What a pedal! Quite an investment, but easily worth every penny, no doubt about that.
Life's been good to me as I get to play an excellent guitar, a few wonderful pedals and two outstanding amps every day. I was already a happy man, and at gigs I've been proud of my tone for years now.
But this Cali76 CD's parallel compression is something else, there's no way back - I realised that within the first hour of playing it. This gets me studio tone quality in any real life situation.
My Tele's bridge PU used to be very lively, now it sounds as lively as fat and snappy.
But the neck PU ... it has never come to life like this before; your description of a "three-dimensional, sparkling tone" is spot on. Truely beautiful!
The level of control (attack, dry signal, release ...) really allows you to dial anything you need for any application - but basically: anyone playing clean or crunch sounds thru a high headroom amp, simply needs this to upgrade his tone from good to excellent. Same goes for bedroom practice, it's so much more rewarding with this Cali76 CD.
(Important; for good parallel compression you need a very fast attack, mine's at 15 o'clock.)

I got my Cali76 Compact Deluxe last week from No.Toms in Denmark St, and it is an absolute revelation. It adds so much sparkle and sweetness to my tone that I literally don't want to stop playing, and my fingers are killing me. I'd heard it was a pretty good pedal, but I wasn't prepared for this - it retains all my pick attack, while sustaining for days, the kind of sound you get lost in. Immense. Hands down my favourite pedal, and worth every penny.

My new Cali76 CD leaves me speechless! I've used an MXR DynaComp (script version) for decades and have tried out many different compressors over the years, but nothing compares to the Cali76 CD. The ability to fine tune every aspect of both my signal and the compression is unparalleled in any other compressor pedal out there. Simply spectacular! I'm in love with compression all over again. The ability to preserve and maintain expression and touch is allowing me to achieve the tones and dynamics that I've heard in my head but couldn't make happen in the real world — until now. Thanks for putting such a great tool in my hands to unleash untapped creativity. You guys are magical wizards who can bend electrons to your will. Please don't stop innovating!

For as long as I have been playing guitar I have always had a compressor in my signal chain. In over 40 years of playing I have owned many varieties of them with all of the usual choices from the Ross-Dynacomp OTA's through the FET, VCA and Optical types. For the last several years I have had a permanent spot for my beloved Keeley 4 knob compressor. Up until now nothing else came close to the Keeley. I decided to purchase the Cali 76 after I had a casual conversation about jazz guitar with my amp tech. He mentioned that the Cali 76 was the holy grail of stomp box compressors and would be his first choice recommendation for vintage jazz guitar tone. So I took his advice and ordered one the same day. I really didn't know what to expect and at worse it would be just another compressor that would just be sidelined and sent to the closet in favor of the Keeley. This is where the love affair came to a sudden and heart breaking halt. After setting up the Cali and dialing it into my rig I was absolutely stunned how intrinsically musical this compressor was. I suddenly was thrusted into a whole new love and lust for compression. For starters the tone is so transparent, clear and dimensional. It's truly amazing how all of the guitar and amp tone came busting through the mix. All the great squishiness and sustain of compression without any tone loss! My Gibson 335 sounded absolutely stunning and my Gibson 175 jazz box just blossomed into greatness. The dry mix knob is pure genius and is perfect for adding back the unprocessed signal in the mix. I was also very impressed with the clarity and sustain that my overdriven tone now had. It has been a very long time since I have been this excited over a stomp box but the Cali 76 has just supplanted a very dear and trusted piece of audio gear. This is audio engineering at its finest!

I got mine two days ago and can't keep me away from it.
It's just amazing, it's sound amazing and it's very very clean performing with your sound.
I mean it looks like if it enhance your sound.
For me the best compressor I've ever hear on a pedal.
Just blew my mind.