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[trock]

I know the portico range etc is all from rupert etc. do these new Neve 8801 and 8802 devices have anything to do with him or his design?

and have you heard any of these new strips from Neve??

is there any correlation between NEVE and Rupert now??

sorry for the confusion

thanks

  http://www.gearslutz.com/board/showthread.php?t=84194&hi ghlight=8801

[Fletcher]

They want you to be confused... see many years ago a guy by the name of Rupert Neve started a company.  Sometime in the late 70's early 80's he sold that company.  Since then Siemens has owned that company, AMS has owned that company, and currently the same guy that owns the "SAE" schools owns that company.

That company is known as Neve

[trock]

wow, the only thing i can take from that muddle is that the portico range is the only real deal now.

i guess most of the other companies don't want you to know that Rupert isn't the one designing their stuff anymore

i ask also because some guy at sweetwater was saying how focusrite is actually Neve stuff??

ah, i knew you would straighten er set the record straight er whatever it is

thanks, i feel bad for rupert though.

[compasspnt]

One should not feel "bad" for Rupert Neve.

Marshall the Company was not associated with Jim Marshall for a long time.  It happens in business, when you put your own name on something.

The "real deal" was the original discrete transistor w/ transformers Neve branded equipment, the 73, 81, 84, the 80xx desks, etc.  None of the later designs for Focusrite or Amek approached the originals in "real dea" factor.



If I was forced to choose today between a new Portico and a new Neve branded "reissue" 1084, with money not an issue, I would still choose the Neve.

Sorry.

But I am sure that the Portico is great for what it is, just not original discrete transistor/transformer based.

[trock]

its a shame though when a classic, in any form, and in any business is mis represented after the original is gone

i know there is nothing one can do about it but they can certainly prey on the unsuspecting.

[Die BREMSSPUR]

But enough about christianity...

[Frob]

why should you feel sorry for Rupert? think of it, why pity a man who so many companies try to claim aliegance to?

[minister]

trock wrote on Tue, 10 October 2006 14:44

i ask also because some guy at sweetwater was saying how focusrite is actually Neve stuff??

that was your first mistake.  seriously, sweetwater?  like anybody knows anything there...except how to market like a completely out-of-hand aggreesive cheeseball!  jeez!  you so much as visit there site and within in minutes, there is an e-mail waiting for you...


the AIR studios have RN designed Focusrite stuff... the ISA 110 was a limited edition run that was inspired by the desing s of RN, and it is the only thing that really sounds good from focusrite.

Terry Manning, aka Compsspnt wrote

If I was forced to choose today between a new Portico and a new Neve branded "reissue" 1084, with money not an issue, I would still choose the Neve.

uh...they're both Neve, so you pick the real Neve?  the Neve and the Neve...

yes, no, ok...so you would pick the re-issue over the Rupert Neve Designs Portico.  i take it you tried their stuff?  also, is it fair?  $1400 for 2 channels versus $4300 for 1?  isn't that like crawdad's to king crab?

[compasspnt]

What I was saying was that I prefer the older DESIGN (as done by Rupert and friends originally, thence copied and sourced as accurately as they could do) over the (also good, but certainly different) NEWER design.

I was leaving out the cost factor.

When you have to spend money, things change.

[J.J. Blair]

If you want to feel bad for somebody, feel bad for Malcolm Toft.  The guy is responsible for some great consoles, and John Oram has everybody believing that HE is the "father of British EQ," and / or responsible for Trident's success.

And John, if you're reading this, please don't e-mail me again, trying to explain your side of the story.  

[minister]

well, you'd know better 'n me, terry.  

it seems like the new portico stuff is targeted specifically towards mid to upper level project studios and some full-time facilities... but not the super high end.  they skimped on all bunches of stuff, but made good sounding boxes.  i wonder if they felt that the $4k market is not where to go now...

anyway, blah, blah, blah...

[Andy Peters]

J.J. Blair wrote on Tue, 10 October 2006 16:37

If you want to feel bad for somebody, feel bad for Malcolm Toft.  The guy is responsible for some great consoles, and John Oram has everybody believing that HE is the "father of British EQ," and / or responsible for Trident's success.

Funny, I thought Peter Baxandall was the father of the British EQ.

-a

[trock]

i tried to get thru the whole malcolm toft/john oram thread on GS, or the one about the upcoming toft console etc that was some crazy reading. however it sounds like the new toft console may be a real winner, i won't ever need one but it sounds like he has some really good stuff on hand and coming out and good for him

in terms of feeling bad for Rupert, it was more that i see pictures (i have never met him)of a very statesmanlike, older figure who has done so much for the industry and now has to contend with his name being branded on inferior quality pieces or on things he had nothing to do with. so, that was all.

[hurricaneE]

I think it IS discrete transistor/transformer based.  Do I have that wrong?  Or did you just mean that it's not the original? -E

compasspnt wrote on Tue, 10 October 2006 16:41

But I am sure that the Portico is great for what it is, just not original discrete transistor/transformer based.

[compasspnt]

The intent here was not to put down the Portico equipment.

It seems to be quite good.

In fact, "Very high performance transformers have been developed over the years and we have returned to discrete single-sided circuits wherever possible."

What I was referring to is that in the ORIGINAL designs, certain things that might not even meet spec in the new designs just sounded good.

Those old transformers may not have been "very high performance," but the things they did to sounds have been universally  loved and admired by almost everyone using them.

The best was attempted with components then available.  Everyone love the musical result.

Today, the best possible is being attempted with today's components.  Many of those components are spec'd much better than the old ones.

The sounds are both good, but are somewhat different.

I'd love to have some of all of it.

I was just saying that, if I could only have one, and cost was ignored, I would prefer to have the original design than the new.

A simple preference.

Cost being a factor, the decision is much harder.

But I will say that almost all of the Focusrite (and yes, I have a pair of the almost-original 115's) and the Amek's did NOT sound as good as the original Neve's.