wow... i ordered from that guy twice, the second sid just arrived in a safe box. however, i didn't have time to test it so i truly hope it's not defective.

sidenote: looks like all of his sids are "new old stock" and "last piece"...

I think both SID are cool, depending which kind of sound you want (even if they are very close). I prefer the 8580 though, it's more predicable.

If they were claiming it was NOS, there's a really good chance it was fake anyway. My bet is that you dodged a bullet.

The 8580 is absolutely great, the only choice if you're using your SID as more of a synth than a C64 emulator, IMHO.

Nah. Some of them were so badly bent that I wasn't sure they would stand up to the fiddling required to get them into shape, and I feared snapping them off would mean I wouldn't get a refund, so just decided to send it back.

did you straighten the legs and test it, though?

I'm genuinely a bit heartbroken that this chip has gotten so messed up. That's probably ridiculous.

On the flip side, I've went for an 8580R5 instead to replace it. I've always used 6581s, so will be an interesting change.

Yikes!

I recently got into the world of Eurorack, and when I discovered a module that uses the C64 SID for its voice(s), I knew I had to get it to accompany my actual C64 and TherapSID (I'm a sucker). The SWINSID option just doesn't cut it for me.

I ordered one (a 6581) from a seller on eBay that apparently had 'new old stock', and was '100% working'. They also said that they only had one left, despite the listing still being active after I bought that one. Eh, right.

Anyway, it turned up and I could see immediately that it wasn't packaged properly. The legs were sticking through the plastic anti-static bag, and were bent.

I'm going to get a refund, but still pretty furious that they didn't take the time to package it up properly, and have effectively destroyed the chip. I'd avoid the seller. Username: gatchamanf