michjassir wrote: but on the acoustic u can hear to many distortion from the transformers.

REALLY??
I've never heard any distortion from the transformers, even from super clean sources such as piano and soprano...
Are you sure the distortion wasn't from somewhere else?

I have the 5012 and have never had any audilble distortion, so me thinks there is a bad file or some other reason for what you are hearing. It can be clean as a whistle or slightly warm depending on the the silk switch.

Regarding your 1073 question, the 5012 does not have the EQ feature found on the 1073. A more precise question to ask is, how does the 1073 compare to the 5012 when the EQ is disengaged on the 1073. Not too many people have done that comparison. I have heard them both and they are very similar but there is a little more "hang" to the sound of the 1073. The 5012 is a bit more precise but perhaps a little less enhancing.

With the EQ engaged on the 1073, things differ radically. The EQ section of the older Neve's is the real show of the module. If you add the EQ section of say the Portico 5033 to the 5012, you start to get into the zone of the 1073. But now you've invested about $3200 (used maybe a little less) on the Portico solution and that is in the price zone of the 1073. Hope that helps.

Regarding use on voices, I recently did some scratch vocals with the lowly SM57 mic. Just amazing results and it brought some new appreciation of what that mic can do with a really good preamp. I've also used it for bass guitar, acoustic and violin. No complaints on any of these.

I now own 2 Portico 5012's. I really like the pre's on pretty much everything.

I was not looking for a 1073 pre-amp when I bought these. I just wanted a solid pre-amp.

The silk function is fun for vocals and drums. I didn't like in out acu gtr though.

I am not sure what all the fuse was about with front panel changes. To me the feel of the pot is less important then the sound. I

have one unit with the original face plate and one with the new face plate- they sound identical.

This thing works well for almost anything. The transient response is tad slow for my earthworks mics, but they still sound good to my ears.