Introduced over half a century ago, plate reverbs have been a fixture of recorded music ever since. Used most prominently in the ‘60s & 70s by pioneering bands, including the Beatles and Pink Floyd, Abbey Road Studios’ original reverb plates—four EMT 140 units—were first installed in 1957 to complement the fixed reverberation times of the studios’ echo chambers. These beautiful-sounding plates, with a variable reverb time of up to six seconds, were then tweaked to perfection by Abbey Road's technical engineers.

To keep noise to a minimum, EMI's Central Research Laboratories designed unique hybrid solid-state drive amps for Plates A, B and C. Plate D remained fully valve-powered on both drive and output stages, allowing a versatile array of sonic characteristics, from warm and dark to lush and smooth.