EMT turntables as good as other great vintage TT?

We have a BBC Wide Body EMT 950 in our soon to be open DUMBO Brooklyn, NYC showroom for OMA (Oswaldsmill Audio) precisely so that audiophiles can hear the real thing, and A/B to the turntables which OMA manufactures (both direct drive and idler drive.) Although we don't have space for this at our now open SoHo, Manhattan OMA Showroom, we also have a dead stock, complete Technics SP10 MK3 system (Obsidian base, EPA 100 arm, EPC 305MK2 cartrdige) at Oswaldsmill, in Eastern PA, also to use as a reference, and to allow customers to make informed comparisons with our products.

I like to let customers judge for themselves which is superior, which probably answers some of your questions.

Jonathan Weiss

Well, when you listen to it and you think you hear great Bass, *ahem*, it is not the Kingsway Hall. You hear the vibrations from the rim, some call it PRAT, others call it distortions. The main reason why the German Broadcast Studios sold them pretty fast when they were able to get Direct Drives lots of years ago.

Sorry to say, but I don't understand where these
rumours creep up.930 and 927 have the best bass I've
heard.Studios always get new stuff, but 930 was still
in production 5 years after the 950 came.
Anyway, as Channel10 said, listen and then you'll know.

I am going to be taking delivery of an EMT 948 soon and I am hearing a lot of differing opinions about how to get the best out of this table. I know this is par for the course in the pursuit of this passion of ours, but I would like to hear a discussion amongst all of you as why you hold specific views.

I’ve been told, for example:
-no plinth is best
-you must have a plinth and it must be made with certain materials (but those materials aren’t revealed because it would be giving away trade secrets - this I do understand from the business man’s perspective, but I’d love to hear from some of you hobbyists what you’ve learned works best with this table re: plinths)
-the only tonearm that will really work is the stock arm
-you must get rid of the stock arm
-the Tri-Planar is works great with the proper arm board
-the Tri-Planar doesn’t work well at all even if you do build an arm board for it - it would be better to use something like the Reed. What other arms work well, I’d like to know?
-you don’t want to use the stock phono stage
-the stock phono stage is very good
-this is one of the all time great turntables - just about everyone agrees on this one (except Syntax) including folks outside this posting that I’ve spoken to!

This is a new pursuit for me so I hope to learn a lot from those of you who have posted so far (and hopefully others) so I can get the most out moving deeper into the world of vinyl. I currently use a Merrill-Scillia MS2 belt driven table (with an upgraded power supply from a MS21)with a Tri-Planar arm and an Ortofon A90 cartridge. Prior to this table I had (and still have) a Well Tempered table purchased when they first appeared on the scene decades ago and were the hot ticket at the time replacing my trusty Linn Sondek. I also have a Koetsu Rosewood and a Van de Hul MC-1 cartridge. I’m using an Audion Quatro Premiere preamp with phono stage built in, or a Tom Evans Vibe/Pulse preamp with a Sanders Phono stage.

I want to thank the people I have spoken to so far. I’ve learned a lot already thanks to you!

Jake, All of your presuppositions are correct in the mind of someone out here. I will only say that if you decide to make a plinth, it is not such a black art. Baltic birch, panzerholz, and mdf are wood or wood-derived materials that others have used to make plinths for idler- and direct-drive turntables with some claimed success. Slate works too. No-plinth may work, as well. Sadly or fortunately, you will have to make up your own mind. These things are controversial even for the more commonly restored vintage turntables (e.g., Lenco, Garrard, Technics), and there are just not a lot of folks with EMT 948s that they want to modify. Most owners appear to want them to remain totally original. Suggestion: Start with a totally original set-up. Make sure it is mechanically up to specs. Get used to its sound before you make any changes, and don't do anything to the table that cannot be undone.