More on the 'Neve' Mystique

[NewVista]

Ah, the Cachet, the Pedigree, the "Legendary Sound"..
all the elements that get audiophiles & recording industry magazines excited:

But did those who buy a console after 1975 know Rupert had "left the building"?

And why did new company have design engineers when they had paid so much for Neve designs?
Was it just the Brand that sells consoles?

Rupert's new company have him placed in picture doing design development.
But of what value would he be w/ no apparent formal engineering education?
And why, then, does this company have need of other design engineers?

[NewVista]

Check out all those transformers in signal path in latest "all Neve" mixer.
One way to achieve a 'euphonic sound' I guess (at what price phase integrity?).
But certainly copy-proof as you "must have" the Neve transformer (unavailable no doubt).
At one point claiming discrete OP amps, then single-ended (perhaps both)
And how much negative feedback? Isn't that a 'bad thing'?

Like the holy grail of audiophile Amps, the W.E.'86',(1934) - 3 Transformers & no feedback!
And impossible to clone because "only (pre-war) W.E. transformers will do"!
Heck, "only Western Electric 300B's will sound right" - not other 300B's -
Or even the ones from W.E.'s own reactivated assembly line!
(now closed again as audiophiles reject anything but those from old plant!)

[NewVista]

Unless some Japanese forensic researchers try to clone the Neve transformers..
Like they do with rare 1930s Pro Audio items:
ERPI.TA-4181a (1936) cloned by a number including G.I.P.-Labs version
- right down to metallurgy & microanalysis of orig cone formulation

Description translation:

"...Selected as the TA-4181A well-preserved very among them in us.
The dismantling carefully, and made ​​restoration strictly in advanced structural analysis, material analysis, measurement, listening.
It is also the work to feel the excitement and happiness at the same time is also very painful, but also are working to bring a number of difficulties.

For example, we piled dozens of the prototyping and listen alone restoration of cone paper.
Analyze precisely [down] to one one of the fibers, and to elucidate all of the up to the production method and concentration, type and impregnation material and mixing ratio of the constituent fibers, restoration and commercialization will have been made ​​for the first time.

Therefore, if we say the explanation dare the difference between their model and the TA-4181A of the original, I think it comes down to that ". Production time is different from '70 '.
In other words, it is a good state of preservation, aging 70 years that has advanced the original, which is come to continue to use in your environment.
I think the "digested" in the "aging", benefits Saigetsu of 70 years brings a lot indeed.
However, there are in fact also be fatigue and exhaustion proceeded violently that much if you flip side, a factor the need for repair is enhanced.
The first place of the existing unit is one that has continued long been used in harsh environments beyond comparison with home.
When you want, no matter how it get in the new state of initial production will not come true.
However, In addition to the original unit that has gone through the course of the '70, the current user is send a compliment maximum.
Is an enormously achievement of WE's, it is a form of audio as manufacturers aim of our company."

[NewVista]

Price for GIP-TA4181A : ¥945,000 (not bad)

[Sandy G]

I'm sorry, I guess I'm TOTALLY absolutely CLUELESS, but I have NO IDEA what you're talking about...

[snelson903]

ok,----its almost 50 degrees here today

[NewVista]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

I'm sorry, .. NO IDEA what you're talking about...

Sorry, this continues thread deviation on OB Van Saved as I thought NEVE deserved
separate speculative analysis under new topic.

[KentTeffeteller]

The OB (Outside Broadcast, remote van to us Yanks) had a Neve mixing console inside it handling audio duties. Which is how it is related to the thread, Sandy G. Some clarification here.

[Sandy G]

I thought he was talkin' about that gal on "Party of Five", Neve Whatshername...The one w/the widows' peak..She was also in "The Craft", IIRC..Hot stuff back then, but has fell off the radar of late...(grin)

[Dangler]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

I thought he was talkin' about that gal on "Party of Five", Neve Whatshername...The one w/the widows' peak..She was also in "The Craft", IIRC..Hot stuff back then, but has fell off the radar of late...(grin)

[ischmidt]

Dave Grohl (from Foo Fighters) has a documentary movie out called "Sound City". It's nominally about the SoCal studio of the same name which had a custom Neve console installed just in time to make a crazy amount of hit records between 1973 and 2011, but there is a very brief interview with Rupert Neve himself talking primarily about how he designed the transformers. I don't think you'll get anything out of the footage in terms of reverse-engineering the sound though

[NewVista]

Originally Posted by ischmidt

Rupert Neve himself talking primarily about how he designed the transformers.

Thanks, I must see this film.
The Neve craze seems to have achieved traction in the U.S.
So easy to understand him maintaining the momentum by coming here.

[NewVista]

Forget Mystique & subjective emotional buzz,
Industry insider in the know tells me that the best No-Nonsense state-of-the-art Performance
comes from MCI/Sony consoles - worth looking for.

I am studying their manuals to analyze the design approach/execution

[TV_Engineer]

MCI consoles are pretty standard through the line. They suffer in a few areas though. The Molex connectors used throughout the beasts received the smallest amount of solder possible to keep them on. I once assisted re-soldering all of the connectors in a MCI 24CH console. 2 experienced engineers soldering for 2 days... Whee.

Audio stuff is so bloody subjective. By example: there are people who believe that $7000 speaker "interconnects" are somehow better than 14 or 16ga. lamp cord. I can tell you, with first hand experience, that in double blind listening tests no human has EVER been able to hear any difference in speaker cables. Every professional recording studio that I have ever been in uses 14 or 16ga. zip cord for this. Period.
(End of rant)

As for Neve consoles being extra swarthy for recording... In my experience they sound fine, you have a great EQ section and nice mic preamps in them and the signal path is as good as it can be made in that type of device. Overall though, low noise, non-coloring, easy to use mixers are ALL good. Most recording engineers want the console to not color the signal. They want to do that with inboard (EQs, Compressors, etc) or outboard equipment (Reverb plates, Compressors, etc).