AML EZ1073 — Stereo Mic/Line Preamp Pair
Two genuine Neve 1073 reproductions built from the Audio Maintenance Limited EZ1073 kit — Carnhill iron, Grayhill switches, Collective Cases chassis.
Over the last several months I've been working on building a 1073 clone from Audio Maintenance Limited — the EZ1073 kit. The circuit is a faithful reproduction of the full Neve 1073 preamp: mic and line input transformers, switchable input impedance, the full EQ and high-pass filter (each switchable in and out of the circuit), 48V phantom, and an output trim pot. The kit uses Carnhill iron and Grayhill rotary switches — the parts that actually make a 1073 sound like a 1073 instead of just looking like one.
I wanted to build this one to get hands-on with the three-stage amplification design at the heart of the 1073. It's a unique circuit from Rupert Neve where each stage builds on the one before it — modest gain per stage rather than one big slam. That layering is a huge part of where the 1073's character lives: harmonic saturation across the discrete transistor stages combined with the input and output transformers. It's the reason this preamp is known for warmth and color, especially when you push the amp stages and dial the output trim back.
I built two units so I can run them as dual mono mic pres, a stereo pair for stereo sources, or as line-level coloration for stereo instruments and the mix bus. By default they're patched across the insert on my summing mixer to function as a stereo-bus saturation and EQ circuit on the way out.
Each PCB took about four hours to populate. The hardest part wasn't the soldering — it was organizing the parts. Components arrive in pairs (one set per channel), and getting everything sorted into populate-order is the real puzzle. AML does a great job labeling things; you just have to do the legwork to keep two builds straight.
Cases are the matching Collective Cases EZ1073 chassis — clean, properly grounded, and designed for these boards instead of being fought into a generic enclosure.
The circuit sounds amazing. Really glad to add this pair to the arsenal, and the cases look great too. Sound samples coming soon.
One small grump: $120 in tariffs to receive the parts since they shipped from the UK. The 1073 sound is worth it; the surprise customs invoice is less so.