Rupert Neve Designs 517 500 Series At the 2010 AES Convention, Rupert Neve Designs announced the company’s first foray into the 500 Series with the Portico 517 Pre/DI/Comp module. Based on the Portico 5017 Mobile Pre, the 517 provides world class, transformer-coupled preamp, compressor and DI circuitry, with Vari-phase, Silk and DI/mic blending capabilities for $950 U.S. list. As with other Portico Series modules, the 517 provides industry leading sonic performance with a versatile feature set capable of functioning in many different capacities. The same engineer could use a 517 as an inexpensive means to add new high-end analogue mic amplification, instrument amplification, vari-phase adjustment and compression to his or her studio while also utilizing the 517′s unique DI/preamp blending functionality. The Portico 517 is like a Swiss army knife for the lunchbox. For Rupert Neve Designs Marketing Director, Tristan Rhodes, the move into the 500 series makes perfect sense: “Engineers have been requesting that Rupert design modules for the 500 Series for years now, and with the 517 we’ve developed a module that really takes the format to its limits. To be able to offer a Rupert Neve Designs preamplifier, instrument amplifier and compressor with the same transformers as the 5017 in a 500 Series module is simply tremendous.” The Portico 517′s microphone and instrument amplifiers provide the sweet, musical response expected from a Rupert Neve design. Wi