A Neve Gain Stage Question

Hi Folks,

I just watched a review of the Heritage Audio Successor diode bridge compressor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMtiz7gNsc4

Sounds very impressive even when it's not compressing the signal.

I've seen a couple of brief explanations of how diode bridge compressors work - they attenuate and then amplify the signal (I have beginner/intermediate level electronics knowledge so sorry if this is incorrect).

Is this change in the sound primarily due to the way the gain stages work in this compressor?

Would it be possible to build something that creates this effect i.e. an attenuation/amplification device that adds the "mojo" (I hate using that term) without changing the overall gain level of the signal?

Cheers,

Chris

Just found the following in the DB54 build guide:

The sound of 2254 is obtained from the combination of three transformers in the audio path, class-A 1272 line amp running at 60dB gain and level control element added just after the input transformer. The 60dB gain comes from the -40dB loss in front of the diode bridge (as it can’t get hot signal) and another 20dB for the gain make up.

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