Thales & Audiostone exhibited together with EMT. I already noticed the Thales tonearms something truly unique last year and in the meantime Mischa Huber has done a one up by developing the Pythagoras Turntable which a complete turntable build into a special rack (the name of the company Audiostone might give you a clue) together with the Thales arm.

It must be said the the Pythagoras is not just a normal drive build into a stone rack. It has dynamic speed adjustment but with a twist. Some users of other turntables with speed adjustment has complained that the long term speed would be irregular or even drift audibly. Micha Huber has done a clever on here. The speed can be adjusted under load i.e. wile plying the record. It can then be locked and play can be recommenced with the speed locked so no drift is possible but the actual speed is relevant to the performance under load.

It is obviously a very well thought through design which unfortunately does not come cheap at around 50K€ which might just limit the number of customers. I still consider it a superbly elegant piece and certainly wouldn't mind playing some LPs on it.
 

      

We mentioned EMT and and honestly, EMT is the real thing. Not only can you still get their professional Turntables with the super cartridge that made them known in audiophile circles. They also supply a THE PREAMPLIFIER for turntableenthusiasts or perhaps those that would use a turntable for the most serious purposes. It offers adjustments of almost anything that could influence LP reproduction in the electronic part of the chain.
 

      

One deck we keep on seeing and hearing in some of the best demo is the Bavarian (for those not immediately aware, this it is the area of Germany of which Munich is the main city) turntable DPS build by Willibald Bauer. This is deceptively simple looking turntable but beneath it very understated but utterly beautiful visual design it hides a number of very clever technical solutions to problems plaguing most turntables. We heard the DPS with the Tri-Planar Arm and it was a VERY impressive combination. All in all a highly respected product which we would love to try personally.