In 2018, Micha Huber’s HiFiction AG, manufacturer of Thales tonearms and turntables, assumed control of EMT Tontechnik, taking over EMT’s cartridge business including development, production, repair, and international distribution—with the exception of the EMT broadcast cartridge line for the EU market, which is still distributed by EMT Studiotechnik out of the company’s original Black Forest home in Mahlberg, Germany.
The backstory—or parts of it—is important to fully understand the front story: this review. So stick with me. Founded by Wilhelm Franz in Berlin in 1940, EMT began as a manufacturer of measurement equipment for broadcasters. In 1956, Wilhelm’s brother Walter founded Gerätewerk Lahr, which began manufacturing EMT’s products.
Fast-forward to the decade’s end, shortly after EMT developed its famous “plate reverb.” EMT’s 927 and 930 broadcast turntables are in use in studios around the world, fitted with Ortofon-supplied tonearms, soon to be replaced by the famous EMT 997 “banana” tonearm—a story unto itself. The platters of these idler-wheel–driven, industrial-grade turntables were large enough to accommodate the 16″ transcription discs then in broadcasting use. The 930 turntable, which at first was mono, incorporated a built-in vacuum tube–based phono preamplifier, the 139.
In 1959, EMT entered the cartridge market for obvious reasons and a year later developed a stereo moving coil pickup. In 1966, Gerätewerk Lahr took over production of Thorens—not relevant to this review, but an interesting aside. Wilhelm Franz passed away in 1971, but the company, run by his wife, continued.
From that time until 1989, when EMT was sold to the Belgian Barco group, cartridge design, development, and manufacturing continued at the original Mahlberg, Germany, location. Then in 2003, Barco sold EMT Studiotechnik to Walter Derrer. In 2005, Jules Limon joined the company, heading up product development as well as sales and marketing. A year later, EMT launched a high-end “Jubilee Series” cartridge line and introduced the dazzling JPA 66 phono preamp.
In 2007, Derrer died in a plane crash, and Mr. Limon took the helm of EMT Studiotechnik. A year later, he founded EMT International GmbH, which assumed control of the EMT trademarks as well as sales and production, including the JPA 66.
Limon met Micha Huber in 2009, and the two mapped out plans for collaborative, high-precision mechanical development projects. In 2014, following the retirement of the EMT cartridge production team—some having worked there for 45 years—EMT cartridge production, including all equipment and tooling, was slowly moved to HiFiction AG in Winterthur, Switzerland, where a newly trained young team would take it over.
Four years later, in July 2018, HiFiction AG completed its takeover of EMT’s cartridge business including development, production, repairs, and international sales, leaving the broadcast cartridge line as well as the JPA 66 (now in its Mk3 iteration) with EMT Studiotechnik in Mahlberg. It’s not clear who now owns the EMT trademark.
In 2019, in order to accommodate both the EMT production line and increased demand for Thales products, HiFiction AG moved into more spacious headquarters—a former spinning mill built in 1833—in the village of Turbenthal, close to the town of Winterthur and the Zurich airport. You can take the factory tour in a video I shot in the spring of 2019.
It’s important to note that all along this timeline, the EMT cartridge line has been enhanced and upgraded.
The EMT 128
This new EMT phono preamplifier began life in 1985 as a project to replace the phono stage found inside the aforementioned EMT broadcast turntables. Mr. Huber told me he contacted the now-retired project leader and convinced him to complete the design’s electronic component. Huber’s team did the mechanical and vibration-control work. The printed circuit board is produced in Germany.
In function and appearance, the $12,830 128 is the opposite of the versatile, lab-like JPA 66. As for which is the cooler-looking design, I’d vote for both! The 128’s sleek, low-profile chassis is milled out of a solid block of aluminum and utilizes “advanced air-flow and anti-vibration technology.” It weighs 26.5lb.
The front panel features four toggle switches, one each for Off/On, Mono/Stereo, DIN 78/RIAA EQ (footnote 1), and Mute/Sound. The rear panel features one pair each of single-ended (RCA) inputs and balanced (XLR) outputs plus a banana plug–compatible ground lug receptacle on the right and an IEC connector and power switch on the left. Apart from a small identification plate, also on the rear panel, that’s all there is on the outside.
Inside the chassis is a PCB populated with high-quality parts featuring a pair of Lundahl step-up transformers on the input side and a pair of Lundahl output transformers on the output side, between which are a pair of large Mundorf MCap ZN Classic Tin Foil “Audiophiler” capacitors. In between the step-up and output transformers are one trio per channel of Raytheon 5784WB subminiature, dual-pentode, wire-terminated tubes; EMT says these tubes were developed for “US missile technology.”
There’s no need to be concerned about tube availability. An online search shows that NOS (new old stock) 5784WB tubes are plentiful and cheap; I saw them for as little as $1.50. Online user reports claim great performance uniformity among tested samples and overall quiet. No doubt, in this critical application, HiFiction extensively tests each tube before soldering its bare wires to a small PCB fitted with pins that get inserted into sockets on the main board. Changing tubes, should it be necessary, is neither difficult nor time consuming and requires no soldering.
The instruction manual says the EMT 128 is “specifically designed for EMT MC cartridges,” but it also states a range of useable cartridge impedances (12 to 30 ohms) and output voltages (0.3mV to 1mV). A pair of internally mounted jumpers lets you easily adjust gain to either 64dB (for cartridges with outputs ranging from 0.6mV to 1mV) or 70dB (for cartridges with outputs between 0.3mV and 0.5mV).
Footnote 1: After some back and forth, EMT’s Micha Huber and I agreed that that DIN 78—the designation EMT used, including on its 930 turntable, which had built-in phono EQ, is the same as the TELDEC curve, with time constants T1 = 3180µs, T2 = 318µs, and T3 = 50µs. DIN 78 was “the German standard for shellac LPs, introduced in 1955,” Huber told me. In the frequency domain, TELDEC deemphasis/emphasis circuits should attenuate (then boost) bass by about 16.5dB at 50Hz and boost (then attenuate) treble by 10.9dB at 10kHz. RIAA and TELDEC should match closely at 50Hz, but TELDEC will boost the highs by an extra 3dB or so at 10kHz.
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COMPANY INFO
HiFiction AG/EMT Tontechnik
US distributor: Wynn Audio
20 Wertheim Ct. unit 31
Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3A8, Canada
ARTICLE CONTENTS
Page 1
Page 2
Specifications
Associated Equipment
Measurements
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