Hello Markus,
thank you for your flattering words. Yes, I wrote a book about EMTs and own a small collection of those machines, which I use to listen to my collection of 6.000+ vinyl records. Of course I try to use them all in turns; now I'm listening to a 1978 BBC-version 950. Prices of classic EMTs are high nowadays: I could sell this BBC 950 today for almost the same money that I spent to purchase my 409. Please remember that they are high-quality machines with excellent sonic qualities (IMHO of course) and a comparable new TT may be much more expensive.
EMT Site Map
I also like to collect Studers (6 of them now, 2 A80s being now parked in my garage beside the 409), Telefunkens (both broadcast turntables and tape decks) and of course Nagras.
Dear Ashley, I don't think that EMT ever 'lost' to Panasonic, they were simply in a different price league. (Please remember that in 1976 a new 'standard', no-frills EMT 950 would cost in Germany almost as much as a VW Golf.) Whenever the budget allowed it, radio/TV corporations always bought EMTs because they have always been extremely good, sturdy, easy to use, nearly impossible to abuse and they needed little adjustment, so they worked flawlessly in the surgically clean audio rooms of the Italian RAI or in the studios of the Addis Abeba radio station. For the same reasons RAI, ORF, ZDF etc always preferred Nagras, Studers, Neumann to cheaper Japanese alternatives (RAI bought hundreds of EMTs and still use them), until digital music and CDs changed it all.
Nowadays the 409 is absorbing all my spare time so I do not listen much to records. Maybe I'll have some more time in my hands during winter when #7355 will be stripped in the body shop for a complete respray.
It's good to know that there are some serious audiophiles amongst Bristol collectors....
Ciao to you all,
Stefano
