My interest is in continuity and replacement.

Then off-the-shelf boards aren't going to help you. In order to make a genuine replacement, it needs to be built the same way, using the same parts. You can't stuff a mini-Pentium motherboard into a DIN-sized chassis and call it an empeg.

It took a team of full-time developers a lot of time and effort to get the players manufactured in the first place. Sure, if someone else felt like funding the manufacturing effort, it could be done again. In fact, I think that if you were really serious about doing it, Hugo and Rob would be happy to put you in touch with the right people. They'd love to see their baby get a new lease on life. I just think that if you knew just how much hassle it is to make one (it's more than just soldering a couple of chips onto a board), you'd shy away from it.