Ronald Meij Maker · 1 d ago
Twenty modules, and one honest line each about what they are. Before the list, four things. Prices are what a European shop was asking on 14 September 2026, including VAT unless it says otherwise, and they move, so read them as a bracket and not a quote. Links go to the maker first and to a shop second, where I could verify one. Nobody paid to be here and there are no affiliate links. And this is not a ranking: there is no measurement that puts one of these at number three and another at number eleven. It is a spread across price, circuit and maker, filtered down to what you can still buy new. Every maker here is doing serious work, the cheap ones included. Four ways of getting gain reduction turn up in this list, and they are the real dividing line: VCA, FET, optical, and variable mu. A VCA is fast and stays out of the way. A FET is fast and does not. An opto is slow and forgiving by nature. A vari-mu leans in as it works. Nearly every argument about which compressor to buy is actually an argument about which of those four you wanted. 01 API 527A VCA, with 2510 and 2520 discrete op-amps, switchable feed-forward and feed-back detection, and the THRUST sidechain filter. Same family as the 2500 bus compressor. For: drums, bass, electric guitar, vocals, drum subgroups About EUR 1249. apiaudio.com/product/527a-compressor-limiter www.thomann.de/de/api_audio_527_compressorlimiter.htm 02 API 529 Two slots, stereo, VCA, feed-forward or feed-back, transformer output, THRUST sidechain. API describe it as the 2500 in 500-series form. For: mix bus, stems, drum bus About EUR 3149. apiaudio.com/product/529-stereo-compressor kmraudio.de/api-audio-529-stereo-compressor 03 Solid State Logic Bus Compressor MkIII Two slots, stereo, VCA, and the circuit is the bus compressor from the SL 4000 G console. MkIII adds a sidechain high-pass. For: mix bus and drum bus glue, stems Between about EUR 831 and EUR 990 depending on the shop. solidstatelogic.com/products/stereo-bus-compressor-module www.thomann.de/de/ssl_500_series_bus_compressor_mkii.htm 04 Solid State Logic 611DYN One slot holding both a VCA compressor and a separate expander and gate: the dynamics section of the 4000 E channel strip. For: per channel tracking and mixing where you want gating too About EUR 588. www.solidstatelogic.com/products/e-series-dynamics-module www.thomann.de/de/ssl_500_series_611_dyn.htm 05 Rupert Neve Designs 535 Diode bridge, based on the original 2254, with timing control, stepped controls and internal parallel processing added. For: drums, bass, electric guitar, vocals, when you want the saturation with the gain reduction About EUR 909. rupertneve.com/products/535 www.thomann.de/de/rupert_neve_designs_portico_535.htm 06 Rupert Neve Designs 543 VCA, feed-forward and feed-back, from the rackmount 5043. The quiet, accurate counterpart to the 535 rather than a second flavour of it. Worth saying: several buying guides call this diode bridge. Rupert Neve Designs say VCA. For: vocals, bass, acoustic sources, bus duty About EUR 929. rupertneve.com/products/543 www.thomann.de/de/rupert_neve_designs_543.htm 07 AMS Neve 2264ALB Diode bridge, with independent limiter and compressor sections, Class A/B discrete circuitry and Marinair transformers. The 2264 circuit Rupert Neve designed in 1974. For: vocals, bass, drum room and drum bus About EUR 1399. www.ams-neve.com/outboard/500-series-range/2264alb-mono-limiter-compressor-module www.thomann.nl/neve_2264alb_mono_li_comp_500er_api.htm 08 Empirical Labs PUMP Classic knee, variable attack and release including an opto style release, an Attack Modification control, and a soft clipper taken from the Mike-E. Shares design DNA with the Distressor. For: drum bus, bass, vocals, general track duty About EUR 879. www.empiricallabs.com/pump www.thomann.de/de/empirical_labs_pump.htm 09 elysia xpressor|neo 500 Discrete VCA with a soft knee sidechain in a fully discrete Class A path. Auto fast, negative ratio, and a warm mode. Not a recreation of anything: an original design. For: mix bus, drum bus, stereo sources, vocals, bass EUR 949 from their own shop. elysia.shop/products/xpressor-neo-500 10 Chandler Limited TG Opto Two slots, fully discrete, optical, with selectable sharp and rounded knees. The EMI TG12413 limiter from the TG12345 consoles, developed with Abbey Road. For: vocals, bass, drum bus, programme material About EUR 1549. chandlerlimited.com/tg-opto-compressor www.thomann.de/de/chandler_limited_tg_opto_compressor.htm 11 Chandler Limited Little Devil Discrete silicon transistor FET path, with variable bias and a Beef control for low end weight. An original Chandler design rather than a copy of anything. For: drums, bass, electric guitar, aggressive character Price not checked in euro. European stock looked thin. chandlerlimited.com/little-devil-compressor www.musicstore.com/en_OT/EUR/Chandler-Limited-Little-Devil-Comp-Rack-Module-500-Format/art-REC0007567-000 12 Purple Audio 5C1 Action FET. Purple use the same gain reduction FET, ratios and threshold behaviour as their MC77, which recreates the revision E 1176. For: drums, especially room and snare, bass, vocals, guitar Price not checked in euro. A UK dealer had it at GBP 799. purpleaudio.com/products/action shop.funky-junk.com/shop/recording/500-series/500-series-compressors-dynamics/purple-audio-5c1-action-500-series-76-style-compressor 13 IGS Audio One LA 500 Two slots, optical, with a tube gain stage and its own 250 volt supply. Calibrated after the 1968 LA-2A audio path, with a compress or limit switch. For: vocals, bass, acoustic instruments About EUR 875. igsaudio.com/products/500-series-modules/one-la-500 www.thomann.de/de/igs_audio_one_la_500.htm 14 IGS Audio Tubecore 500 True variable mu: the compression comes from the remote cut-off of the tube biasing, with an ECC82 and two 6AK5 and IGS transformers either side. For: mix bus and mastering in a linked pair, mono tracking otherwise About EUR 899. igsaudio.com/products/500-series-modules/tubecore-500 www.thomann.de/de/igs_audio_tube_core_500.htm 15 WesAudio _Dione Two slots, stereo, fully analogue, THAT 2181 VCAs, mix control, THD modes and sidechain filtering, with full recall and automation from a plug-in over USB. For: mix bus, drum bus, stems where recall matters About EUR 1129 including VAT. wesaudio.com/product/_dione www.thomann.de/de/wes_audio_dione.htm 16 WesAudio _Rhea Two slots, stereo variable mu with the gain reduction done by the tube circuit itself in feed-back, Carnhill interstage transformers, THD and mix controls, and the same digital recall. For: mix bus, mastering style stereo work, drum bus About EUR 1289. wesaudio.com/product/_rhea www.thomann.de/de/wes_audio_rhea.htm 17 dbx 560A VCA, with the same switchable OverEasy and hard knee curves as the 160A, plus an Infinity+ inverse mode. For: snare, drum bus, bass, percussive material About EUR 299, though both European shops I checked were out of stock. dbxpro.com/en-US/products/560a kytary.de/dbx-560a/HN167527 18 Lindell Audio 7X-500 FET, their take on the 1176, with three position switched attack and release, ratios of 4, 12 and 100 to 1, a wet dry mix and a switchable sidechain high-pass. For: drums, bass, vocals, guitar, parallel work via the mix knob About EUR 359. lindellaudio.com/en/products/7x-500 www.thomann.de/de/lindell_audio_7x_500.htm 19 Golden Age COMP-554 MKII All discrete Class A with input and output transformers, aimed at the vintage 2254, with a sidechain high-pass, VU metering and a stereo link. For: drums, bass, vocals, and a linked pair on the bus About EUR 399. goldenageaudio.com/outboard-hardware/compressors/comp-554-mk2 www.thomann.de/de/golden_age_project_comp_554.htm 20 Retro Instruments DOUBLEWIDE II Two slots, hand wired, tube, Cinemag transformers either side, 12AT7 and 12AU7, stereo link. A faster version of the original DOUBLEWIDE. For: vocals, bass, drum room, mix bus No European price found. European stock looks thin. www.retroinstruments.com/product.php?product_id=doublewideII That is twenty. If something you own belongs here and is not, reply and say what it does that these do not. Corrections welcome too: a price that has moved, a model that has been revised, a dealer link that has died.