Yes girl, yes!!! Yeah man the Tonelux stuff was designed by Paul Wolff, formerly of API. He brought a lot of the biggest API stuff to market like the 512, 550, consoles and all.
Suffice to say, the pre's are VERY 512 inspired, but per my call with Tonelux, they have a less hairy top end when pushed and they developed their own op amps and transformers.
I really do want to stop dicking about and committing to some good tones going in and not trying to fix after the fact.
Yeah man!
I looked at the SCA stuff years ago and it seems to be well regarded. I couldn't arse about with cheap stuff for the chassis. The Rupert Neve got a shit ton of stellar reviews, especially in regard to noise which can be dicey when the power is in the unit and not separate.
Looking at not breaking the bank, the Tonelux stuff was also really highly recommended. About the same price as the WA/GAP stuff but from guys I know that actually make money doing this, unlike me, they said stay away and go with the Toneluix stuff.