Orban 1176LN (Years Unrecorded)
The model number belongs to somebody else, and the archive record says so plainly.
Overview
Here is a page that has to begin with a confession rather than a hook. The only source in the Archive that attributes a 1176LN to Orban is this Archive's own prior entry, and that entry states outright that no documentation ties the 1176LN design to Orban specifically. Nearly every other source that surfaces under this model number describes the UREI 1176LN, a peak limiter built by UREI — not Orban. Whether an Orban-branded 1176LN was ever manufactured, whether it was a rebadged UREI unit, or whether the whole attribution is an archive error is not established in any source the Archive holds. Collectors chasing an "Orban 1176LN" should go in knowing that the paper trail points somewhere else.
What the period record actually documents is the UREI unit, and it is worth laying out because it is the only concrete evidence attached to this model number. DB Magazine (September 1986, p.64), in a JBL Professional equipment roundup, described the 1176LN as a peak limiter with pushbutton selection of four compression ratios, front-panel adjustable attack and release times, high-impedance balanced bridging inputs, and a transformer-balanced output, listed at $596.00. A Mix studio equipment list from the following year (May 1987, p.161) names a "UREI 1176LN compressor/limiter" among the outboard gear at a working commercial studio — the sort of placement that tells you more about a unit's reputation than any spec sheet. Note the two publications describe the same box slightly differently, "peak limiter" in one and "compressor/limiter" in the other, which is the usual looseness of period equipment listings rather than a contradiction.
The specifications that can be stated with any confidence are therefore UREI specifications, and each rests on a single source. The four pushbutton-selected compression ratios, the front-panel attack and release controls, the high-impedance balanced bridging inputs and the transformer-balanced output all come from that one 1986 DB Magazine listing. The $596.00 list price is likewise a single-source figure from 1986 — reportedly the going rate, not a confirmed catalog constant across the model's life. What the four ratios actually were, what the attack and release ranges covered, and how the unit measured for frequency response, distortion or signal-to-noise are not documented anywhere in the Archive's holdings. The numbers that would let someone judge the thing on a bench simply are not there, and this page will not invent them.
None of this is a knock on the 1176LN as a circuit — it is a caution about the name on the front panel. An Orban-badged example, if one exists, would be a genuinely interesting piece of evidence: a rebadge would say something about how the pro-audio trade shuffled product in the 1970s and 1980s, and a distinct Orban design sharing the number would be stranger still. The Archive has neither. If an owner has an Orban 1176LN in hand — photographs of the panel, a serial plate, a manual with the Orban name on it — that is exactly the kind of documentation that would settle the question, and the feedback link at the bottom of this page exists for precisely that.
Production years for an Orban 1176LN are unrecorded. Dimensions, weight, and any maintenance or failure history are unrecorded. Current market pricing for an Orban example is unrecorded, and the only eBay result the Archive has surfaced for the search is a third-party AC power cord, not the unit itself. What survives is a model number, a set of UREI specifications from a 1986 magazine listing, and an honest disclaimer. For now, that is the whole record.
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.