etc. are in sync. Do clean out the bearing well and use just two or 3 drops of ligh machine oil, 30 weight, Mobil 1 etc. . Too much oil and the bearing won't seat properly. I did disassemble the motor, and the bearing grease had melted over time so I dabbed a little grease on it. My rubber grommets were fine, but if yours are cracked you can get replacements on ebay. Finally be sure to read over what I said about belts. I, of course, stand ready to answer any questions you may have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanator Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 Hi, I have a Nitty Gritty 1.5fi that has a leaking reservoir and was tryin to figure out how to get it apart so I can see what's wrong. Does the top part of the cover (the part with the fill hole and pump button) glued in, and if so, do you just pry it off the base? Or, is there some other way to get at it? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Ivanator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebes Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Remove the bottom and you will see that there are two Velcro strips holding the reservoir to the sides of the unit. Everything else is glued together and cant' be disassembled. You have to either order a replacement or use the method suggestion earlier on the the thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euclid5 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I just ran across your post a couple of days ago when I googled "Empire 208" under images. I bought an Empire 208 used about 1973 and have been using it continously since then. All it has required has been a couple of belts, a little oil, and cleaning and lube job a few years ago. It is very well built and simple. I will probably run as long as I can get decent belts for it. When I took it apart for a through cleaning a few years ago, I took pictures of it and its parts and posted them on my site. http://home.comcast.net/~tubes/Empire_208/index.html I have used "gun oil" in the well and for the motor bearings. Another excellent oil for the purpose is "turbine oil" which is sold in one of the harware store chains in the United States as "Zoom Spout Oil". These are both good choices for oiling bronze sleev bearings if you cannot get the manufacture's reccommended oil. The thickness of the belt affects speed. Some of the replacement belts from third parties are too thick. They cause the turntable to run too fast. The original tonearm's effective mass is too high to allow it to track properly with a hi compliance stylus. Shortly after Igot the turntable, I replaced the original arm with a SME 3009 Type 2. I still use the Audio Technica AT15S for critical playback. The combination of the SME cables and the second phono input on my preamp makes a perfect load for this cartrige. For non-critical playback I use a Stanton 680EE. I have several spare stylii for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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