EMT turntables as good as other great vintage TT?

Baranyi, You have put your finger on a truism. The market value of vintage audio items is a product of two factors: excellence and collectibility. Sometimes it's more about the latter than the former. If you are looking for excellence, you need a good eye to tell the difference between it and collectibility as a basis for value. As for me, I live in the Washington, DC, area. You are welcome here any time, if you give me a few days notice. But I have never even seen an EMT turntable in the flesh. Nor do I have first hand experience with a P3. Among the top tier of vintage direct-drives, I own an L07D and an SP10 Mk3. The latter will be up and running within a week, I hope. But I need to find the cash to buy a 10-inch or 12-inch arm for it.

I have an EMT 930, EMT 927 and SME 30/2A among some
other turntables.I prefer both EMT's over the SME,
which in turn I like more than many other modern tables.
I listen the EMT 927 daily for many hours.
Also with the EMT cartridges the truth is just the
opposite, they were used since they last forever.
I have several EMT TSD-15, but the one I use was
bought used and I have used it for more than 3000 hours
and it seems to go on and on.

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.