Being a fan of the Urei 1176/78 , I decided to grab a 76KT in unused condition for under half the retail price .
It seems many rookies buy these thinking because it has an XLR input you can plug a mic in directly ,
only to realise later it doesnt work like that . With the attenuator directly across the input it presents a 600 ohm load to the preceeding preamp , maximum input is +30 dbu with the 20db pad engaged .
Build quality isnt bad , the metal work is fairly thin , but once its all screwed together its fairly rigid and solid .
Controls feel nice , with sealed conductive plastic pots .
The main PCB is around 4 inches square and resides behind the front panel , a separate board containing the PSU and input/ output connections is attached behind the rear panel .
Just as in the Klark Pultec clone ,the main issue as far as I can see is the unscreened SMPS which pollutes the noise floor with garbage .
Although I have only done basic testing so far , I'm pretty sure when you crank this thing its going to get really ugly on the peaks .
The PSU has two rails , one around 12v , linear regulated down to 5v and another for the audio of a little over 30V ,again with linear regulation .
Im pretty sure this unit would fare much better sonically using a couple of repurposed wall warts in an external enclosure situated a few feet away .