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Swedish Chef

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 7, 2004
Messages
351
Location
London
From a Neve mail out leaflet:
Getting Straight on clones

In recent years some companoes have claimed to make Neve modules and this has led to much confusion about what a Neve really is.
These companies claim that their products sound as good as Neve's because thay use the Neve design and some of the original components, chiefly the St Ives (Carnhill) transformer. 'The Sound Is In The Iron' is a popular expression, so if it uses a St. Ives transformer, which was designed by Neve, it must be as good as the real thing, right? Well actually no, the transformers also have to comply with Neve's extremely stringent specifications. Neve frequently returns transformers to St. Ives because they do not meet the required standard.

When Neve reintroduced the 1073 and 1084s in October 2003, the existing transformers, sold to clone companies, did not satisfy the Neve standard. Neve had to provide additional information to St. Ives to correct the errors. Therefore, the clone companies making these claims obviously don't know what the Neve specification really is. And won't ever know, because the correct transformers are made exclusively for Neve
 
Maybe sales haven't been what they expected...I'm sure they're good but, well has anyone seen the price? Whew!!!!! they'd better be at that price!!
 
could be some
lightsaber2.gif
if any of their lot get over here... :green:
 
FUD! If they'll just sell their products with a realistic price, they'll make a killing.

If they price it just a few hundred dollars above the clones, and I'm sure people will scrape and save to get a real Neve.
 
Well, I think that the price NEVE is selling it is based on the vintage units.

I´ve seen unracked pair of 1073 going for $6000 dollars on Ebay once, so, how much is NEVE asking for the "original" clones?
 
You're paying for a brand name.

It's like buying DW drums, or having a home with a view of the San Juan mountains. You're paying for a mass-perceived value, not real intrinsic value.
 
[quote author="rafafredd"]Well, I think that the price NEVE is selling it is based on the vintage units.

I´ve seen unracked pair of 1073 going for $6000 dollars on Ebay once, so, how much is NEVE asking for the "original" clones?[/quote]

The new Neves from the reviews I've read on SOS Pub costs about $10,500 stereo.
 
Funny, Rhupert has been trying to get away from the Neve sound!
Engineers like progress. They rarely build something that tries to duplicate old stuff.
 
With the exception of "the father of British EQ". Because that's what Mr. Oram is. Toft wasn't behind any of the stuff that actually mattered or anything. Gotta love marketing departments.
 
I thought the idea of reissues was to allow people who can't afford the originals a chance to have something like it. AMS/Neve has been in trouble for a while and this just smells like desperation to me. Also, the new ones didn't impress me that much. Had a client with a rack of 8 1081 reissues that just kept crapping out. Everytime we moved his road case it was a gamble to see which ones passed signal. Also, the general metalwork seemed a little flimsy compared to the two originals we had. Plus, I don't care what anyone says, they're just not worth that much money. They get away with it because people are willing to pay that much.

Sorry about the rant :evil: .

Zach
 
Don't know if you saw the picture in Sound On Sound when they did a test on the "new"1081?
All transformers in the new one are made by Carnhill!
Comparing the building technics they should have open an original unit to see how it was donn!

And how can they claim that they're building units to the original specec when you can't get the old Mullard / Philips polysters anymore?

I use to speak with Carnhill once or twice in a month and they claim that the vtbxxxx serie are exactly the same as the ones that AMS gets!

I've seen that there are some discusions about the LO1166 too! Marinair or St'Ives! I've seen that Neve never used the St'Ives version and that the Marinair is the only "right" one!
If Neve never used the St'Ives version how can it be that Carnhill makes it under that part number then? Whan I asked Rodger about that he sáid wait a minut! then he came back to the phone and said" I have the original blueprints here from Marinair"!

And about the L10468! Didn't Rupert use an original Marinair stock transformer? T1454 or something like that and just put his own model number on it? Same thing with the L31267!

Didn't Ruper use year and date codes for his part no's? 1166 from 1966 make sence to me same thing with the 10468 from 1968? Was the L31267 & LO2567 from 1967 then?
Just A thought!
 
>Don't know if you saw the picture in Sound On Sound when they did a test on the "new"1081?
All transformers in the new one are made by Carnhill!

Yup, saw that... like these one I'm using on my Neves? :)

build4.jpg
 
A year ago there where still a LO1166 sticker on the vtb9049!
There are at least three different Carnhill versions of the LO1166!
vtb9049 = LO1166
vtb1148 = narrow board version
vtb1847? with breakout leads

Avedis at Brent Averill did some comparing tests for THD and the only "bigger" difference that he could measure was @ 15Hz / +25dB, the differense were 2%, but at 10Hz and 25Hz things were the same!

Quote Avedis!
"I can't imagine a real-world situation where anyone would be recording at +25dbu levels at 15Hz"
 
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