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I waited a good while to get my hands on a decent 1176 clone. I thought Warm Audio's 76' would of been what I was searching for but after going through 2 defective units back to back from them I gave up. I thought about picking up a Behringer/KlarkTeknik 76 clone but heard mixed reviews about it. Then I learned about the Bluey while researching vids about 1176's clones. So I placed my order for one and yesterday I finally got it. I don't really have much else to compare it too other than the Warm Audio 76 units I had so I'll compare it to that. Since they have a similar design I will say if you're looking at this vs. the WA76 you probably should be looking at the Black Lion Seventeen. The Bluey is like an 1176 on steroids so yeah it's going to be much better than the Warm Audio 76 version.Out the box it's a gorgeous unit. Knobs, and buttons look and feel 100% better and higher quality than the Warm Audio WA76 I had. Surprisingly even the plastic black push in buttons felt to a higher quality standard than the WA76 which disappointingly felt kind of cheap on their unit. The backlit VU Meter looks good and retro no complaints on that. It's overall just a higher quality unit over the WA76.Soundwise I can't say too much about the WA76 vs the Bluey because both WA76's I used had defects with the circuitry. The Bluey however lived up to the hype they boasted about. It's really really really nice on vocals. It's strangely not the usual "compressor" results this box gives you but it has this kind of this soft compression effect to it that's not overly harsh or aggressive as on cheaper compressors.Like everything is a sweet spot on this thing. Compared to lesser compressors where you have to diddle with the knobs to find that one setting that works. This sounds good no matter what you put it on.Another good thing about the unit are the knobs. They have indentations for every tick on the meter. You talking about precision yeah it's a really dialed in device. I appreciated that over the WA76 which I don't recall having indentations like that.So yeah this is worth the price over the competition. It's not a thousand plus something dollar clone but it's about the only Blue Stripe 1176 Clone that I know of. Does it sound as good as a real one who knows. I don't even know if it sounds as good as the Lord Alge clone it's supposed to be modeled after but I do know it sound pretty dang good in my little setup.My only complaint is that the unit just came in a box with just the unit and a power chord. No paper, no stickers, no manual, no thank you for buying this or that. Nothing. I actually called Black Lion to ask them if they forgot something. They told me that the manual is online to download and the warranty was 3 years or something like that I don't recall. But honestly I think Warm Audio has them beat on that. I like getting the manual in the box,a sticker and a thank you note from the manufacturer it's really cool.I really like this Bluey though hopefully it will pair nicely with my Warm Audio 73' EQ when I hook it up to my rack.

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