The company known today as Universal Audio has been reborn a number of times since it's founder, Bill Putnam, started designing artificial reverbs. The newest incarnation of the company (reformed in part by Bill Putnam, Jr.) is celebrating its ten year anniversary, and to commemorate the occasion, they've announced the Universal Audio 1176AE Limiting Amplifier.

The 1176AE incorporates features from several generation of UA compressor/limiters. The ratio selection is the same as on the 176 Compressor -- forerunner of the 1176 - and includes 2:1, 4:1, 8:1 and 20:1 (limiting) compression. It melds the program dependent sonic characteristics of the revision "A" series, and melds it with the low noise circuit of the revision "E" series (aka, the 1176LN for "low noise"). The stylish blue stripe on black face plate is an amalgam of he two revisions' aesthetics.

The 1176AE also incorporates a new "SLO" function, which sets the attack time at 15ms, longer than any previous model, for some modern and experimental effects on top of the classic sound of the previous revisions.

The units will all be hand-built, with a limited (ha) run of 500 being made available in June 2008. The 1176AE's will have an estimated street price of $2499.