The ever so famous like an extremely talented and popular shoegaze band.

Meaning maybe you’ve never heard of it, but the ones who have love it and are die hard fans. With a smooth dreamy sound, It’ll have you in a dream space of classic opto LA-2A style compression. Closer to the ideal LA-2A made by Teletronix than the much more expensive modern UA reissue, this is not a sleeper, maybe just kept within the inner circles of major studios. This particular unit was owned by the lead of Heart during the mid 90’s and eventually made its way into my hands.

I’m an engineer having worked on grammy winning albums and out of many major studios, so it has passed hands along the people who know not only what a good piece of analog hardware should sound like, but also know how to care for and maintain their gear. This isn’t that Avalon you thought of buying at 1/3rd retail from a failed rap studio that had no idea why they bought it, how to treat it, or even use it.

This ADL 1000 has never seen smoke, but it’ll still get you high … praise and respect from the people in the industry who matter.

Anyway,

This one is fully functional, it has had some of the tubes replaced with an intentional adjustment of the sidechain compression tube so that it sags a hair more than a stock ADL, thus slowing down the compression circuit to match the LA-2A more. i’ll grab a pic of the tube soon, its a NOS RCA I believe so it’s a strong flavored vibe. Here’s the thing… the gain input is so powerful in this thing, you can technically skip a preamp and run your mic right into it (probably not a 57, but a mic with a lot of output could go right in and the tone would be quite different due to the impedance change as you hot rod your setup the way you want.

Written in a more engineer language:

The Anthony DeMaria Labs ADL 1000 is basically an all-tube, transformer-balanced mono opto compressor/limiter built from the LA-2A family tree, but it is not a straight LA-2A clone. Hand-matched optical attenuator, custom input/output transformers, and 2×12AX7A, 12BH7A, 6AQ5A; no IC audio path.  No IC’s to complicate the bandwidth, speed, or phase linearity of the circuit.

ADL’s manual says compression progressively increases over the first 10 dB of input rise, after which the circuit behaves as a limiter and essentially prevents further output rise.

10 µs attack is radically quicker on paper than the timing usually attached to an LA-2A. That’s a VCA / FET territory speed, but the behavior is different because opto cells work off the literal brightening and dimming of a light in the circuit. Unlike Audiophiles, us engineers know what’s on paper isnt treated like gospel… our ears are the boss.

Recovery is opto/program-dependent: about 70 ms to 50% recovery. That’s why we tweaked it a hair… not much, just to kind of merge the more agressive natural state and the classic action you’re used to.

Published ADL 1000 specs:

• Frequency response: 15 Hz–30 kHz, ±0.5 dB
• Clip level: +22 dB as ADL prints it; the page does not specify dBu
• Gain: 40 dB ±1 dB
• Maximum gain reduction: 40 dB
• Attack: 10 µs
• Release: ~70 ms to 50% recovery; 0.5–4 sec to 100%, program dependent
• Input/output: 600 Ω balanced XLR
• Noise: −80 dB
• Tubes: 2× 12AX7A, 1× 12BH7A, 1× 6AQ5A
• 2U, mono
• Custom input/output audio transformers
• Hand-matched optical attenuator
• Stereo-link ¼-inch jack on the rear.  

I had two. I had a buddy who had none. He was in love as he was just starting the journey of hearing the power of analog gear, and I’m half retired … so I felt it had to go to someone who will gain the wisdom… it had to be passed on, as this one does as well. I’m simply more of a home family man with racks of gear like expensive wallpaper than thr studio hustler I once was.

I ship fast , UPS, insured , and I’m open to reasonable offers.

I love talking shop and I stick by the equipment I sell and if needed, maintain contact with anyone who needs help finding their settings etc. it’s pretty simple box… you plug line level in, you turn it up, you compress it smoothly, and that‘s it. it doesn't waste time w the nonsense youtube is probably selling you on right now.

I like a little humor in my listings … I have over 600 transactions and I’m always willing to work with people not only on price, but helping them get the most out of their gear. If you want to know about that, reach me at upperlevelmusic at gmail

I teach audio at the local college and I’ve built gear, taken gear aoart, and I’m super ADHD so you know I’ve learned Anrhony D labs whole history and what he eats for breakfast before working in his many fantastic builds of some amazing gear.

Happy to go on, If you need a cable or two, I custom build cables too… they spec higher than Mogami, and are Canare twisted pair with neutrik connectors. 65$ value for two 10’ers. but i’ll toss in two on the house. if you need a different connection in the other end, just let me know. If you want me to tune the vibe of the unit , i can do that too, but I always recommend to hear it before you start tinkering.

I’m a family man now. Some gear has to go… I’m pretty sure I won’t get that Grammy, and tbh, I don’t really listen to the type of music to win one much. Well. no.. I listen all the time.. for work and to study. I couldn’t work on my favorite bands music… I could never listen to it as a fan after that. But a fan of music I am. and I’m a fan of this compressor / limiter as well. (more so than the LA2A, but that’s not to sell you on jt, it’s just considered blasphemy to tall i’ll of the LA2A.. but I personally think it doesn’t lock in like this one.

that’s my rant. I may sound jokey here, but ‘m well trained and professional in the studio. I was born in it, got custom molded IEMs in it. By the time I saw the opto-cell light, it was vibing with me hard. … . hit me up about a reasonable offer and free accesories etc. Youre the buyer you should feel in control… do you feel.. in control?

. Chexk my other listings , there will be more.

cheers thank you and so on.