Warm Audio WA76

I bought this because it was cheap. I didn't expect that this would be providing me with many reasons to sell my 2 vintage 1176s but it has. Simply put..my vintage units will be going on ebay as soon as my second WA76 arrives. They do everything as well and on some sources they sound more open than the originals. There is also a stereo linking kit available that will be useful for some people. It was very well packaged by Thomann and I have put the handling as 'good' for the very first time for a Thomann product because these are hand-made one at a time...so not really Thomann's fault that I had to wait longer than I wanted!

The quality is very good and the little 'splash of orange' looks well in the rack. The knobs had anti-scratch plastic on and it's little touches like this that impress me. The input know however was a bit stiff but easing it off a little bit from the housing has made it perfect. The knobs are indented for attack and release and this makes fine tuning a little easier.

It has all the bite and aggression of the original units but I wont have to worry about getting this serviced any time soon!

This will be in your top 3 'pound for pound purchases of the year.

This is more than just a good looking unit, that features the vintage styling of the original 1176 but also is a very affordable copy of that unit that is versatile, easy to use, and able to give great compression on bass, vocals, guitar and according to many reviews drums. According to a lot of reviews and comparisons, the WA76 does sound similar to the 1176. This I cant confirm however, never having owned the original.

I have read a lot of complaints about noise issues, which I think depends more on what is being fed into the WA76 however, my only issue with the unit is the GR dial and Output dial that in real life, look and feel not as high quality as the images may suggest. When adjusting these dials there is also a static noise, however it hasn't hindered anything, and according to forums, a lot of people had the same experience.

So in all, good unit for the price, I guess those who have the cash to splash would probably be better off getting higher quality gear, but I think to be honest as a beginner (Like me) or someone who wants a 1176 without wanting to jeopardize their marriage and mortgage, I think this is a good compromise.

good price quality ratio.
love the distortion on synths when you push it hard.

but...its cheap and you feel it.

Do not go on the hype that they make high quality
compressor with cheaper prices.
that does not exist.

Had the same experience with their pultec eq.

forget about stereo purposes if they do not come linked/matched from factory.
I had a pair and they behave very different.

Customer service from warm audio is a big disappointment.
They are very silly with silly ideas to solve you problem like;
"sell the one that have the problem and get a new one"
Really? i could not get there without your help.


So for me no more warm audio. You get what you pay for.

Anyway, got an Api 2500 and a Gyraf vari mu.

Problem solved.
Stay away unless you only want an ok colouring box.

I bought this unit in combination with the WA73 preamp and no matter what source i put trough it it sounds great.
You can use it subtlety and level the peaks of say a vocal or utterly destroy a source and smash it, for example a drum crush mic, and everything in between.

I have tried a lot of plugin versions of this compressor but non of them sound as good as the real thing, the plugin versions always seem to take away some of the top hi frequencies, this unit does not.

I especially like it on vocals because it is really fast and nicely takes away the peaks on my wildly dynamic vocal .

Oh and it looks awesome :-)

After thinking for a while about getting an analog 1176 compressor, I finally decided to try this product and it did not disappoint me. The quality is great and the unit gives the source material a great edgy and 'warm' sound that I immediately miss if I bypass the unit. Great for tracking or mixing alike, I tend to use it on kicks, snares, bass and vocals - great for adding pleasant analog saturation and compressing the signal for more punch and clarity. Certainly worth the price. I recommend using the 'send' function within your DAW to control the precise amount of signal going into the unit, because by merely using the input knob it might be difficult to get the nitty gritty details right as the knob operates in stepped amounts - just a slight piece of advice ;)

My experience wasn't the best at first because of 2 things:

1) There was a loud noise turning the input/output knobs. Not the usual "analog" whisper but very loud. Contacted the manufacturer directly (Chris) and he recon some units have had this issue, and if I was willing to receive and assemble a new board - no transformers tho :) - free of charge. I said yes.

2) At least 2 screws on the unit were stuck and had to be grinded off to access the interior, making the repair even worst.

OTHER THAN THAT! lol, unit sounds great. Love the sweet spot you can achieve on many things. Use it mainly on Kicks, Bass, Vocals. Love it and even after all the hassle still recommend it 100%.