In article ,
Iain Churches wrote:
Some time ago, I mentioned the EMT range of turntables
on this NG and Dave P remarked that he had thrown
several of them onto a skip.

Should add only after fairly exhaustive attempts had been made to dispose
of them to anyone who could make use of them. Including a secondhand
broadcast equipment dealer. Same happened to analogue tape machines in
their hundreds across the industry. Such things are simply too big and
ugly for most to want in their homes, and too expensive to store in the
hope they would have some value one day.

Those EMT turntables were a hangover from the days when discs would be
played direct into a TV programme. But later practice was near always to
transfer to tape which would be done in a central area so studio disc
players became redundant. A disc used for play in direct in broadcast is
likely to lead a very hard life, so it makes sense to transfer the tracks
needed to tape as required under ideal conditions.

What may be a point of interest is that I can't remember ever having seen
an EMT turntable at the BBC. TV used BBC designed units exclusively, and
R1 etc where discs were played in direct, Gates originally then Technic
DD. Of course the BBC is a vast place so they probably had them somewhere.

An EMT 927 was sold a couple of days ago on e-Bay
for Euro 16,938. The 927 is *not* considered to be
one of the most valuable models:-)

Some folk never cease to amaze me. Unless for its intended use - broadcast
play in direct from disc where the ability to cue up the material and
ruggedness is desirable - I'd have said any number of decent domestic
decks would do the job of just playing records better. Indeed, at the
time, we used Thorens decks with SME arms and Shure V15 cartridges for
plain transcription purposes. Nor were the Ortophon arms and cartridges
fitted to the EMTs designed for minimum record wear - more the ability to
track securely under arduous conditions in the days when records were
disposable items.

I'll give you another fact to make you weep, Iain. Sometime in the '80s,
the company I worked for swopped 8 working and complete but tatty AKG C12s
for a new pair of Bose 901s. So valued them at about 100 quid each. Wonder
what they'd fetch now? IIRC you can buy them new for about 5000 quid each.

--
*It was all so different before everything changed.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.