www.zenproaudio.com/

This is my first 2A style comp, so I don’t have anything to compare it to, but I can say that I love the sound quite a bit. It was also a pleasure working with Warren, and drinking the coffee :).

I am now the proud owner of some Zombie cables from Zen Pro Audio. Being able to hear the sound of my instruments untweeked by the capacitance normally present is wonderful. Intersting that there is such an audible difference between cables, I have semi retiered my old cables even though some of them came from a reputable cable company. I have been cleaning the "Monsters" out of the closet, so to speak, and replacing them with Zombies. Great value in cables. Thanks Zen pro Audio.

This is actually the GAP Pre-73dlx, with Zenpro mod. It sounds amazing. Warms and rounds the recordings nicely. Great customer service.

Prompt courteous service. When I did have a technical issue, they were quick to respond and help me resolve it!

Let me start by saying that Manley have knocked it out of the park with the Nu Mu and of course dealing with Warren is always an absolute pleasure. He certainly echoed my assumptions about the performance of this unit, and it ended up being the perfect addition to my mastering chain. Dealing with Drew Galasky was also a great experience. So, back to the Nu Mu for a quick review. I'll admit my initial skepticism about this unit turned out to be completely unfounded. I had read that Manley had worked out a way to streamline the production process without making any compromises in components, design or philosophy, and even though Manley has never failed me (not once), in my mind a "streamlined production process" usually just translates to "lower quality", but in Manley's case there is absolutely nothing to worry about. When they say they've streamlined production, that's exactly what they mean, nothing more nothing less. It's all the quality and amazing sound you expect from them, the only noticeable change this brings is that they're able to sell this unit for a mildly cheaper price than they would be able to using a smaller batch production. They simply make more of the units faster and pass the cost savings on to us. So that's all good, but how does it sound? Well, it's certainly an interesting unit. There are some very airy, punchy xformers on the inputs, but the outputs are transformerless, so it's a very "open" sounding unit. It's certainly not a Fairchild, but that's what is so great about it. It does share a lot of qualities with classic Mu sound and design, but in my opinion it's a bit more versatile. In my mastering chain, there is already a lot of tube based gear adding that valve magic, and while I prefer good tube gear over basically everything else, you don't want to cram one stereo signal through 3 different processors which are all adding a wealth of tube saturation for everything all the time. People don't tend to think of tubes as being "transparent" in any sense but appearance, but if implemented properly they CAN be just about the cleanest hi gain amplifiers available, and that is the philosophy the Nu Mu seems to live by. It's massive sounding, but not "wooly" or overly saturated. At first it may seem a bit more transparent than you're expecting, but you'll soon realize that this unit imparts a beautifully subtle silky quality and a hi-fi smoothness I've never heard in another compressor. It's certainly not easy to attain old school Mu types of distortion on this thing, but what you get instead is a noticeably enhanced soundstage without any signs of fuzz or looseness. It's the single best comp I've ever heard for taming harsh cymbals. It can even do a wonderful thing not dissimilar from a tube opto comp on vocals and bass, just with a lot more class. They also managed to fit it into a more shallow chassis than most gear (thanks to no output trans) so when it's racked up with all my other valve units, everything still has room to breathe. In summary, if you've been wondering about the NuMu like I was for so long, give it a shot, you will not regret it. If I had to compare its sound to another comp, I'd say it's slightly closer to the sound of a Chandler TG1 stereo comp than it is to a classic Mu, but it's even more smooth and classy sounding than the Chandler. Not to mention it's one of the coolest looking things you could have in any rack. The crazy LED and metering gets my clients every time they see it 😂. They're always asking "what's that? Can we use it right now?". So thanks again Warren for the great service (and coffee) and thanks Manley for continuing to push the envelope. The Nu Mu is gonna be a mainstay for me from now on, in mixing AND mastering.