I had a look at all the proposals here.
Conclusion for me is, I'd like to stay away from 500 series for the time being. Just trying to avoid ADD acting up for another never-ending hobby buying blitz. Goal of this is to build familiar circuits, entice people to come hang out in my studio when covid ends (how else does one make friends but telling them you have a Fairchild compressor?) and have some big knobs to twiddle around that make everything sound better.
There seem to be 2 avenues - PCB and P2P.
A) The PCB route actually seems the more difficult and expensive option, and unless getting a kit, you have to have everything made, including the chassis. Bonus is you can build on existing designs i.e. LA2A from Drip comes as a stereo PCB.
B) There's the Turret Board option from Analog Vibes. Your given the chassis and a BOM to source all the parts. Various options are also presented for parts to suit budget or sonic preference. Big plus for clean and clear design of guides and manuals. Easy to follow along. Cheaper than PCB options, but more traditional. Kits are sometimes offered as part of limited time deals for relatively reasonable prices.
I'm leaning to the latter option for a few reasons.
1) Overall, seems to be cheaper option. On account of the premade chassis and lack of extra bells and whistles.
2) Turret assembly might segway into amp building
3) Guides are more clear and idiot proof, which is necessary for dunces like me
4) No Chassis construction/machine drilling nonsense. I already hate making holes for pedal enclosures. Having someone do it for me would also raise the cost enormously. So, I'm content with chassis option when available.
Both main options seem to offer excellent support and build docs so it might come down to individual preference for others. For me, neat Graphic design layout and lower budget were deciding factors.
The big one I'm interested in that will be hard to find is a pair of 1084 pre/Eqs. For those that don't know, They are basically suped up 1073s with following additions:
1) dual concentric Variable hi shelf (instead of fixed 12k)
2) Mid range has Q peak goes from -18 to -12 with additional button
3) Extra lo pass filter on concentric pot shared with hi pass filter
4) There's even a slightly more programmable version made by BAE called the
1028 which has a bigger mid range sweep that overlaps with the hi and lo shelves.
1073 should be a fairly easy project to find, but I don't know enough to know if they could be easily modified to include the above-mentioned additions or if they require a circuit redesign (it should be fairly simple from my limited knowledge but then again, maybe not?). I have found someone who makes seasonal sales for 1084 PCBs but it's just for the EQ. So I would have to make the DI/Preamps in an other module I think.
I did find a AMS Neve Manual with schematics for 1073 and 1084 modules which are purportedly identical to the bigger 19" rackmount units. If anyone with any sense can see how the two differ and how the additions to a 1073 would impact circuit design or modifying an existing PCB.
Here is a DIY 1073 mic pre EQ build doc with schematic for reference if anyone is interested. I'm typing this all out fast during my break so if something looks wrongly worded, let me know I will try to make it clearer.
