Was a first time Lindell owner.
The Unit looked promising on paper --'Ticked' all the right boxes.

The positives:
-had a nice sound, with great metering ..metering easy to see and extremely helpful

The negatives:
First lost star - NO manual in the box. Ok. So I followed the link on the included card to get the manual, which takes the new owner..to a dead-end link. I scoured their website. Nothing (still dead as of this writing). I also tried looking for any link for customer support, and....again, nothing. Try as I might I could not find any obvious links. If the company is restructuring its website, then let the consumer know this and that that a link will be up soon. Absolutely unprofessional !
2nd lost star - I have other 500 units purchased from Sweetwater, and this one never fit right. I tried repositioning all units,changing slots, as well as just putting it in alone. Always a gap between the Lindell faceplate and the 500 rack, as if they made it slightly too long.
3rd lost star - Depending on the lighting, This writing on this thing can almost impossible to read..imagine white print on a greyish metalic shiny plate??? Could have been so easily remedied at time of production.
4th lost star - With in a month, it just stopped working.

Sadly, I have lost faith in a company I wanted to like. I will not be buying LIndell again.

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I picked up a pair of these compressors and put it after a pair of Rupert Neve 511 preamps and before the Rupert Neve 551 inductor EQ.

The only feature missing on this compressor is a link switch for true, stereo compression. But because it has four 3-way switches (attack, release, ratio, high-pass filter) you really only need to line up 3 knobs: the input, output and blend. The input knob sets the threshold. So the more you turn up the input, the lower the threshold.

The blend knob was another feature that sold me on this compressor. Sometimes if you squash the signal too much, it’s nice to have the ability to bring back the non-compressed signal. It also seemed that, for the price, the 7x had more features than compressors twice its' price.

Other than the missing link switch, these compressor sound real smooth. The LED is nice and bright.

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I went looking for a cheap 500 series compressor for my rack and found this Swedish unit : 7X-500

After tests last night listening I had decided to return it until I swapped the two main in & out amp chips with Burr Brown OPA 2107AP. The unit came to life for me.

Sweetwater is selling them for under $350 bucks. (assembled in China)

There are some things I would prefer different though, like,
The filters are across the limiter side and not overall output seems very subtle,
The 100:1 should be 20:1-my opinion,
There is a gain control coupled to the limiter input pot which I feel should be just threshold but all in all very workable with the mix wet dry pot for perfect vocal compression.

The output gain pot should be on the final blend control output of unit and not the limiter only.
It also needs a clip light because the GR meter does not switch to OP level.

Lindell said it resembled a UREI 1176, I would say NOT but with the chip change from 5532's to Burr Brown it's quite smooth, clear and usable for vocals which is what I care most about.

Enjoy. :-)

P.S. (The chip changes add about 35 bucks to the price and are sold on eBay)

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This isn't just a good comp for the price, it's a good comp period. I own several more expensive compressors icluding a real 1176. This is every bit as usable and vibey. depending on how you gian stage it, it can be pretty clean and transparant, or just a complete over the top crush fest. Build quality is fantastic, and all the switches and knobs feel very solid. A soon as I have the money, I'm going to purchase more for mixing.

For the money it's not a bad comp. It's not bad on Snare, Kick, Bass guitar, but overall I wonder if it's just taking up a slot in my Lunchbox.

I have a couple of high end outboard comps, but this was my first 500 series comp and it's nothing to phone home about.

I find it usable on Kick, Snare and bass guitar during mixing, but I wouldn't track with it. The Mix knob is helpful as well as the sidechain filter.


If I was filling up another lunchbox I would look elsewhere.

Just got it, played with it using Gibson acoustic guitar. Condenser mic into bae 1073 then into the 7x. Running thru unit doesn't degrade the sound. That's first thing I check. The 100 Hz side chain is really useful, and mix knob is great....I don't feel it adds any mojo, just clean compression....my micpres do the mojo...time will tell hiw reliable it is.
I wanted to get bac 500, but gave this a shot. So think this is great for adding a bit of parrallel compression while tracking. Then do more if needed with uad plugins.

WELL BUILT, SOLID AND EASY TO USE . I RAN A SNARE THREW IT AND IT LIFTED OUT SOME "HIDDEN " TONES I WAS NOT AWARE OF.THE THE WET/DRY MIX CONTROL IS A DREAM ,IT BEATS THE OLD METHOD OR RECORDING A SIDE CHANNEL .I JUST BOUGHT 2 MORE FROM SWEETWATER AS AN OTHER REVIEWER STATED "WORTH EVERY PENNY " I CONCURE !!

I purchased this for my newly acquired 500 rig, and found that it wasn't that impressive. It worked ok, but I wasn't happy with the sound of the compression, even at low levels. I bought it because I needed a 500-series compressor but didn't want to spend a lot of money. I guess you get what you pay for.

It worked ok for the first week or so I had it, although as I mentioned, I didn't like the sound of it. However, after the first 2 weeks, the input knob came loose, and eventually fell off. I returned it to sweetwater and exchanged it for the Grace 501, and I am MUCH happier with that.

This thing is a very solid comp. Its exceptional at bringing out detail on snares. It has a deep characteristic to it as well. You really hear the depth of the shell on the snare if that makes sense. It is also has WAY more out put than most other 500 series comps. The only shortcoming I can immediately hear is the muddiness it creates with cymbals when using it for parallel drum compression. Out of the current offering I put it only behind the retro doublewide. The retro has that added clarity when working with a drum group that I dont really get with the Lindell, probably due to this box being FET and the Doublewide being tube. All in all its an amazing module at an insane price. Just know when to use it.