I've had this now for a little more then a month and I'm still very impressed by it! Just twist the knob until it sounds good - and it always does. The stereo field is excellent; in fact I've pushed this pretty hard and sometimes it sounds like the stereo field gets a bit wider instead of shrinking the harder you push it! The top is crystal clear; it doesn't dull the highs and also like the width, it sounds like the harder you push it the more sparkly it gets on top. With the compress dial all the way clockwise it can still crush stuff. I've tried it with drums and it was able to give them a explosive sound without killing the snare. The sparkly top makes it sound fantastic on guitar, especially acoustic. Worked great on piano and bass. It doesn't let anything through! The auto-attack grabs everything but doesn't suck the life out of it. Vox are great. In most cases with my other dedicated comps I can achieve as good and in some cases a better sound by maybe 5% or so, but it takes a considerable amount of knob tiwddling and comparing to get that. That's really impressive for a comp with one knob. I've used the soft limiter both as a front end to protect my AD from clipping and after my bus compressor as a limiter when mixing and it works fantastic! Easy to set. Compress and Gain are variable but noise gate is stepped but all are easy to recall due to the plethora of markings. I know this is a bold statement but if you can really only afford one hardware comp, this is an excellent choice. Great for mixing AND idiot proof tracking and always great results. Noise gate is an expander so it is clean & smooth and doesn't cut off audio. Negatives? It very slightly takes bass off the bottom (maybe tightens?) BUT it has a SIDECHAIN! (yay for rack gear!) I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but the sidechain & an EQ should remedy that as well as make this useful for De-Essing and ducking - all with one knob! Brilliant and intelligent piece. Thumbs up.