Rupert Neve Designs Newton Channelstrip

I tested one against an IAA and Shelford (before I sold it).

Firstly I tested matt@IAA 's 500 series preamp vs the Shelford, in short it was a tossup. Let me just say they don't sound a million miles aways from each other, the IAA is a bit more natural or "vintage" sounding whereas the Shelford is somewhat more on the clean & detailed side. They're both inductor EQ's and I prefer the Shelford here however the VCA on the IAA is far better than the bridge diode on the Shelford. Then you look at the price, $3K difference for something that really is just different I guess?

Now let's circle back to the Newton, yes I still preferred the VCA to the bridge diode of the Shelford however that's essentially where it ended. It's not that the Newton is a bad sounding channel, I don't think anything RND makes is anything less than excellent. However I came to the conclusion that the Newton is just too expensive for what it is, I'd rather have a rack of IAA's.