[sdiy] Altec 1588s - what's the big deal?

[dj hohum]

As the cleaning up and sorting continues I find other things long
forgotten. I have a dozen or so altec 1588 transformer preamps. I see
these things seem to have something of a following. What's so great
about them? Are they useful in a diy sense, i.e., what kind of
projects might really benefit from of these. My sense is that they are
yet another overrated phenomenon.