Hello D. Toner,
EAB belonged to the long list of german companies that started after the war with high quality Cinema/Studio and Broadcast equipment. The console series as you refer to is a none IRT speced line, build for mobile TV studios. There were several different versions made, all input modules were built around the E282CC tube (very hard to find and expensive), the master section is related to the V41 with two EF806s tubes, x-formers are identical to the V4x series, mixing and routing is passive (changed that over to active modules in Mikes monster)
Mikes project was aimed to get a EMI style console, so everything was changed, all x-former modified/rewound, etc.
If you do not have a qualified tech that can keep the board up and running, it is a pain in the rear, rebuilding and modifying like Mikes is very priciy, so buying a used one for dayly recording is quite a mess.
The colored sound of all used once is due to old tubes, components, etc. Every x-former on Mikes board came with leaky/broken x-former, the entire PVC wire and some silk insulated flaked away, quite a nightmare...
Passing signal does mean studio useableThe end result was quite stunning, for more info check out
http://www.tab-funkenwerk.com/RE85.htmlHope that helps you