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EMT 927 - serious gear lust

Wonderful things. One of very few turntables I’d swap a 124 or 301 for. I think I’d actually choose the smaller 930, as its smaller and a lot cheaper (i.e. only LOLprice for a good one).
 
I've heard maybe 3 927's. It's reputation is well deserved. Certainly one of the very best turntables ever made.
 
Stunsworth said:
I thought he was a bit forceful putting the platter back on, but it was a strong looking bearing.
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Agreed. The thing that made me cringe the most was how cack-handed he was with the after-market glass top-platter, he dropped it at least twice on the hammerite paint ‘lip’ and I’d not be at all surprised if he didn’t chip the paint. EMTs are amazingly built things, the bearing and motor really are extraordinary and make even Garrards and TD-124s look tiny (and they both dwarf belt-drive decks). One thing many folk don’t realise is the chassis assembly is actually painted bakelite, it is not cast alloy as one might assume. You certainly don’t want to drop one! The sunken three-leg area supporting the main-bearing apparently being a potential failure point if any idiot attempts to ship one with the huge sub-platter attached!
 
Tony L said:
Agreed. The thing that made me cringe the most was how cack-handed he was with the after-market glass top-platter, he dropped it at least twice on the hammerite paint ‘lip’ and I’d not be at all surprised if he didn’t chip the paint
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I watched it again and see what you mean.

My other comments would be that I thought the veneer on the plinth was pretty ugly - though it may look better in real life. Also I had to smile when he explained that the rubber ring on the platter damped ringing. He then tapped the platter and there was quite a loud ring.
 
Yup, noticed the ringing as well. But I think that the platter is dampened in other ways because when he put the platter back in place, I expected to hear a faint metallic sound but heard only a soft cushioned bounce.
 
He kept calling the arm a 929, when it was a 997. The 997 does look very cool. There’s a Dutch firm that makes one like that now.
 
Those were made to run continuously for years.
More rugged is impossible to find.
 
Tony L said:
One thing many folk don’t realise is the chassis assembly is actually painted bakelite, it is not cast alloy as one might assume. You certainly don’t want to drop one! The sunken three-leg area supporting the main-bearing apparently being a potential failure point if any idiot attempts to ship one with the huge sub-platter attached!
Click to expand...

On the big EMT 927 the chassis is an cast alloy, the 930 is a bakelite material, so care must be taken when shipped.
 
EMTs are very well made but designed and made for a purpose. To work reliably 24 hours a day for many many decades. We built a couple of special 230V/50Hz DiscDrive Turntable power supplies for some German customers back in the late 1990s/early 2000s, who wanted to power their expensive EMT with a perfect 230 volt AC sine wave. We had to redesign our Garrard/Thorens EL34 DiscDrive version with KT88s and a special power supply to get it to match the EMTs reliability. The EMT sounded good, certainly better than the usual Garrard/Thorens as you would expect, but up against a proper high end turntable it lacked the transparency and detail of some of the modern turntable designs. However the chances are the modern designs won't outlast the rugged build of the EMTs.
 
Yes, and broadcast quality is not the same as high end hifi.

Old EMT idlers are very satisfying to use and have tremendous solidity of sound as well as of build, but it's not high end hifi. My early 930/ RF 229 was made in 1957. It would be remarkable if it could match a top modern TT for detail and precision and of course it can't.

They're great things though. I'll never sell mine. Or if I ever had to liquidate the lot, it would be one of the very last to go. And I'd like a 927, though I'll need to find one cheaper than the absurdly expensive ones (and there are such - not cheap, but a lot cheaper than the van Vliet/ Wyatt type prices). And, as above, I'd also like a (DD) 950, just one.
 
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As far as I’m concerned you either ‘get’ what idlers do, or you don’t, and that’s absolutely fine too. Detail and the lowest noise floor just isn’t why so many of us buy them. It is all about the solidity, the groove, the drive, the communication. The good ones just make music sound ‘right’ somehow. It took a very, very long time for that penny to drop with me, but I knew something I didn’t then know how to articulate went when I sold my first system Lenco even though the revolving door of belt-drive decks that replaced it all killed in it all the logical ways (detail, noise-floor etc).

PS One thing that amuses me about the Facebook Jazz Vinyl Lovers group is just how many of us seem to have classic idler decks...
 
Of course a good High-end turntable should be able to do both...

I did the Garrard thing as far back as 1973 as a 401 was my first turntable, so I know exactly what they do. I have since sold many during the 1990s and have kept a very nice 401 which Martin Bastin is overhauling for me. All I need to do is get a plinth sorted for it and it will probably be the basis of my mono set up.
 
Whilst I appreciate they are great machines, the industrial design and look is not to everyones taste.
 
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