WARM AUDIO WA273-EQ Dual Channel Strip

Every time you see a review comparing a Neve clone to a vintage 1073, the reviewers typically give a similar disclaimer. It goes something along the lines of having used, hired, borrowed, or stolen a number of vintage 1073s over the years, and no two sounding the same.

To try and dodge that issue, we hired a pair of vintage 1073s from Kaj Dalstrom at Sing Sing. Sure, these two came from the same generation, but having survived almost 50 years, they undoubtedly have a completely different service history.

Nonetheless, these were a pair of well-preserved, studio-bound, looked-after vintage 1073s. And they proved themselves to be fairly well matched.

In the other corner we had the Warm Audio WA273-EQ. It’s basically two channels of 1073 clone stacked into a 2U housing.

HONING THE CLONE

Warm Audio makes a lot of claims regarding the authenticity of its reproduction. Firstly, that it has commissioned custom transformers from Carnhill that are supposedly faithful reproductions of the early transformers (presumably the first Marinair 10468 input transformers). Your level of care probably depends on how much of the folklore surrounding these transformers you’ve engaged with and whether you believe Carnhill’s VTB9045