Of Ghosts, White Boxes and Black Forests

You know those days that happens? Not exactly bad but a series of ,mostly unpleasant, things that leaves one a little cross-eyed and confused. Yesterday was such a day. My afternoon off became a late afternoon off. Now imagine you arrive home, open the garage and some idiot had parked an original Mercedes Gullwing where your truck is supposed to go.

Not exactly that but I arrived home, headed off to switch on my hi-fi to just escape and found my way obstructed by a huge white box. Didn't look  like a shipping crate ,so I assumed my wife and her cronies were doing something again.




I flopped down to watch Poirot when Elizabeth arrived. " What's in the box?" I asked. She looked at me blandly "A turntable."  Turned out it was this

10F9CDCF-06C8-4356-A252-BFCD8EC1CA5F_1_201_a by jdza, on Flickr


Elektromesstechnik started life in the early post war years in Berlin. Initially they built measuring devices but then relocated to the Black Forest town of Lahr, started building turnables, distributed the new fangled Swiss Studer tape recorders and the rest  became legend. They soon changed their name to EMT-Franz. Their first turntable morphed into the mighty 927. It was a monster,both in size and prformance. Built exclusively for professional use the EMT 927 is, 70 years later, regarded by many as one of the 5 best sounding tables  ever. The smaller 930 followed. 930 also became legendary but was replaced in the 70s with the direct drive 950 and 948. Always horrendously expensive, smaller derivitaves followed, the 938,928 etc. So big EMT became that they swallowed that doyen of hi-fi turntables ,Thorens and Thorens-Franz was formed. By the mid 80s, vinyl was pretty much gone in the broadcast world and the once mighty EMT withered and died.

I became fascinated by the EMT legend in the mid 90s and could hardly believe my luck when I stumbled on a near mint 948. These direct drives replaced the 930 in the mid 70s. A mechanical marvel, I found the 948 a sonic disappointment. It is not a bad sounding table, just not great. An old Thorens 124, for instance, will easily outperform it. But then,I suppose, a TD 124 will out  perform most tables.Even today.

AFAIK the ealier 930/927  were never used in SA, our broadcasters opting for Garrards or their own Doc Viljoens. I had sort of given up ye idea of ever owning one of the idler EMTs for that reason so I have no idea where Dewald ( [member=760]ghostinthemachine[/member] ) sourced this one or how my wife stumbled on it. I'm too bowled over to have one. I am also bowled over by the condition of the machine. Clearly Dewald has worked his magic on it. I have seen a Studer A 80 he did for Leo Bischoff and I was floored by the condition and finsh he achieved. Clearly an extraordinary talent.

Setting up the 930 was a doddle, well almost. I elected to not use the internal phono stage but fortunately have a cable made by Hans Fabritius. My EMT TSD15 is broken (again) but I have a secret weapon: The fabulous Andre Hanekom built Blue Angel Gogga.He built this specially for the EMT arms, having the exact dimensions and weigt of a TSD 15. Sonic wise it is in another class. TBH, I am horrified at the idea of damaging it ,so packed it away safely. What a mistake!  I had forgotten how good it is. This thing sounds extremely close to my beloved vd Hul Crimson, actually pipping the vd Hul in the trebles!

So, is the EMT 930 one of the 10 best turntables in the world? How should I know. However it sits next to the mighty Thorens Reference and I can tell you the Thorens is sweating. It is close,very close. Different but equally musically satisfying.

Never meet your heroes they say: You will be disappointed. I met and lived with the EMT 948, Revox G36, McIntosh 352, Radford STA 25 etc  and I was disappoinited. I met both the JVC MC2 cartridge and EMT 930 and they are both more than I could ever dreamt they would be like