Why will no other turntable beat the EMT 927?

You are referring to the 927 used with the 139st phono stage?

Thuchan runs his r80 without the Emt phono so his valid judgement(s) is (are) about the deck vs other decks playing with his various step up and phono combos.

The Emt 139 lacks high end extension and bottom end also vs top end phonos of today, despite this the 139 it is my favourite.

But....to see how deep and high and just how the deck holds these all together another phono is needed. Then you unveil the full potential. This is why I have fitted another arm board to the back of my Emt 927 to taste those potentials.

All fun...

Tbg, if you have a close look at the technology, the design and the build quality of the EMT 927 you will discover quickly why it is not made anymore or why no one copied it. I recommend looking at one or even better listening to one if you have the chance.

Dkarmeli agree with your assessment - of course :-)

Hi Peterayer,

We had the Airforce One in our room at CES. The electronics were all Lamm which I'm intimately familiar with. The cartridges were a ZYX and an Ortofon which I use daily. The only unknown were the Graham arms.

The Airforce One is really a Micro Seiki SX-8000 mk2 at heart with some upgrades? or refinements? or whatever you want to call it. Sonically it was pretty close to the 8000 mk2 but it was still under show conditions and things aren't optimized as should be, so further listening is needed with known tonearms. Airforce One has 3 platter options that affect the sound giving the user further options to tune it to his/her liking. Over all its the best sounding table that I know of made today. Of course nothing is perfect and there are some things about its design that I didn't like and don't understand why the designers made these choices. I'll have more to say when I get mine.

Tbg, digital killed many turntable manufacturers almost overnight. The 927 wasn't a dj table, it was originally designed for mastering purposes. It was a very expensive no compromise work horse impossible to copy without in depth knowledge of the product and a production facility capable of manufacturing all the various parts that make a 927, just to get the motor is an impossible task today. It doesn't take much to turn a piece of acrylic on a lathe and stick a cheap servo motor on side and connect it together with a rubber band, that's all most record players are today!

You're right it's not always about money. Products like 927 are personal expressions of self and ego, caring about the audience as much as the object itself. Of course a high degree of competence and knowledge is a prerequisite. The 930 was the money side of things!

PS. You still owe me a visit to your lair Johnathan!