I heard somewhere that its voiced somewhat differently so may be better to suit the needs of general Studio use.
As for whether or not the Filter in 500 format turned a profit? I'm guessing that people who weren't quite sure may snatch this up and subsequently become interested in the Filter in this format. Obviously, no room on the panel for the LFO section controls but good that they plan on addressing it with plug ins via midi. I don't have much in the way of direct experience with 500 but this should set the bar quite high.
Not sure how many will agree with me but I can see why this might cost more. The 104M is already on the high end of the guitar pedal market and people are buying them. Product development costs, integration with 500 chassis has cost, tooling up the assembly line, etc. all add to that.
I think the 104M board WILL physically fit within a 500 format, but in MoogerFooger format, the controls are soldered directly to the board (see pic below) so Moog will need some other way to interface (possibly one of the header rows or unused connector solder points on the board. There are literally dozens of unpopulated component points (for SMD) on the 104M board, so who knows what they had in mind or what else is in store.
One thing is for sure, if indeed, the cache of BBD chips is finite, it's going to go faster than if they had not released a 500 series delay so if you want a 104M, don't wait too long.
IMG_2550.jpeg