EMT Moving Coil Cartridges
EMT has been building phono cartridges since 1959, first for professional broadcast use and later for home stereo systems. That lineage remains unusually visible in its current cartridges: established generator designs continue alongside newer developments in stylus, cantilever and body construction.
Backbeat Audio features three EMT cartridges that approach that tradition differently. They share more than their specifications might suggest, but each exists for a distinct reason.
EMT HSD 006
The HSD 006 may be the clearest connection between EMT’s professional cartridge heritage and a contemporary home system.
Its moving-coil generator carries forward an architecture EMT developed through decades of professional use, with a direct lineage to the TSD 15. Its presentation combines the substance associated with that legacy with detail, treble extension, spatial development and tactility.
Price $2,495
EMT JSD Pure
The JSD Pure starts with much of the same EMT foundation and develops the mechanical side of the cartridge considerably further.
A sapphire cantilever replaces aluminum, paired with EMT’s high-polish Multi Radius diamond. The generator is housed in a mechanically sophisticated sandwich body incorporating aluminum, bronze and a high-density layer intended to control unwanted resonance at the interface between cartridge and tonearm. The differences are concentrated in how the stylus traces the groove, how that movement reaches the generator and how the cartridge couples mechanically to the tonearm.
In our experience, the JSD Pure combines speed and attack with convincing instrumental color and weight. Fine changes in texture and dynamics are easy to follow, but they don’t become separate events competing with the music. There is plenty of information, presented as part of a coherent performance. Its greater resolution doesn’t come at the expense of the density, momentum and physical presence that characterize the EMT sound.
Price: $5,995
EMT HMD 025 “True Mono”
Rather than using a stereo generator and combining its channels, the HMD 025 uses a dedicated true-mono moving-coil generator. An aluminum cantilever carries a 25-micron spherical diamond. That 25 µm spherical profile isn’t a simpler substitute for the sophisticated stereo profiles used by the HSD and JSD; it is a deliberate choice for a different application. The HMD 025 has vertical compliance and can safely play contemporary mono records.
Price: $2,195
Coil Configurations
EMT cartridges can be ordered with different coil configurations. Reducing the number of turns reduces moving mass, output voltage and internal impedance. Half-coil and quarter-coil options allow EMT cartridges to be fine tuned to the system that surrounds them.
Backbeat’s EMT cartridges use half-coil generators. We find that configuration particularly well suited to the phono stages we commonly work with. Backbeat can help select the appropriate EMT cartridge and configuration for your turntable and phono stage, then install and align it for proper performance.
Specifications
| HSD 006 | JSD Pure | HMD 025 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: | Stereo MC | Stereo MC | True mono MC |
| Output: | 1.05mV @ 5cm/s | 1.05mV @ 5cm/s | 1.05mV @ 5cm/s |
| Internal impedance: | 24Ω | 24Ω | 24Ω |
| Frequency response: | 20Hz–25kHz | 20Hz–30kHz | 20Hz–20kHz |
| Tracking force: | 2.4g | 2.4g | 2.4g |
| Compliance: | 12µm/mN | 12µm/mN | 12µm/mN |
| Stylus: | Super Fine Line | MicroRidge HP | 25µm spherical |
| Cantilever: | Aluminum | Sapphire | Aluminum |
| Weight: | 12g | 10g | 12g |
Specifications shown are EMT's published values for the full-coil versions.
Finding the right cartridge
A cartridge doesn’t work in isolation. Tonearm compatibility, phono-stage gain and loading, the records you play and the rest of the analog system all matter. Backbeat Audio can help you choose the right EMT for your turntable, install and align it, and make sure the cartridge and phono stage are working well together. Didn’t see the EMT cartridge you’re looking for? Let us know. Backbeat has access to the full EMT product line.