E-mu Emulator II+ 1985 Vintage Sampler with Expanded RAM & Extras

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"This listing is for one 1980s vintage E-mu Emulator II+ sampler in good cosmetic and fully functional condition. This is the + (Plus) model that adds a second memory bank so you can have two floppies loaded up and then switch between the sound sets on the fly. Item will ship with original owner's manual, a folder with 50+ disks, power cable, spare replacement buttons and a cleaning disk...

Here's a description of the EII models from the website formerly known as the Emulator Archives:

'The E-mu Systems Emulator II was by far the 'must-have' sampler in the mid- to late eighties.
Introduced in June of1984 it set new standards in the small world of samplers, and the E-mu Systems Emulator II (and it's bigger brothers; E-mu Systems Emulator II+ and E-mu Systems Emulator II+ HD) was the first sampler to include CDROM support, 24dB/oct analog lowpass filters with resonance and envelopes (as known from the analog synthesizers at that time) and the possibility to add a (very expensive) hard drive on which you can save your banks of samples and programs.

The E-mu Systems Emulator II series uses a lot of the technology invented for the E-mu Systems Emulator, but adds a bunch of new features.

It samples at 27.777 kHz and uses 8 bit sample technology which - through an advanced playback engine - replays at a 14 bit resolution.

It has a staggering 512kb of memory (the + models having 1mb) which allows for approx. 17 seconds of sampling time.

MIDI and SMPTE was also added and it has eight independent outputs and an RS422 port to enable e.g. remote control from an external computer - see the Sound Designer for Emulator II section below.

It also introduced a back-lit LCD making it easier to navigate the easy to use operating system.

All in all the E-mu Systems Emulator II was as impressive and breath-taking a release as the original E-mu Systems Emulator was three years earlier.

Three versions of the Emulator II were made:

Emulator II

The initial model was introduced in 1984 with 512 Kbytes of sample memory, a single floppy drive, and no hard disk. E-mu Systems contemplated a 256 Kbytes model, but it was never launched. As the price of RAM and hard disks reduced, further models were introduced at competitive prices (well for professional musicians !).

Emulator II+
The Plus model of the Emulator II has an additional 512 Kbytes of sample memory bank, which enables a separate set of sounds to be loaded in parallel to the first memory bank. You can switch between them, but you can not use both together, or have samples than span the two memory banks. It was launched in 1985.

Emulator II+HD
The last model of the EII range has a 20 MB hard disk in place of the second diskette drive. This enables 46 banks of sounds to be stored on a device that is much quicker than the usual diskette drive.

Options
The Emulator II and II+ could be ordered with one or two 5.25" diskette drives. Two drives made it much easier to copy diskettes, but a second drive cost an additional $650.

The Winchester Hard Disk upgrade was launched in 1985 for a staggering $3000.'"