Given a tossup between the Shared System or the Endorphins, I'm more drawn to the MakeNoise stuff. Endorphins is nice, and it's certainly very West Coast-centric, but I think it tends to be overpriced for what it is. On the other hand, the lowest-end Shared System is $1200 more than the Endorphins...but at the same time, it's more complex and capable, specifically designed for portability, and has room for internal expansion -- the layout's not fixed.

One other thing, too...the basic 'CV Bus' Shared System is already a holy terror in terms of functionality when compared with a lot of other prebuilts. Costs $3700...and actually, I think you wind up getting your money's worth and more besides from it. It's also something that has its origins in Alessandro Cortini's rig, so the musical track record you're concerned about already has some proof to it there.

[Time passes, nagging concern gets worked on]

HOT...damn! Check this out, instead of the format switcher box in the PCA bundle:
ModularGrid Rack
OK...now THIS is superior gear, dammit! Check it...

Top row contains a couple of attenuverters, then an entire setup to allow for four stompbox inserts...buffered mult for up to 1-4 division, then four Syinsi FX send/return tiles, paired with a 4-1 audio mixer.

Middle: format switcher heaven! Bananas to 3.5mm and also 1/4". In the middle, also...a 2hp 4-1 mixer, a switchable mult (either 2 four-way or 1 eight-way) and a gate/trigger diode OR combiner.

Bottom row...big surprise...mults and a pair of Syinsi scalers, to work with the dual inverter in the middle. Why? Well, with these, you can also perfectly integrate an MS-20 Mini into this whole mess! Bidirectional, too...there's a scaler and inverter for both a 'to' and 'from' function. Also, more attenuverters and a couple of att-offsets in case there's a need (invariably, there always is!) for some DC offset voltage for transposition, shifting modulation waveforms, etc etc.

All this fits in a Pulplogic Zissou LBZ54 for portability, self-powered. A bit spendy...but the idea here is that, since you're considering a real leap into patchables and cross-format connection, THIS is the permanent solution! It can function effectively as a crossconnection nexus, with the sort of utility bits you'd want right there.