EMS 1550
The name “EMS 1550” points at two different things, and this page tries to keep them straight. Electronic Music Studios (London), well known for the VCS 3 and the Synthi line, never made a model called the 1550. The “EMS 1550” that does exist is a different animal: a heavyweight stereo multiplex receiver built by GRANDPRIX, not by EMS London.
What we know about the GRANDPRIX EMS-1550 comes almost entirely from its service manual, filed in 1982. It's a big machine: 36.9 kg, 560 mm wide, with a claimed continuous power output of 100 watts per channel into 8 ohms and music power rated at 200W + 200W. The tuner section covers FM (87.5-108 MHz) and AM (525-1605 kHz), with IHF sensitivity of 1.8 µV on FM. The amplifier is direct-coupled OCL. Harmonic distortion is listed at 0.05% at 100W, frequency response 10 Hz - 45 kHz ±1 dB, and damping factor greater than 40. Features include a four-gang tuning capacitor, IC FM detection, automatic IC muting, a subsonic filter at 15 Hz (12 dB/oct), a built-in 400 Hz / 1 kHz test tone oscillator for balance adjustment, and connections for two tape decks with dubbing capability. Inputs include phono (2.5 mV sensitivity, 70 dB S/N) and aux/tape (150 mV, 90 dB S/N). The manual's own language calls it “an outstanding component in design and performance rendering the finest hi-fidelity reproduction.”
The model number “1550” turns up in other places too. In Polyphony (August 1984, p.31), Sound Strategy offered a “*1550” signal processing card. It was a $19.95 circuit described as an “aural exciter” that analyzed and amplified upper harmonics. In Communications-Technology (December 1993, p.40), Texscan advertised a “TEMS-1550” external modulation system for fiber-optic transmission, touting its chirpless Mach-Zehnder circuitry. None of these is the same product.
So which one is the “EMS 1550”? The GRANDPRIX unit is the only device the Archive has found that carries an “EMS-1550” badge — and it is not a synthesizer. If you have documentation linking EMS London to this model, a photograph of an actual unit, or evidence of a synthesizer by that number, the Archive would welcome a contribution. For now, this page marks the honest truth: the record is thin, and the name is shared.
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