Strymon Big Sky MX Dual Engine Reverb

For this price I was expecting to get really good reverbs. Something to maybe replace my Empress Reverb that is starting to feel dated. I bought the Empress at the time, because it was better sounding and more versatile than the Big Sky, but surprisingly I still think it is!

Of course the Big Sky has a unique sound and if that's what you're after, I would recommend picking up the original second-hand for cheap.

This pedal is 90% the old dated algorithms packaged differently with a premium price tag. I am not interested in running two not-so-great algorithms in parallel.

That they made this more expensive than the Mercury X, without adding a ton of greatly improved algorithms, seems absolutely delusional to me.

For a bit more money you can get the Chase Bliss CMX (also mostly Meris), which is my favorite, because of the simplicity / UX.

I'm also holding on to my Empress Reverb, because it can sound very different and still good enough. It is ridiculous that a 10-year old reverb, costing half the price, is still beating this thing.