Excellent and thorough comparison Vlad! We're super happy to hear someone harnessing the clean channel of the Iridium too :) Thanks so much for doing this!
Thanks guys! I had a blast working on this one and the big part was two amps that inspired me to create music. That’s the best kind of gear you can have. :)
I really appreciate that you went for the best sounding tone from each model, rather than the same EQ settings. I thought this allowed a much better comparison. The way you switched back-and-forth in the different song examples was perfect, and highlighted the different characters of these two amazing amps. Great job!
Love the new intro. :) Keep up the good work. Btw, I own the Mercury ed., really enjoying it, and can't see myself replacing it with anything else for a long time to come.
I was actually kind of surprised by this comparison! I went into this expecting to prefer the Iridium since that's the one most of the metal guys on RUclips tend to gravitate more towards but I actually found the Mercury more to my taste. They both sound really nice, but I felt (at least from this video) that the Mercury was a bit warmer and well balanced, where the Iridium was a little more harsh. Considering how versatile and tweakable both of them are though, I could probably use either one and still be happy with it haha Nice video man!
Haha I know what you mean! It's sometimes really hard trying to keep the comparison as neutral as possible because I gravitate to certain types of tones and with some amps I get those faster than with others. Glad to hear I was able to help!
I prefer the Iridium, thats why I own one but I'm also pretty much 100% into metal (and there into the extremer stuff). The Mercury is very nice and probably far more versatile than the Iridium but man...the Iridium just slays when it comes to (modern) high gain sounds. It can be adjusted to sound pretty much like any of the famous metal amps out there and it's tighter than a nuns ass - no pedals needed to tighten up the sound.
The main difference I'm hearing on both is that the Iridium has more ~1k. Which work great for rhythm sounds. The Mercury sounds great for leads tho. They both do their own thing and compliment each other too. Also, it's very possible they can do these things too with different cabs so... In the end they sounds great.
I love my Mercury Edition but I totally agree about the side knobs. They are too close together and too tiny on top of being impossible to see their position. Great video of these devices!
Thanks! I guess two companies though about the same dense metal and decided their product that. Based on a quick google search both were released a month apart, so the whole thing seems like a coincidence.
Great video, thank you. Have you tried the H&K Black Spirit and how do you think they compare? I have one and am not super happy with the Lead/Ultra channel. They just sound and feel way too compressed. The clean/crunch channels are killer but just can't quite get into the classic metal/grunge territory I'm looking for. Considering replacing with the Mercury.
Thanks! I've actually own the BS200 Head and while I liked it, to me the BluGuitar amps both sound and feel way better. As you said, the Black Spirit felt very compressed whereas these feel much more "real" if you will.
I think it's just so you can hear the reverb in stereo when using headphones for example. I used it with a mono cable with no issues, so you can run it either way you like.
@@CatPickStudios Ah, that seems like a possible reason. The stereo reverb is summed to mono when going into the DAW than, that's fine we can just use another reverb if we want it in stereo. Thank you for your answer.
You say you used the CAB M for cabinets? The Amp 1 units already have cabsim on their outputs, did you just run their cabsim into the Cab IRs on the CAB M, or are you able to shut off the Cabsim on the Amp 1?
Ah sorry if I wasn't clear enough in the video, I went from the cabinet out on the Amp1 into the CAB M, not the line out (which indeed has cab emulation on it). So no, I wasn't using double cab sim :)
@@CatPickStudios I was enjoying the tunes and the tones. it was a cool dynamic switching from the warmer tone of the mercury to the harder iridium especially in the metal tune at the end in particular.
Excellent and thorough comparison Vlad! We're super happy to hear someone harnessing the clean channel of the Iridium too :) Thanks so much for doing this!
Thanks guys! I had a blast working on this one and the big part was two amps that inspired me to create music. That’s the best kind of gear you can have. :)
I really appreciate that you went for the best sounding tone from each model, rather than the same EQ settings. I thought this allowed a much better comparison. The way you switched back-and-forth in the different song examples was perfect, and highlighted the different characters of these two amazing amps. Great job!
Thanks, much appreciated!
So nice to hear some cleaner sounds too, thanks.
These amps have really good clean tones, I absolutely had to showcase them.
Love the new intro. :) Keep up the good work.
Btw, I own the Mercury ed., really enjoying it, and can't see myself replacing it with anything else for a long time to come.
Thanks! :)
I was actually kind of surprised by this comparison! I went into this expecting to prefer the Iridium since that's the one most of the metal guys on RUclips tend to gravitate more towards but I actually found the Mercury more to my taste. They both sound really nice, but I felt (at least from this video) that the Mercury was a bit warmer and well balanced, where the Iridium was a little more harsh. Considering how versatile and tweakable both of them are though, I could probably use either one and still be happy with it haha
Nice video man!
Haha I know what you mean! It's sometimes really hard trying to keep the comparison as neutral as possible because I gravitate to certain types of tones and with some amps I get those faster than with others. Glad to hear I was able to help!
Wew I didn't expect the differences to be so drastic. Much prefer the Iridium to my tastes.
I kinda want some of the sounds from both of them haha.
Great comparision, thank you!
Thanks!
It sounds like the mercury is just darker with a little more low-mids on every comparison.
I prefer the Iridium, thats why I own one but I'm also pretty much 100% into metal (and there into the extremer stuff). The Mercury is very nice and probably far more versatile than the Iridium but man...the Iridium just slays when it comes to (modern) high gain sounds. It can be adjusted to sound pretty much like any of the famous metal amps out there and it's tighter than a nuns ass - no pedals needed to tighten up the sound.
The main difference I'm hearing on both is that the Iridium has more ~1k. Which work great for rhythm sounds. The Mercury sounds great for leads tho. They both do their own thing and compliment each other too. Also, it's very possible they can do these things too with different cabs so... In the end they sounds great.
Yeah for leads I leaned towards Mercury as well. But as you said, with further tweaking you could get more out of both of these.
Great Video. Super high quality. Convinced me that i prefer the mercury.
Kind regards
Thanks, much appreciated!
The cleans of the Mercury + the driven sounds of the Iridium
If I were friends with Thomas Blug I will ask for a marriage of those two. :D
I love my Mercury Edition but I totally agree about the side knobs. They are too close together and too tiny on top of being impossible to see their position. Great video of these devices!
Thanks, much appreciated! (Ja morjensta!)
Would be hard to see in low light environment or at stage.
Nice job man! I wonder how the strymon and blu both ended up being called iridium?
Thanks! I guess two companies though about the same dense metal and decided their product that. Based on a quick google search both were released a month apart, so the whole thing seems like a coincidence.
Super useful
Happy to help!
*you cannot compare this product to any modeler, because those are real amps!*
9:40 🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽
11:31 REVV rocks you so hard you forget where your hands are!!!
For some reason I first read ‘where your hands were ‘ and that got me thinking all kinds of things... 🤔
@@CatPickStudios go wash your hands🧼👏🏽
Yeah that’s not the worst idea...
That iridium looks very much up my “ just put it all at my feet cause my hands are on the guitar“ alley.
Not the worst alley I can think of!
I prefer the more martial sound of the Mercury
*I PEEP YOUR GAME... that rock song you just did was a spinoff of blood pollution by Steel Dragon*
Thx
I preferred Mercury all the way.
Great video, thank you. Have you tried the H&K Black Spirit and how do you think they compare? I have one and am not super happy with the Lead/Ultra channel. They just sound and feel way too compressed. The clean/crunch channels are killer but just can't quite get into the classic metal/grunge territory I'm looking for. Considering replacing with the Mercury.
Thanks! I've actually own the BS200 Head and while I liked it, to me the BluGuitar amps both sound and feel way better. As you said, the Black Spirit felt very compressed whereas these feel much more "real" if you will.
I’ve owned the bs200 and I think the tones are quite similar on the iridium
Yeah they are pretty close, I just connected with the Iridium more for whatever reason.
Why is the REC OUT on the AMP1 a stereo jack? Should I connect a stereo tele cable and somehow split it into two inputs on my sound card??
I think it's just so you can hear the reverb in stereo when using headphones for example. I used it with a mono cable with no issues, so you can run it either way you like.
@@CatPickStudios Ah, that seems like a possible reason. The stereo reverb is summed to mono when going into the DAW than, that's fine we can just use another reverb if we want it in stereo. Thank you for your answer.
You say you used the CAB M for cabinets? The Amp 1 units already have cabsim on their outputs, did you just run their cabsim into the Cab IRs on the CAB M, or are you able to shut off the Cabsim on the Amp 1?
Ah sorry if I wasn't clear enough in the video, I went from the cabinet out on the Amp1 into the CAB M, not the line out (which indeed has cab emulation on it). So no, I wasn't using double cab sim :)
@@CatPickStudios Thank you... So you just went directly from the Amp1 into Cab M with the Cab M set to -24 on the input?
@@KipCount Yep! CAB M has great input control, so the volume wasn't really an issue.
Great songs
Thanks, much appreciated!
@@CatPickStudios I was enjoying the tunes and the tones. it was a cool dynamic switching from the warmer tone of the mercury to the harder iridium especially in the metal tune at the end in particular.
Enough of the talking already lets hear the gear??
Let me tell you a story of how I grew up first...