UA 6176

I have a LA610, which is the same pre but with the la2a on the backend and I love it. Narrow and/or small is the exact opposite of how I'd describe it. It's a dark pre, with a silky quality and big, round, pillowy low end. It sounds like the unit you got had some issues all around. I'd give it another try if I were you. But Ymmv.

I had an LA610 MKII for awhile. I liked it and miss it.

They only sell the expensive one here (6176), LA610 got dumped due to ROHS compliancy or something of the sort.. Again when I got the unit I was enamoured by it, probably the quietest tube pre-amp I've come across.. Had bags of gain, on +5 output my Senny MD441-U stuck around 4 on the knob and the pre-amp was rather quiet / clean at that point so I was seriously confused with the GS "experts" complaining about headroom and distortion.

The 1176 in it sounds better than any 1176 I've heard, it's a bit softer / smoother and not as "grabby" but still catches those fast transients.. It kinda does the LA-2A thing but because it catches peaks faster and with it being a FET you don't get that lazy counter balance of sharp / dark.. It ain't perfect and worked better in a 6176 / LA-2A setup but you didn't need to push either all that hard to get a nice balanced input avoiding EQ automations..

Then the limiter just packed in, like a gearbox stuck in first it'd only do bypass or whatever ratio it was stuck on.. You could go "ALL in" and it wouldn't make a difference to the sound, then the VU packed up (GR / Pre-amp everything didn't register), THEN lol! I started getting excessive hiss from the pre-amp.. It was being sold for under half the price of a new one, but it was from a reputable shop and it had a 3 month warranty.. Still it was too good to be true.

That 6176 was well and truly messed up. When I tested it last that's what stuck in my head more than how it originally sounded when I first got it..

Here's the thing, the 6176 has been used on so many records it's silly.. From Adele to <Insert famous person here>.! A lot of other people I knew that recorded rock said it was their go to chain for everything but electric g'itar..

I have ordered another one..! Still, I don't like messing about or throwing money away and I'd rather be safe rather than sorry.

I sold my 6176 about three weeks ago.
I do not miss it.

Ha! No, that wasn't me.

If only they had made a compressor with the LA action but a solid state transformer IO amp like a 76 in the 70s at some point...  

Good question. I had owned it for several years, and a couple things happened at various points during my ownership. First, the 1176 got affordably cloned by several manufacturers  (Warm, Hairball, Stam, Audioscape, etc., etc.). One can now purchase an 1176 of one flavor or another for not a lot of coin. Secondly, I got a Stam 1073MPA, which I like better as a pre than the 610.

But there are other reasons that gradually showed themselves over my time of ownership, as well. For instance, I never liked the way the 1176 section was laid out on the 6176. I'm just so used to the traditional 1176 layout that I found the 6176 layout cumbersome, and hence, I didn't use it as much as I would've liked.

I also was just never thrilled with the 610 preamp. I found the low end to be a bit loose and undefined, and the top end did not impart the subtle sparkle and harmonics I like to get out of a tube pre.

I thought the unit as a whole would be kickass on bass, but I never really ended up loving it there. Again, the low end wasn't as tight as I would like (and at the same time not as thunderous as a Sowter-equipped Neve variant like the 1073MPA or the Great River). It was just kind of cloudy to me. Now, one man's "cloudy" is another man's "warm," so take what I'm saying with a few grains of salt.

But just to further the discussion for you, I wanted to mention that while I haven't used one of the AEA preamps, it seems a little odd to compare that with the 610. Those seem like totally different worlds to me. Either world could be totally viable, and you wouldn't be wrong to love either of those, but they just seem like very different pieces, and by necessity, very different choices.

And I've also been interested to hear the R10 in person. I haven't actually liked it in any of the online "shootouts" I've heard. But of course online (YouTube) listening can be deceptive. I was hoping to really dig it, but I actually might have preferred the Fat Head in the various comparisons I've seen. Again, YMMV and all that.

You're in an exciting place, it sounds like! Try to enjoy it!