Very pleased with the purchase but there are quality issues, which I'll deal with before the good points.
The first unit arrived with a loose screw rolling about inside and Thomann instructed me not to open the compressor but send it back. This was disappointing as I'd eagerly awaited the unit's arrival and postage to the UK isn't the fastest. It then took about a month to receive the replacement. Brexit's probably causing issues with UK-EU deliveries. The replacement works fine but the output knob is misaligned, which I'd read about happening to others in a forum. The input knob fell off after a short period. Both knob issues can be easily fixed with a screwdriver. Having an external power transformer is a slight annoyance. They build up the more kit I get.
The results are excellent regarding what the compressor's supposed to do. It sounds awesome and is more versatile than the average 1176. This is because it has clean input gain and dirty output. You crank the input for a later revision, clean 1176 sound or the output for an early revision, distorted sound. I was also tempted to get the Black Lion Audio Bluey and the Klark Teknik 76-kt to have as kit expansions but decided against them. I found I could beat the sound of the Bluey's demos by using eq and sometimes noise into the Lin76 and according to the 76-KT's manual, the attack and release times can't get as fast as the Lin76's. I did get the Black Lion Audio Seventeen, which is much cleaner and less vintage than the Lin76. It has more controls too and is a true expansion for me.
