What you don't realize is that Sony bought MCI in the 80s and went all in on the pro audio market culminating in the C8000 and the first convolution reverb, dre s7000. They also acquired the developer who created Acid, the forerunner to ableton and they really pu sdd hed the hell out if time stretch technology. And all digital recording apart from DSD comes from the sony/Phillip's PCM format. They were always at the forefront of stabdalone digital recorders. Apart from otari radar which came later, the sony machines we had at my first job were the best sounding CD quality hard disc recorders, probablythefirst ones actually. Those Lord-Alge bros still use their 48 track digital tape deck. Sony wss a big player until Digidesign and Napster sunk the industry. There was also the Oxford digital console that folks rave about and then the DMX mixers that to my ears still sound good today. Their analog mixers had MCI DNA. I've always enjoyed the clean sound if the mxp line, a 3000 with some 3rd party modules is amazing. Sony were smart enough to get while the getting was good though. They just make microphones now. Really good ones.
EDIT: If anyone has a real budget, the klark teknik dn780 is my favorite sleeper reverb of all time. Its mono in, stereo out but the sound really dits in a mix. I've been using mine extensively lately and not for the AMS non-lin setting, the halls are great... on the last thing I did for @ThCraymer I used a small room on his verse vocals and it really sounded spectacular once I raode the return fader a bit. Its shocking that a 40 year old reverb can sound so legit but it does. For rock and retro synth music I'll take it over a lexicon 480 ir960 because its unobtrusive but still lush enough to be present. The only thing I like more is the quantec yardstick, but those are unobtainium. I believe Steve Alvini told me the Klark was the only digital reverb he liked (it may have been a different punk production icon though, I'm getting old and those drunken AES conventionsare a blur) and I was privileged to try one out shortly after he said that. I finally acquired one about 5 years ago.
My 2nd favorite sleeper us the sony mu-r201, the first true stereo verb. It's the Tomtom magic. There's an ibanez branded version. Expect to pay about 200 clams. The sony r7 is also very very nice but the interface isn't great. The dps multi fx units are also great and easier to patch... I've been thinking of acquiring a 55. Speaking of going with a multi fx unit ,the sony models, the yami spx line and of course the lexi 300 and it's more wallet friendly successors are really the only way to go unless you can afford an eventide H3000 or something. Even my lexi mx200 and 400 will humiliate a quadraverb in every department. Those are great bread and butter units for around 100dollars, the sound is there but there's limited parameter control even in the plugin and the plugin is 32 bit and no longer supported by lexi. I would recommend an mx, lxp, alex or reflex over anything alesis as someone's sole hardware processor. But if you can step up to an six or sony? Do it.
But always remember that reverb is a privilege, not a right. If I catch anyone slapping one of the units i mentioned across their master bus or using it as a vocal insert I'm going to come to your bedroom studio and confiscate it!
-s.webp?v=1783318437 "Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer")
-s.webp?v=1783436227 "Roland SH-101")
-s.webp?v=1783436217 "Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer")
