which neve clone mic pre

So I can't afford the real deal but am looking into:

Amek 9098
Vintech X73i
Vintech 1272
Great River NV

Any suggestion?

toss up between vintech 1272 and x73i IMO..

cant say how faithful they are tho..
all about the real 1081s tho u cant go wrong lollol


maybe look into a real telefunken (or whatever) over imitation neves i dunno... thats my 2c
what u recording mainly?

Check out the Amek. They use it at the radio station where i have a program. It sound really great and warm trough the genelec's they have so...

Lots of choices.
The Focusrite red series are the most versatile IMO. A great on everything sort of mic pre. RED1 = quad ~ $1800 ; RED8 = pair $1400. Dpending on what other mic pres you own, I'd start here.
The Great River MP is a very different sounding pre. Much "bigger" sounding, but also far more colored. A great mic pre, but I wouldnt think you could stack many tracks using this pre alone. Would be a nice choice for one or two big sounds on a cut, but not every track...
Vinitech 1272 is a nice pre as well. Big and colored like the great river, but a bit less of each. Not as "lively".
Then for closer to real neve's, you can get 1272's or 1081's etc via Chandler or Brent Averill.

Much depends on what else is in your arsenal, and how you intend to use the new pre.
If you are gonna use it much, get a focusrite RED.
If you're gonna use it sparingly and just want a bomb, get the great river..
my2c.

Ah ha! Thanks so much for the replies! Some people aren't that impressed by focusrite preamps but I've heard of more than one pro studio starting with the red during a recording session and then maybe moving to a different pre if they want to change the sound up.

Theassfat...;
You've got some good response here. If you need more you should hop over to the forums at:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&l ... .audio.pro

http://www.tapeop.com/

http://gearslutz.com/board/index.php3

http://recpit.prosoundweb.com/

That will give you serious info for your decision.


Peace.