The Emulator III was introduced after the discontinuation of the Emulator II in 1987, and was manufactured until 1990. A rack-mountable version was introduced in 1988.It featured 4 or 8 megabytes of memory, depending on the model, and it could store samples in 16-bit, 44 kHz stereo, which at the time, was equivalent to the most advanced, professional equipment available. The sound quality was also improved greatly over its predecessors, the Emulator I and II, with quieter outputs and more reliable filter chips. However, the Emulator III was considerably less popular than its predecessors, largely due to its price – at a time when manufacturers such as Akai, Ensoniq, and Casio offered samplers at less than $2,000, the Emulator III's use of high-quality components drove the price up to $12,695 for the 4 MB model, and $15,195 for the 8 MB model. E-mu had previously been able to sell their Emulators at around the $10,000 range because the only alternatives were the $30,000–200,000 (depending on which package you went for) Fairlight CMI, and the $75,000–500,000 NED Synclavier System. However, times had changed, the technology had become more and more accessible, and E-mu was not able to keep up.Although the Emulator III may not have been a success with working musicians, it did find a place on the records and in the studios of many prominent artists, including  of , ,  on 1989's album  and the members of , who used it on their successful 1990 release, .