Let me tell you how this whole thing started in my mind. I recently picked up a VMS42 preamp off ebay for $282. It's like a VMS52 except provides T12 power. I didn't need it, but it would be cool to try, so I put in a lowball bid and won.
Normally before I buy any new gear I listen to lots of samples from the archive. I try to objectively listen... if I don't like the flavor I hear, I probably shouldn't buy it. The VMS42 is such a rare box there are no samples. Then I started listening to "similar gear". I assumed VMS42, VMS52, VMS02ib, and VMS5 would be sonically near equivalent. After listening to dozens of samples on the archive my opinion was "I'm not enthused by a lot of these, I'll probably end up running my Littlebox and this will sit on the shelf." Then I mentally separated the sources from VMS5 and VMS52 (using full bodies) , and VMS02 (no bodies), and decided I liked the sound of the VMS5/VMS52, over the VMS02. That doesn't mean one is "better", it just means I prefer it. I also prefer vanilla ice cream and black coffee, and you may not. I listened to tapes made with Nbox, Lemosax, CMR's, etc and decided to some extent they all sounded a little different too. They all sound good, just perhaps a little different flavor, which is only to be expected because they are different hardware designed by different people. To me the VMS52 and bodies has the "fatness" I'm looking for, and some of the others don't. And of course I've heard lots of tapes with CMC bodies and various pres by Grace and Apogee, and those are what drew me to Schoeps in the first place. So I draw the conclusion the common link is the bodies. I might be drawing all the wrong conclusions, but right now that's my opinion.