I agree. I was on another site where we were uploading samples of various owners 808s/808 clones and the results were pretty conclusive that once you match for level and settings you would never know if it was an 808 or a clone. The Yocto is supposed to be as close as possible in design, but does substitute some unavailable parts for modern equivalents. Ive heard a few different Yoctos, and they ranged from dead ringer to way out of adjustment, to unreliable and difficult to build correctly. The fact that it is a kit makes it very difficult to create repeatable results. There are a few other clones out there that I was less impressed with- ACIDLAB MIAMI is in the ballpark but examples Ive heard are not as close as I would hope.
For me, Im most interested in the clap, ch, oh, and cy sounds. Those are the most unique sounding to me among analog drum sounds. The hi hat and cymbal sounds are remarkably complex and everything else Ive heard sounds too much like a metallic pulse followed by white/pink noise. The 808 is not necessarily realistic sounding but it is very cool sounding to my ears. The bass drum, which is mainly what made the 808 so popular in the first place, is now pretty easily duplicated or sampled with other synthesis types, but the 808 kick is unique in that it is more a (near)self oscillating filter controlled by an envelope than a pulse followed by sine wave that other analog kicks use. This definitely contributes to its less static, more bouncy kick drum sound, especially at longer decay settings. Its pretty cool that you can program a pattern and on the first pass, subsequent kicks will add to each other, and then the next time around, they cancel each other. This combined with accent can create some very live feeling patterns, and this is a very underrated feature of the 808.
Especially the voicing board schematics is simpler than the 808 one. Interestingly they used a shift register for noise while cymbals are still made using dissonant oscillators with cmos gates. The schematic though is much easier to read and understand.
That drum machine sounded close enough to the 808 to gain its share of popularity when a couple decades after that sound became mainstream, and of course I was stupid enough to sell mine for cheap just before that moment.
For me, Im most interested in the clap, ch, oh, and cy sounds. Those are the most unique sounding to me among analog drum sounds. The hi hat and cymbal sounds are remarkably complex and everything else Ive heard sounds too much like a metallic pulse followed by white/pink noise. The 808 is not necessarily realistic sounding but it is very cool sounding to my ears. The bass drum, which is mainly what made the 808 so popular in the first place, is now pretty easily duplicated or sampled with other synthesis types, but the 808 kick is unique in that it is more a (near)self oscillating filter controlled by an envelope than a pulse followed by sine wave that other analog kicks use. This definitely contributes to its less static, more bouncy kick drum sound, especially at longer decay settings. Its pretty cool that you can program a pattern and on the first pass, subsequent kicks will add to each other, and then the next time around, they cancel each other. This combined with accent can create some very live feeling patterns, and this is a very underrated feature of the 808.