> BUT! My 6581R3 also does not sound like my other 6581R3, there's not really any "one true" sound for the SID, for better or worse. Might just be old age? At

> BUT! My 6581R3 also does not sound like my other 6581R3, there's not really any "one true" sound for the SID, for better or worse. Might just be old age? At some point, IC's may be degraded to a point where few (if any) work exactly like original part when it was new. And thus also differ between specimens. At some point, original parts may become unreliable / quirky / glitchy enough that picking some kind of re-implementation (rather than original) as the "gold standard" is the only way forward. Not a big issue for 'pure' digital parts like CPUs, glue logic etc. But (partly) analog IC's like sound or video chips... different story.