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Product Description
The ALTEC 436C is all tube. It works on the 'variable mu' principle. There is an input gain knob and that's about it. You get some limited control of threshold and release via presets in the front panel and the (very beautiful) meter is custom calibrated in dB compression. The compression is smooth and luscious. There is a very slight deadening of the sound, but this thing has real body! The harmonic distortion was heavily 2nd harmonic but with little at 5th and 7th harmonics; so the sound is sweet. The 'heaviness' that it is famous for is largely due to distortions up around 0.4% once the compression gets going. Incredibly quiet, the noise is well down to modern standards.
Specifications
| Channels | |
|---|---|
| Chassis | |
| Compression Type | Variable Mu |
| Digital I/O | No |
| Direct Input | No |
| Input Connectors | Analog XLR |
| Output Connectors | Analog XLR |
| Tube or Solid State | |
| Rack format | 19-inch rackmount 2U |