EMG enthusiasm.

[Orchorsol]

Orchorsal,

Those on the west side of the pond are less aware of the EMG history and also with what you've been doing re. the machines, horns and so on. Additional details, if possible, especially if accompanied with pictures would be very interesting, at least in my case!

I certainly will soon - I tend to be busy, and usually when I'm on here it's in brief snatched moments, so please bear with me!

[kirtley2012]

I LOVE emg's!!, i have never had the pleasure of seeing one in person BUT, i am making a EMG type gramophone, which consists of a original emg mk 9 horn, this must have been on-going for well over a year because i have not found suitable parts to make the internal conduit!, if it works well, it will be used alot!, thanks to graham rankin, i have ammassed not only alot of knowledge about emg's and just how technical and scientific they were! but he also kindly gave me the parts to construct it!, it's far from finished but i hope it works!, emg's are certainly the best and most interesting gramophones made as anyone who has owned or heard one will know!

[Frankia]

Hi Alex,
I've seen that horn on your youtube channel I think - the one you threw the phone/ipod or whatever it is into to get an idea of the sound projection? It'll be very interesting to hear and see your finished article eventually. A worthy project!

[kirtley2012]

yes, i was messing around with it because i had no way to properly play it, here is a video of it on my hmv 31
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYw5sVxQrEs

[Frankia]

Since Orchorsol has been good enough to furnish us with photos of his lovely Expert, I decided to take my technophobic courage in both hands and try my first ever upload onto a website. Apologies in advance for whatever way this turns out and also for the photo of the soundbox, but that was the best I could manage in limited time.

Anyhow, this is my EMGCR gramophone. It has a fibreglass horn with aluminium base. The motor is a Garrard Super, spring wound. The soundbox is an EMG 4 spring.

[Orchorsol]

P1000479.JPG

P1000481.JPG

Since Orchorsol has been good enough to furnish us with photos of his lovely Expert, I decided to take my technophobic courage in both hands and try my first ever upload onto a website. Apologies in advance for whatever way this turns out and also for the photo of the soundbox, but that was the best I could manage in limited time.

Anyhow, this is my EMGCR gramophone. It has a fibreglass horn with aluminium base. The motor is a Garrard Super, spring wound. The soundbox is an EMG 4 spring.

Fantastic Frankia! Many thanks for posting. Glorious machine!

What's the thin vertical metal rod to the rear of the turntable?

[Frankia]

That's part of the automatic brake mechanism. I'm the only EMGCR owner so far with such a thing! It's by far the best designed automatic mechanism I've had on a gramophone. Most importantly, Graham designed it in such a way that the tone arm only comes in contact with the rod just as it hits the run out grooves, so there is no lateral pressure during play. Thorns and bamboos and grooves are uncompromised therefore. It can also be either activated or not for each record at will. Personally I use it - literally - all the time. It is completely dependable. A very important benefit is that it will halt the journey of the soundbox and tonearm if the needle should miss the run off groove and head for disaster.

[Steve]

Interesting to read what some have said about the differences between the EMG and the Expert. In my experience the complete opposite has been true! I had a 10A but not before I had an Expert Senior with a very sad droopy horn. However the latter problem made NO difference to the sound reproduction. Certain records I had played a lot on the Expert sounded very 'bass light' when I first played them on the 10A. Also, I noted that it was the EMG with very forward presence. If anything the Expert 'hung back' and was quite soft, totally lacking that shrill brightness associated with acoustic gramophones. I also noted how the Expert reproduced less surface noise from the reocrds.

In the end I elected to get a better Expert Senior, which is what I did. I play it in different rooms and it sounds equally good irrespective of where it is placed.

[Frankia]

That's interesting. It's also my experience that the Expert hides surface noise better than the EMG and that the EMG sound is more "up front" than the Expert which sounds farther back in the horn.
However I have put in quite a bit of effort tweaking the surroundings here to get a better sound from the external horn gramophones. Previous to them I had the HMV re-entrant range which sounded absolutely lovely in this smallish, wooden floored, very modern type sitting room. When I introduced the Expert and EMGCR however, they sounded uncomfortably loud and even occasionally shrill in the loudest passages. When I put down a carpet, the situation altered immediately and very substantially for the better as regards the EMGCR and Expert. However the alteration has noticeably dulled and weakened the previously strong warm HMV sound as well! My experience leads me to suspect that the surroundings which work best for HMV re-entrant and EMG/Expert may be mutually exclusive. It might also partly explain some of the differences in opinion on what has the "best" sound - though only partly of course.

[chunnybh]

I agree, I believe acoustics play a major role in reproduction and different machines will sound different in different surroundings. Comparing a re-entrant cabinet with an external horn monster is a futile exercise as they will both outdo each other in different surroundings. Never mind that different machines will sound better playing certain records than others. Basically there is always going to be a compromise unless you have a huge listening room and 20 different gramophones all setup in their own place.
Carpets make a huge difference especially with floor models. Most re-entrants have ball feet so there is minimal contact with the floor. I have a friend who has his Credenza mounted on speaker pins so the whole thing is almost suspended. The bass is noticeably improved.