LOL.. depends on whom you ask. There's no doubt that those older Neve 1073 and 1081 pre's and EQ's are widely regarded, and highly collectable.
Would I spend that kind of money on 2 EQ's? No.

Mark Birkett, post: 447307, member: 50365 wrote: Now, call me old fashioned, or tight fisted, but is paying nearly £12,000 for a NEVE eq just a tad silly?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-Vintage-NEVE-1073-Mic-Line-Preamp-Equaliser-EQ-Modules-26755/192004400881?_trksid=p2054502.c100227.m3827&_trkparms=aid=111001&algo=REC.SEED&ao=1&asc=20160908103841&meid=5415a5d23f2241c2975f1d47d2e7cec4&pid=100227&rk=1&rkt=14&sd=192004400881

I agree with you Mark.
We can get this brand new : https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/5052VRack

If only we were talking about mastering eq..
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MPMaster

Personally, (with the exception of Pulse Techniques Mastering Pultecs) I think analog mastering EQ's are a complete waste of money. Digital audio is miles ahead and thousands of dollars cheaper.

That being said, I think if you are using cheaper converters (but then you shouldn't be mastering ;)) analog EQ's with "filters" like the Dangerous BAX, located at the end of the analog chain (right before the AD capture) are helpful in taming down overly hyped 20k + freq on mixes that where produced using bad converters as well. BAX LPF filters help converters deal with those freqs allowing a better capture.
But, that is also less of an attribute because AD conversion is much better than the past crop of converters as well. Most people willing to pay for that kind of mastering, also aren't hyping the crap out of their mixes as well.

Honestly, I can't think of any one piece of gear that I would spend that kind of money on anymore.

There's no mixing desk, no mic, no limiter, no conversion system in the world that I would drop 12k on for one piece... not anymore, in a day and age where the majority of music listeners are doing so with 128kbps MP3 files played through $6 dollar earbuds - or worse, through the speaker on their phone; and "clients" who feel that $20 per hour in the studio is way too expensive. ;)

;)

DonnyThompson, post: 447524, member: 46114 wrote: Honestly, I can't think of any one piece of gear that I would spend that kind of money on anymore.

I agree.

I think gear this expensive is less about the sonics and all about collectors stuff for the people who still believe it's actually something special. Like buying an old car.

audiokid, post: 447526, member: 1 wrote: less about the sonics and all about collectors stuff for the people who still believe it's actually something special. Like buying an old car.

Mark Birkett, post: 447307, member: 50365 wrote: is paying nearly £12,000 for a NEVE eq just a tad silly?

There was a time when I would have ( and in fact did ) spend that kind of money - and even more than that - on a single piece of gear. In the 80's and into the early 90's, mid-level consoles ( Neotek, A&H, Tac, ) started at that price range.

But I wouldn't spend that kind of money on just one ( or even two) pieces anymore.

The "average" music fan isn't going to hear a 12 thousand dollar pre amp, or a 12 thousand dollar microphone, or for that matter, even a $5k conversion system.

Now, we are different - we of the dog-eared, critical listening tribe of audio cats who can hear a mouse fart in a wind storm half a mile away -LOL - we are critical listeners, and we listen this way because we can't help it.
We've spent the bulk of our lives honing our ears to do so.

But does the common music consumer hear those things that we do? And I mean really hear the way we do? No. Sorry, but that's the truth. They really don't.
Would they care if they could listen that way? Probably not.
Usually, if they can hear the vocal and feel the beat, then to them that's the ball game... it's pretty much the criteria for a good song.

We are curse and blessed at the same time. We are blessed because we hear things others cannot. Subtle nuances, esoteric textures... we can and do hear those things. It makes us better at what we do, because in caring about those things, we are laying down our own form of "quality control". By the same tokes, we are also cursed, for the exact same reason. We've spent nearly our entire lives caring about these things in a mix. We can't really help it, it's just second nature to us.

But we have to remember - especially in this day and age of degraded sonics on the most popular playback systems - that most people cannot hear these things.
We have to remember that we're not mixing for other audio engineers - or to rephrase that - only other audio engineers and audiophiles.

Yet, we continue, we keep on striving for great sound. But, I can't help but to often wonder anymore, if continuing to do so isn't perhaps a grand waste of time...(?)
And man, I hate saying that. It goes against everything I've believed in for 37 years now.

But... is it really worth it for us to sweat the details that only we can hear in a recording / mix, if so very few can hear and appreciate the results of our skill and dedication?

I'm sure there are still a few audiophiles hanging around out there, those who listen to both the music and the sonics, who love to listen to hi-fidelity recordings, and who spend a lot of money on their own sound systems to insure that they are getting as close to "the studio listening experience" as possible... but I think they are a rare breed anymore. There were those 'philes who bought Steely Dan's Aja' and FM albums ( and other albums, like Dire Strait's Brothers In Arms, Sting's Dream Of The Blue Turtles, Marillion's Misplaced Childhood, Peter Gabriel's So and Secret World ) even if they weren't necessarily fans of the music, but because the sonics on those records was so incredible... because they were also fans of fidelity.

These people are certainly not as prevalent as they used to be, and not even close to the number of people now who download ( or rip from YouTube) and listen to music that has been file-compressed down to 128kbps, through $8 Dollar Store earbuds... or even worse, through the speaker on their phones.

It's left me wondering for a while now... what are we doin' ? :confused:

-d.

someone who already has a Neve console and needs a couple more channels of eq for it (or spares) is the target buyer for these.

Kurt Foster, post: 447538, member: 7836 wrote: someone who already has a Neve console and needs a couple more channels of eq for it (or spares) is the target buyer for these.

Yup, and I would wager that it's more than likely that they need spares or replacements. Consoles, especially of that caliber, are NOT cheap to maintain, and they do need maintenance. It's not a question of if, but a promise of "when".

It's still a boat-load of cash, though. Of course, if we're talking in the grand scheme of things, considering that the console was probably originally purchased for 100 G's ( or even more), then the price of those two modules is a pittance. LOL