Black Lion Audio Seventeen FET Limiting Amplifier

The Seventeen takes the classic 76-style FET compressor and updates the front end to an IC-based design for more detail and nuance, staying clean and punchy under light compression while still finding the vintage character of the original when pushed hard. It uses the classic all-buttons-in ratio trick, implemented with modern toggle buttons rather than a fragile mechanical stack.

Features normally reserved for expensive 76 modifications ship standard here: a frequency-adjustable sidechain high-pass filter, stereo link, and a wet/dry mix control for parallel compression inside the box. Ratios cover 4:1, 8:1, 12:1, and 20:1 with continuously variable attack from 20 to 800 microseconds and release from 50 to 1200 milliseconds, through a custom made-in-Chicago output transformer. I/O is a single XLR in and out with an RCA link jack, in a 2U, 19 inch chassis weighing 14.5 lbs.