DYNAMICS PROCESSOR
(Over) $1,000)

JOEMEEK SC-2    $1,999.99

Occasionally, a piece of audio gear caresses your ears with such tenacity that you can't help but be hopelessly entranced. The Joemeek SC-2 from Fletcher ElectroAcoustics is like one of Ulysses' sirens in that regard: plug it in and you're doomed. You will not be able to live without the aural majesty that this stereo compressor bestows upon signals.

What the SC-2 delivers is attitude. It is not transparent-- not by a long shot. It imposes an aggressive sheen on signals routed through its solid-state circuitry and ends up sounding more "retro" than most tube compressors. The musicians we recorded for our tests became almost giddy with delight after hearing how the SC-2 enhanced their vocals, guitars, basses, drums, and everything else they played. Instruments exploded off the tape with exquisite detail and punch. It wasn't a surprise, then, that all the studio pros (and semipros) who bought an SC-2 after reading our face-off in the July 1996 EM contacted us in advanced states of euphoria.

Not bad for an idiosyncratic device that turns its back on conventional controls such as Ratio and Threshold and instead dares the user to experiment with huge knobs identified as Slope and Compressor. (You just twist the controls up for more stuff and down for less.

The SC-2 is an expensive, no-frills compressor that does one thing well, but that one thing is so tremendous you'll soon forget about your savaged bank account.

By Michael Molinda EM Editors Choice Awards January 1997

PMI REBUTTAL: The SC-2 Compressor when compared to other "classic" vintage compressors or the more modern Tube retro compressors are not expensive at all. In fact, the retail price of $1,999.99 in many cases is less than half the price of some classic and modern compressors.