pete wrote:

And so now I'm thinking that I prefer that big fat vacuum tube sound
over what seems to me the much "cleaner" sound of the Neve...

Unless, as you're saying, the preamp is not really the factor that
makes the difference.

There's a whole console after that preamp thing, and it is subject to
use by humans who can drive it various ways. Gain staging and routing
comes to mind as points of operation where sound can be changed. Maybe
you should just go where there are lots of different preamps and drive
soem of them until you appreciate what they do or do not do for you.

You can put the same rig in different hands and wind up with completely
different sounding records.

--
ha