Empress Effects Bass Compressor Silver Spk

I have been using an MXR M87 bass compressor for a few years now, and it was doing its job, I suppose. It is one of the best pedal compressors at the price thanks to its LED level readout. However, after reading the reviews for the Empress, I was convinced it would be an improvement.
Well it arrived, it’s gone on the board and the M87 will be relegated to the dusty cupboard full of pedals slowly becoming ‘vintage’.
It has more control, better monitoring, and sounds amazing. Truth be told, I oft-times could have left the old M87 compressor turned off and lived without, but the Empress has a voice of its own. (Not to say it’s an overly coloured pedal, but I can hear it’s smoothing effect on my playing, in a VERY good way!)
If you’re considering an upgrade for the ubiquitous M87, you could do worse than buy this. I doubt you’ll regret it.

I needed a simple bass compressor with some sort of interface that could show me what's going on with my input signal as I want to use the compressor as the first stage in the signal chain. The LED strings on the Empress Effects Bass Compressor do just that. And it's not a gimmick at all, it actually works. Ability to adjust attack and release separately is definitely a plus over the Boss one. Blend function works great. With a little bit of fiddling with the knobs I got that silky smooth bass tone in no time. With passive pickups, input knob needs to be cranked up to reach the desired threshold which also amplifies the device noise and that annoying hiss is heard. Theoretically this could be solved with clean pre-amplification but did not try it yet. But overall I am very satisfied with this purchase. For sure recommended.