EMT turntables as good as other great vintage TT?

EMT tables are amazing works of engineering. Especially the 950. I own several 930s, 950s, 948s and even a 938. I studied these tables while I was working on my new table. Of the 45 or so tables I studied for this project, the EMT 950 is the stand out when it comes to build quality and they taught me a lot. I would say the 950 is one of the most accurate and silent tables ever made. The sound is slightly a bit light weight, otherwise VERY little to criticize, especially when compared to current tables. The 929 arm and built in phono stage are another story. Unfortunately EMT did not do their homework on the 929 arm. It looks and sounds like they copied the Ortofon they were selling previous to having their own arm. Don't get me wrong, it is not a bad arm but certainly not world class like the 950 itself. The built in phono stages EMT made were not bad either and probably were fine for their intended purpose of radio station use. Again, it is not up to the sound quality of the table. Bottom line, install a top notch arm and cart on a 950, run it through your own phono stage and you will have a world class table. A 948 is not too far behind.

We have an EMT 948 in here with custon vDH cartridge and it's pretty amazing. We do all our archive work for labels with it. Can't beat it unless you spend major $$

Great thread. I have had quite a few EMT turntables and currently own 5 948's and 2 950's. The 948 and the 950 are very similar. I enjoy them more than the 930 or the 927.

If you are looking for something easy and built to lasty for many decades, I strongly suggest the EMT. The Garrard 301 and the Technics SP10MK2 or 3 are also terrific but they will require much more work to get them to sing.

Jtinn and Vetterone,
Why do you emjoy the EMT direct drives over the idler tables?

Can these still be found outside of specialty dealers in their native environments like studios etc.? Lastly, is there anyone who services these in the USA? To someone who has never seen these tables outside of the internet the questions seem unending. Does anyone use these in Chicago or even in the USA? Bob

The 948's come up for sale every now and then. I would venture you will pay 3500 and up depending upon condition. I paid $11000 for a brand new one I found in Europe. I have never had a service issue on any of mine and they are really built like tanks.

I totally agree with Steve that changing the arm and armboard and bypassing the internal phonostage really elevates the performance greatly. All of this is fairly simple to do.

BTW, I think the reason that the 930 and 927 are more expensive is only the rarer nature of the tables, not the performance.