Say „Heritage Audio" and you think of a company that set out to recreate classic Neve modules more precisely than anyone else — down to measuring solder-trace width under a microscope. This Spanish company, based in Madrid, has spent nearly a decade specializing in recreating the circuit topology of classic British consoles from the 1970s, led by chief engineer Peter Rodriguez, known for an almost obsessive attention to detail. When Heritage Audio set out to build a 500-series version of the legendary 1073 preamp, rather than simplify the design onto a single board, it recreated the original five-card structure — exactly as it was built in the '70s, so servicing the module meant swapping out a single faulty card, just like the original. That level of fidelity even landed the company in a legal dispute with AMS Neve over the rights to the „1073" look and name — a dispute that speaks to just how close to the original Heritage Audio can get.
Beyond preamps (73 Jr, 73 Jr II) and EQs styled after the 1073/1081, the company has also faithfully recreated a piece of British compression history: the HA-609A is a recreation of Neve's diode-bridge circuit, technology developed before the VCA era as a more reliable alternative to the Pye compressors of the time, using the non-linearity of diodes as its control element. The Successor takes it a step further, pairing that same compressor circuit with a 1073 preamp in a single tracking-ready unit, preserving the characteristic, „imperfect" sound of the original — which here is the whole point, not a flaw.
At Wired Tunes we carry the full Heritage Audio lineup — from the accessible Elite series, to the classic 73 Jr and HA-609A, to the flagship Successor. It's the choice for anyone who wants that classic 1970s Neve sound without hunting down a six-figure vintage unit and living with the constant risk of it breaking down.
