Reverb Hunt: H9 vs Mercury 7 vs Big Sky
Long post, but trying to put details to get a good rec. I’m looking for a quality reverb that covers: a nice “normal,” room/hall, a cavernous cathedral/retro-futuristic space sound, and a good to decent shimmer.
So many guitars on YouTube, it’s a bit hard to find lots of synth demos. But I‘ve pretty well narrowed it to these, what do you all recommend?
If it helps, I’m play mostly psychedelic/space rock, a bit of YMO type stuff and sometimes general spacey/zone out (I guess ambient-ish) jamming. Not really an electronica/techno/etc type guy.
Will mostly be used on mono sources, I think (monosynth and organ). Will mostly be used at home. Will be my only reverb.
Pros/Cons that have me stuck:
H9: seems good! But if I understand right, no analog dry through. I don’t actually know if this matters. I was thinking of just the Black Hole pedal, but I also want that shimmer algo and the price is not terribly much more vs a dedicated reverb. I’m not very interested in the other effects (plus, if I switched to them, I got no verb and I pretty much always want at least a touch of verb), so the multi-effect aspect is not a bonus for me.
Meris: Mixed reviews on the shimmer. I generally don’t love a plate reverb, so I’d really only use the cathedral setting. How does that play for smaller, more subtle reverbs?
Big Sky: it’s big! Footprint wise. That’s a con for me. Also, probably more algos and options than I really need, I’m a simple man. I do like how effecty some of the settings can be to really transform a sound and create a soundscape, seems fun. On the flip side, from what I can tell in demos, it always kinda sounds like an effect layered onto the sound rather than blending with the source, if that makes sense. Or is that just because demos always have more extreme settings dialed in to show the algos off? Finally, not true stereo in/out, which would be a bummer if I did decide to run my polysynth through it.
Posted Dec 7, 2025, 11:43 PM UTC