Golden Age Audio Project Comp-3A

I bought 2 Golden Age Comp-3A compressors from Thomann in September. Neither worked on arrival. I sent both back for repairs (took about 4 weeks round trip from the UK to Germany). One now works. Thomann have asked me to video the other one not working (i.e. they don't belive me) and have offered returning to them again as the only alternative - meaning I have to box it up and wait another 4 weeks, assuming it works 3rd time around.
Lessons: 1) This product is either unreliable or not sturdy enough for mail order. 2) Don't buy fragile kit from Thomann if you are based in the UK because if there is a problem, it takes a month to fix, given postal times.

I use this one to record vocals and voice overs mostly. Also electric guitars. I have used it during mixing to maximize drums or other material, which it's really good for.

I think it has a sort of a vintage sound, which counteracts nicely the digital, sometimes too pristine nature of modern recordings. For example, 99% of the time I record with an ELAM251 clone, which I really like, but has an extended HF range. I have set the sidechain detector of the COMP 3A to maximum HF, which means that it will react more to high frequency content. In this way, it pushes literally warms up the signal a bit, by compressing the upper range, and helps with strident or sibilant parts of the speech or any delivery.

The other thing is, it really helps with recording dynamic parts. You can compress a vocal with 20dB, and it is not exactly transparent, but too my ears, the compression and the coloration is almost always preferable.

I intend to get one more of these, or maybe a Comp 2A.

Handling: Extremely lightweight! Pots are made of high quality metal.

Features: Apart the well-known parameters of a vintage compressor, i point out a very useful one: you can attenuate the input of 20db and keep the output level flat or viceversa (drastically reducing the noise)!

Sound: Transparent, with any source material (both simple as a vocal or complex as a IDM bus track), even if with a heavy compression; efficient (thanks to the adaptive attack and release, you ever have to worry about artifacts, HE always KNOWS how long or short they have to be).

Quality: If you use it with a good guy like a Neumann and a good pre (say the GA pre mkIII) and with Vovox cables, you're going to make a top 10 quality track.
Thus, if you use it with a sort of compromise before it, this is completely useless, go for a plugin.

This compressor is rather on the subtle side, probably due to the fact that unlike its brother, it lacks tubes. However, just like 2A, this comp can be pushed all the way without almost any artefacts (unlike most plugs).

I found it to be absolutely spectacular on bass guitar, where it makes it sound like a record instantly - controlled and even but full and exciting. It also works well on female vocal. But of course its application depends on the source audio and genre (desired effect). To be short and on subject - as a compressor it works extremely well, and beats all 3A plugins out there - which given its price, is rather a steal!