Hi, I recently purchased a duende bundle and I must say these plugins are pretty awesome for what they are and I am wondering does it get any better then this in terms of quality. I have heard discussions on plugins like Sonoris that are pretty close in quality if not better, but what other alternatives are there out at the moment?

I always love the UAD plug-ins. Both platforms sound like high-end hardware, with the UAD stuff sounding like vintage hardware and the SSL stuff sounding like modern hardware.

I like the Sonnox Dynamics and Inflator, as well.

Actually, I am curious about this as well. There are some plugs that are highly regarded, but I have not yet had the chance to try out: fabfilter, waves, ddmf, stillwell, softube, wavearts, voxengo, urs (do we REALLY need this much choice in compressors and eq lol) and many others.

Most of these have demos I think, however I don't have the time to check them all out. Also, sometimes when evaluating these things my ears play tricks on me. Really the best way is to use them for some time in various projects. So maybe there are some experienced vst gurus out there that can comment

Personally, I tend to develop faith in companies and then stick to them. For example, I really trust Universal Audio, SSL, TC Electronic, and DDMF now, and usually find it rewarding to demo their plug-ins. I don't normally trust Waves too much but they really won me over with their H-series, so that I'm now very curious about trying their new NLS. I got completely turned off to Fabfilter after Volcano, Twin, One, Simplon, and Micro, and, even with all the hype around Pro-Q and Pro-C, I'm just not at all interested in trying out their studio plug-ins.