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.