Hi John! I have seen you like the ProVLA for what it is. I also liked mine quite a lot. Now I am wondering if you ever tried the ProChannel - which is designed to have the ProVLA inside but is switchable to Vari-Mu compression as well. A stereo-pair of those might be a great, cheap thrill with an additional choice of compression color...
Cheers,
Pat

ps - ooops, I just found out it is not stereo linkable...this is a drawback indeed....

Gotta admit, I haven't messed with the ProChannel enough to "review" it - But I've messed with it a bit. I wasn't really crazy about it - It wasn't "bad" but it wasn't "wow" either.

I don't remember being particularly fond of the preamp - Or the compression - Or the EQ.

Of course, this is when I was looking for channel strips. If it makes a difference, I settled on the Toft ATC-2... Very nice, relatively inexpensive. The EQ alone is worth the price.

I know that might not shed any light on it as far as the application you're looking at...