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EMT 930st turntable, 929 arm, 155st phono stage. Look what I've just bought!

L

lindsayt

pfm Member
After reading Richard Dunn’s posts on heavy Japanese Direct Drives vs LP12’s I started doing some Internet research on DD turntables. This led me to this website:

http://de.geocities.com/bc1a69/museum_eng.html

Which alerted me to EMT turntables.

A bit more research – including some of Tony L’s postings – indicated that an EMT 930 was a highly desirable turntable.

And so when an EMT 930st with an EMT 929 tonearm and an EMT 155st phono stage came up on Fleabay I bought it – figuring that I could always sell it on if it didn’t sound better than my LP12.


The seller (who seems like a very decent and honest man) told me that this had been the spare turntable out of a group of 3 at a radio station in Birmingham. And that he hadn’t used it for 10 years.

My plan is to knock up a basic plinth out of some MDF I’ve got lying about the house and to mount the only spare tonearm I’ve got – a Linn Basik LVX – on that. In this way I should be able to start listening to the EMT 930 soon.


At the moment 33RPM barely works and 45 and 78 RPM don’t work at all. The motor spins OK. My guess is to check the oil level in the main bearing and to replace the idler wheel – which the seller said needed replacing. When I spin the platter by hand it spins for less than 2 revolutions before stopping.
I’ve already started making enquiries about a new idler wheel and oil.

Q1. Any other things I should check to get the platter spinning properly?

The signal socket at the base of my 929 is tiny. The 7 prong plug that comes out of the 155st doesn’t fit. Neither does my old Linn arm lead. I’ll try to solder a new socket and plug onto these. If I cock that up I can always get someone like AudioOrigami to do it for me.

Q2 What socket and plugs should I buy?

Q3 Which pins are L / R, +ve / -ve, earth, on the 155st input signal lead?

Ideally I’d like to feed my 929 into the 155st as well as my EAR834p so that I can decide how good the 155st is.

I’d like to get a TSD15 cartridge for the 929. I think these cost about £700. So I’ll have to save up for several months to buy one – unless I see one cheap 2nd hand somewhere.
A new Denon DL103 at about £100 would be an obvious cheaper alternative, but these seem to be a very tight fit into EMT headshells from what I’ve seen.

Q4 any other cartridge suggestions?

Q5 I don’t have a headshell for the 929. Does anyone have a spare I could buy?

Q6 How does the anti-skate work on the 929? Is it via a weight hanging by a thread, or is it simply via a thread pulling the spring at the bottom back of the arm?

It looks like I’ll have to make up a signal cable from the 155st to my amplifier.
Q7 The output from the 155st. Is that via the group of 8 spade-type connectors? Which pins are L / R, +ve / -ve?

I’ve downloaded a copy of the 930 service manua from Vinylengine, but it’s all in German.
Q8 Where can I get an English copy of the Service Manual?

I’ve read that a Fidelity Research FR-64s tonearms work very well on EMT 930’s.
Q9 Any other tonearm recommendations?


I intend starting a thread in the Audio section as soon as I’ve compared my EMT 930 with Basik LVX to my LP12 with Ittok. As well as comparisons of the 930 with 929 against the LP12 and of the 155st against the EAR 834p.

Hey, and eventually I may even feel confident enough to bring it down to one of Richard Dunn’s bake-offs…

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Coool! Not sure where one would go for parts, but it might be worth asking here: www.jpvanvliet.nl I get the impression he's kind of the EMT version of Loricraft. Some nice pictures on the site if nothing else.

Tony.
 
http://www.fabtech.de/en_index.html
http://emt-profi.de/welcome.htm
http://www.g-t-i.de/page.php?lang=en&page=frame

The anti-skate was often thrown away because of the high tracking force. It is a string and weight which hangs down the hole. Have you checked that the brake is not binding? Emt930 was easily serviced in the field. I expect you can get an English service book somewhere on the net though you might have to pay for it.
If you can find a source of the 7-pin plug please let me know! emt-profi will sell you a complete new armlead to feed an external phono stage. The guys in Germany have all the bits you need. I am waiting for the pound to recover against euro to get a cartridge. You will pay a lot just to buy a headshell on e-bay. Price of a new cartridge from Germany seems very reasonable, I just wish I'd got one a year ago.
emt turntables are designed to work well as a complete unit. Cartridge obviously works very well with the arm. I strongly suggest you don't start altering the unit in any way. A downside/upside (depends how you look at it) to emt is that everything is built in together and designed to work best together as a unit. If you wanted to start trying different arms etc. you would have been better getting a Garrard 401, I think there is not much to choose between them.
emt's are desirable when in mint original condition, to a certain type of person. Garrard 401's are simpler and probably a better realistic proposition in the UK.
The chassis top-plate is bakelite, take care with it.
I didn't see this on e-bay, was it hidden away in a wrong classification?
 
If you wanted direct-drive, and you wanted to change arm (and armboard) the EMT938 is the best option. I would have posted a picture here of mine with SME310, but gave up at the first hurdle.......
 
Thanks Jowcol.

It sounds as if I could make an anti-skate weight from some cotton thread and some small washers.
Q10 How much does the anti-skate weight for a 929 weigh?
I'll also see how much one from EMT-profi would cost.

The brake isn't binding. Or at least the brake that sits near the tonearm isn't binding. The main platter still doesn't spin with the top platter off.

There's a felt ring on a metal plate just above the entrance to the platter spindle bearing.
Q11 Am I right in thinking that this provides some adjustment to the platter rotation speed? Or is it there for another purpose?


It looks like a new idler wheel will cost about £120, and a 50cc bottle of oil £10.

I intend making any changes that I make to the EMT retrofittable. I've just bought a piece of history as well as what should be a damn fine turntable.

I didn't want DD especially. What I wanted was something that sounds better than a Keeled Radikaled Linn for less than the price of a Radikal. And I didn't care if that was belt drive, direct-drive, idler wheel drive, or even warp drive.

My EMT was in the Turntable section of Fleabay at a buy it now price. The seller said that he'd a received a few more offers to buy it after I bought it - with a lot of interest coming from Italy. I just happened to be the first person bold enough to buy it.

I'll be a bit disappointed if my EMT can't be made to sound better than a Garrard 401. The EMT was much more expensive new and is still more expensive 2nd hand.
 
EMT seem to be underrated in the UK at least. They hold good prices in Germany. But as I mentioned you're restricted with arm choices, you really are buying a complete solution and you are buying into the EMT way of doing things. You can't even really change to a different cartridge.
Fine speed control is done with the brake. I'm not familiar with the 930 so don't know where that is.
I should check around the net if I were you. I think you will find that the Garrard 401 is about equal to the EMT, but the flexibility of the Garrard with respect to arms and cartridges is significant.
I don't know what anti-skate weight costs, but it weighs 2g which unfortunately is not what SME weights are. The guys in Germany are very helpful, and their English is better than my German. It is said that you can buy enough new bits to put a complete 930 together.
The 930 was made even after the 950 came out because the 930 is easy to service. But if the requirement of a turntable is to silently rotate a record at a steady speed, then you should be looking at the direct drives IMHO!
 
Well done on the TT.

As has already been pointed out, well rated in Germany Japan etc. I understand that they were extraordinarily expensive when new and as such maybe the Garrard etc were a more attractive prospect in the UK, hence we see relatively few of them.

This site may be of use:

http://www.stefanopasini.it/

The chap is pretty helpful by all accounts and really knows his EMT.
 
Looking at my German Service Manual, I suspect my "Filzring" needs a drop of "ol", and I'll need to adjust my "Filzring" screw to get precise speed adjustment.
Oh dear I really need to get an English translation of this, or to borrow the biggest German dictionary I can find and spend a few hours checking my understanding of the German manual.

In 1980 Stereo Sound magazine rated the 930st as on a par with the Pioneer P3 Exclusive and better than the LP12, Sony PSX-9, Technics SP10Mk2, Kenwood L07-D.
http://www.thevintageknob.org/MISCELLANEOUS/SS1980TT/SS1980TT.html#

And Heiner Jakobi rates the 927 and 930 more highly than the EMT direct drives:
http://www.classicaudio.ru/articles/jacobi_emt.pdf
But I'm sure that all EMT's sound good. Hey this could be another bake-off: EMT 930 vs EMT 938 or 948 or 950?
 
Wish I had a Filzring.

Tony.

PS is the whole top assembly Bakelite then? I always assumed it was cast alloy like a 301 / 124 or whatever. I guess Bakelite is a pretty decent material.
 
Stereo Sound article is nice.
The thing with all this hi-fi is that it's down to personal taste so you can't trust anyone elses opinion. People often don't want 'accurate'.
EMT 950 motor is far larger than that in 938/948.
Of course people often prefer equipment from other countries and neglect their own. EMT has a strong following in Asia - it's different.
 
The whole top assembly, including the 3 arms that hold the platter bearing, is a single casting. Under the grey hammerite there's a black material that could well be bakelite. It looks like metal inserts have been used for all the female screw threads. It sounds inert when you tap it.
 
I've just noticed in your picture that the socket in the arm is for a mini-din 5-pin plug, that makes it a much later arm.
 
Yes, the seller used to own 3 EMT 930's and swapped the arms around. He sold 2 of them and then noticed that the 155st didn't fit into the 929. So he didn't use it for 10 years and then decided to sell it to raise some cash. The serial number for the 930st is 265XX which I believe makes it 1974 to 1975 vintage.
 
Well I've ordered the following items:

Some 7 pin DIN sockets and plugs from Canford.

A new idler wheel, some oil, a 929 anti-skate weight, the 4 rubber pads that sit between the top plate and the console / desk, and a TDU headshell from EMT-profi (the Dusch family).

A new Denon DL103 cartridge from Fleabay.

Another week or 2 and I might even be able to listen to it...
 
You don't hang about, I'm still waiting for the pound to recover against the euro........
I can't wait to hear the results, I do hope it was worth the trouble!
Perhaps I should bring my 938/SME round.
I get the impression that EMT and Garrard idlers (I had a 301) somehow enhance the bass. The GL75 I had didn't have that powerful bass, but was very nice.
It sounds like you're going to put it in a plinth, I wouldn't. I think a lot of people just run them naked.
Didn't you need a 5-pin DIN to hook up the EMT arm?
 
The EMT 155st comes with a 7 pin plug - this is the blue thing shown on my 4th photo in post #1.

The 155st is the item I'm most likely to sell on from this recent purchase. So I'd like to keep that 100% original.

The EMT installation guide says that they should be mounted in a plinth / console. So that's what I intend trying by knocking up something with a drill and jig-saw - from materials I've got hanging around the house. Be interesting to hear if it makes any difference to the sound.
 
"The EMT installation guide says that they should be mounted in a plinth / console."
Your German is obviously improving enormously :D
Have you considered leaving space for another arm on your plinth on the rear edge of the motor unit?
 
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