Oh, I guess I forgot to mention where the 500 Series stuff comes into play, huh? Well, basically I've been looking for a mono channel compressor for a while now and for a few months I thought that I had zeroed my options down to the Empress Compressor MKII pedal. But I thought it was wise to look at what else was available in the market and if there were solutions that better served my recording environment.
So, after taking a few days researching the 500 Series format I found that Hairball Audio offered a DIY compressor that could be assembled for possibly fifty bucks cheaper than the Empress, another big plus was that the FET/500 is being able to withstand louder signals, and would go in a rack, instead of floating around the desk like my other pedals.