EMT 927 vs. Micro Seiki 5000 or 8000 - different?

Nandric, Please don't take me wrong,my last added paragraph is laced with sarcasm.
Mark

In_shore, In some countrys you need to tell in advance that
you intend to tell a joke. Then depending on their upbringing (aka politeness) thy should laugh. I love jokes
so I am very sorry to have missed the point. But we agree
about those ''old TT's'' I think.

Regards,

Nandric Being born in the new world to a German mother and Scottish father the influence of both cultures I guess made me this way, no harm intended at all and yes we arein full agreement.
Mark

"Does anyone know what is so special about the big M-S turntables, apart from their obvious build quality, which can after all be matched by several of today's high end belt drive turntables?"

Hi Lew,

In my opinion, the string drive, combined with high mass and speed control, is key to the performance of those turntables. The string is a limited, or more properly described as a calculated, slip. A typical belt drive has inherent belt creep that is difficult to overcome, so it is typically less accurate overall. That means a string drive is easier to control for accuracy, and Micro Seiki made a competent controller for that task. Then, the mass does its job with inertia and resonance control. All that makes for a very good turntable, and the other features are lesser in importance, but because of their precision play an important role.

Caveat: Note my use of "in my opinion" and "typically" in this post. I have heard some exceedingly good belt drives that are more traditional in their construction. The Fairchild 750 is one example, but there are others.

Dear Mosin, dear Lewm, dear In_shore, while I myself are quite an admirer of the Micro Seiki skeleton turntables (RX-1500 g-versions, RX-3000, RX-5000 and SX-8000 in particular), I nevertheless understand the initial "cold welcome" it received from HP and others back in the early 1980ies in the US.
Many reviewers back then favored the LP12 and an unsuspended MS with an untreated platter is certainly sound-wise not to everybody's liking (it is not to mine ...).
The bell-shape of the Micro Seiki's platter (each of the above safe for the SX-8000 w/stainless steel platter and glued glass platter underneath for the air bearing) is certainly not the best possible. Have a look at the photos of Syntax' RX-5000 to get an impression what I mean. A RX-5000 with solid platter on top of it's stock platter is a completely different beast and gives a shocking improve to the MS's sound performance.
What is needed further to really explore the possibilities of the Micro Seiki is a good suspension.
Use a Vibraplane (Kinetic Systems) or Minus-K with additional load and you will explore an all new sonic experience with the Micro Seiki.
Micro Seiki itself realized it late in it's history and the SX-8000 II came with a floating pad (at least an attempt in the right direction).
As it stands, a stock RX-1500G, RX-3000, RX-5000 or SX-8000 is a turntable with incredibly built quality and some real smart ideas topped with a time-less form-follows-function design.
To really show off it's sonic possibilities however a few points (suspension, platter) need to be addressed carefully.
In stock condition it is sonically only 60% of what is possible.
Cheers,
D.
P.S. to put the principle of inertia w/ string/thread drive to perfect function is another topic. It works - and when it does it is really stunning. But it is too often misunderstood and not applied correctly.