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Instead of reviewing the Classic itselft, I'll try to descrive the differences between the various E4 models (i.e E64, E4X and E4XT, E6400). Personally I found it very confusing when I checked into buying an Emu sampler, to understand the differences between the models, because there ARE many differences. Some of the info brought here MAY BE WRONG so check out for further varification. This is a great site for the E4's with a lot of info:
http://www.emulatorarchive.com/Samplers/E4Overview/e4overview.html
I'll start with the Ultra models. All Ultra models are supposed to have a 6 times faster processor than the other E4's. This is felt well when loading up presets and doing calculation jobs like Beat Munging. Speaking of Beat Munging, the Ultra's are the only ones which supposed to have this feature. More - Ultra's can the IDE drives up to 18GB AS WELL AS SCSI drives. My E6400 Ultra has one IDE port and one SCSI port, so you can put in a 18GB IDE drive and a SCSI CDROM drive to read AKAI and EMU disks. BTW, on the Emu's, SCSI harddrives are limited to 9GB only.
As far as I know, all E6400 and E4X other than the TURBO's (suffix "T"), are 64 notes polyphony, upgradable to 128. Actually, THEY'RE NOT. Simply because the 128 polyphony costs about 800 POUNDS !!! So if you need more than 64 you should consider the E4XT, but take into consideration the slow CPU and older OS, and small capacity SCSI disk. Anyone who is into heavy MIDI sample sequencing sould really consider a 128 poly machine. 64 are easily eaten !!
EOS - The Emu operating system. All E4's can easily be upgraded to the latest os (last working one is 4.62 .There's 4.7 found on the net but it seems like it was a beta version which never has been released and actually ios problematic ans once you work with it the backward compatibility to the 4.62 and below is not there so DON'T USE IT). THE UPGRADE TO v3.00 AND ABOVE REQUIRES A ROM UPGRADE !!! Be warned. The E4X and E4XT comes with a 1MB OS ROM which only allows to upgrade to EOS v3.00 . The main noticable difference between v3 and v4 EOS is the compatiobility with AKAI S3000 samples. v4 can read them while v3 cannot (reads only S1000 and also having a few problems with doing it right). All E6400 if I'm not wrong have 2MB which allow the upgrade to v4 and up. (look at the site posted for further info regarding to the different EOS versions).
BUT !! The E4XT (Turbo) model is supposed to be equipped also with a Digital in/out porst and full 128 polyphony. At lease the "E4XT Hollywood Plus" model I cam accross.
So, this is in a nutshell. BTW, try to get the original Emu disks that are supplied with the E4's. There are about 12 or more of these and they feature GREAT SOUNDS. Particullary the "Vol 1 / Classic" and "World Instrument" disks.
All the E4's are GREAT SOUNDING and once you figure out how to make them do the job you need, they are really great machines. SO NEVER take any expansion into consideration because they are DARN EXPANSIVE !!!! Just make you're conclusion before getting a Emu sampler to figure out your needs and which of the models is the best for you.
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