Rupert Neve please

So, I've been mindlessly (and heartlessly) shopping for a new board. I've been using a shitty version of the Korg D3200 lined through Cakewalk and I've been meaning to switch myself over to something more lively. First off, this isn't about DAW vs AWS shit, I don't really like DAW stuff but it's a space saver, so I throw everything through one of those Apogee things everyone has and mix down in Cakewalk (or if we're at Maxi's place, we'll mix down on Logic). Anyway, long story short, I'll be switching over to RADAR soon enough. Unless I can convince Lauren to do all my sound engineering stuff for me, then we might stick it out with PT since she supposedly knows that (yay FIDM).

Anyway,

So, I was ebaying (duh, who buys music equipment new anymore?) and came across this weird 10 track neve board for $3000. Since then, I've been trying to find me either an 8 or a 16 track Neve (or Amek) console for some time now. So far, people have been trying to upsell me an Amek 9098i... it seems quite decent, but I don't know how "Neve'd" out it really is. The price I got on a used one (this model is fairly new too) was $20k, so that didn't work out too well. I'm looking at around $6k. At most. Preferably less.

An Amek BCIII was selling for a little less than $4k, but was a little too modded out for my taste. There was an Amek Einstein 24 track was selling for $4k I think as well... too bad I have no room for 24 tracks of Amek glory. :(

There is always an Otari MX70. I don't think that 1/4" tape has a FireWire out though. :D

Anyway, it seems that the popularity of a 16 track recorder is going out of style. Maybe people are a/d'ing way faster than enjoying the taste of your board. Fucking DAW shit... ugh. What happened to the glory when you maxed out all 36 tracks and had to move to Room B to finish one song? :(:(:(:(

So if you want to make me a happy early birthday/Christmas, just buy this for me:
http://vintageking.com/New-Brands/Neve-AMS/Neve-Genesys-Recording-Console