What is the difference between the AMP1 Mercury Edition and the AMP1 Iridium Edition?
Unlike the AMP1 Silver Edition and AMP1 Mercury Edition, which differ only slightly, there are clear differences between the AMP1 Mercury Edition and the AMP1 Iridium Edition. While the visual differences are pretty obvious, it's worth pointing out the differences in terms of sound and technology/features.
Below you will find the features that distinguish the AMP1 iridium Edition from the AMP1 Mercury Edition. More information about the sound and features of the AMP1 Mercury Edition and what makes it different from the AMP1 Silver Edition can be found here.
Sound
While the AMP1 Mercury Edition is tuned more towards classic rock and vintage sounds, the sonic focus of the AMP1 Iridium Edition is on tighter metal sounds:
The four preamps of the AMP1 Iridium Edition
CLEAN - Massive headroom thanks to the 100 watt power amp and treble reserves, which help even mid-range humbuckers to produce transparent, sparkling clean sounds. Optimal platform for pedals such as shimmer reverb, modulation or delay.
VINTAGE - Tight and mid-heavy woody sounds that are transmitted tightly, especially with extreme low tunings, and at the same time deliver creamy distortion in the mids.
CLASSIC - Due to the hard distortion characteristic and the specially tuned bass filter, this channel is percussive and significantly wider and harder in the mid-range than VINTAGE. The mid spectrum can be shaped by the Custom Control TONE from "Hot Rodded British High Gain" to the "German Wall of Sound".
MODERN - With its extremely high gain reserves, this channel delivers crystal-clear string separation through massive low-cut and can be adjusted with the Custom Control TONE control from "cut through the mix" solo sound to "maximum brutality"-typical V-Adjust curve in the mids.
The nanotube power stage
100 watts with subtle tube sagging deliver huge power and lots of headroom, so that the power amp reacts tight and razor-sharp even at stage volume.
Note: the power amp of the AMP1 Iridium Edition was specially tuned to its preamps and does not sound neutral. It is therefore only conditionally suitable for connecting external preamps. For this it is better to use the AMP1 Mercury Edition, the power amp of which sounds more neutral.
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Expert features
While the AMP1 Mercury Edition has the Expert Features HALF POWER MODE , LOW GAIN MODE , FX loop on and off, FX loop on and off via MIDI and INDIVIDUAL CHANNEL GAIN, on the AMP1 iridium Edition you can also switch off the speaker simulation and set INDIVIDUAL GAIN & POWERSOAK via MIDI.
Reverb and noise gate
As soon as the reverb is switched on, the noise gate automatically switches to soft (if the noise gate switch on the side of the amp is set to METAL). By using the reverb, you can easily switch between a solo sound (with a soft gate) and razor-sharp riffs (with a hard gate). In addition, the various gate settings can be called up with the reverb foot switch and thus saved in your presets.
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Our good friends at The Studio Rats have made a nice video about the differences - especially in terms of sound - between the two amps:
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