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Polyphony is another reason, take a look at the Menu Guide to get all Infos. The sammichSID design is great and compact, you just can't buy it anymore because it is a design of a user named wilba and he didn't released the pcbs for open source as far as I know. But it is "nothing" more than some separate modules put in one mainboard.

that's the bit that's confused, each chip is 3 voice mono - so pairs are used to create stereo. I think it's unlikely you'll get two SID chips that sound identical no matter if they're from the same day in the same factory really, they were a bit variable to begin with and they're now 30-40 years old. 8580s are apparently a lot less varied than the 6581s though...... As long as they're in the same ballpark the differences just tend to make them sound wider (and pretty great). I don't think worrying about which year/factory they were produced in is too important (and will be difficult now anyway as the supply of them is not great!) Having said that I did try to pair mine based on the dates on them, so I get the inclination to do so!