Audio Deluxe is running a Waves special.

The Mercury bundle with SSL 4000 & Abbey Road bundles. That's the full Waves catalog for USD. $2,600. I already have the CLA signature bundle and the Renaissance bundle.

UAD are having a special too. I'm currently running a UAD2 Quad card with some of the very basic plugins.

Would I get better value/quality spending the money on getting all the waves plugs or getting some of the UAD plugins.

The UAD's will require the Hardware.

While I am a very avid supporter of Waves, I would say 
if you have the money, get the Hardware and some UAD plugins.

The main reason I say this is that, since the UAD plugs are hardware based,
they will take some load off your CPU, and are just as good, if not better, then
the Waves.

I love Waves, but their products seem to be very "non-friendly" with Sonar.
I recently dumped Waves, as I found I was tired of the issues with Sonar.
Many have no issues, but I was not one of the lucky ones, and didn't want
to waste any more time waiting for fixes. 

As Rush says "Roll the Bones"
 

I've edited my post to include that I have a UAD 2 Quad card.

mudgel
I've edited my post to include that I have a UAD 2 Quad card.

That makes it much clearer...

In that case, you would have to weigh the cost/benefit ratio...

You'd be getting just about every Waves plugin, which is a tremendous deal.

I don't know what UAD's your looking for, but, for that kind of money, you should
also able to get a bunch.

Again, the primary advantage is the CPU offload.  If I already had the hardware, I would
certainly be after the plugins to take advantage of it, but that's just me.

To me, it would be a no-brainer ... UAD plugins beat Waves nearly every time. Quality over quantity. You're less likely to make use of all those Waves plugins than a few choice UADs like the new 1176, LA2A, and Pultec collections (each of which is on sale right now, and each of which blows all competition away in my book).

If you have time, try comparing demos of a few UAD plugs like the API EQs, the SSL channel, etc. with their Waves equivalents. I suspect your choice will be clearer then. Have fun!

Cheers,
Eddie

Even though I got all my UAD plugs over time on sale, it's fair to say that I have not used them all heavily. But they are in the toolbox if I need them.
 
Ditto on my Waves Mercury bundle and the added SSL (yes the SSL suite IS NOT included in Mercury. The Abbey Road plugs are not generally included either). I got my Mercury for a bit less than $2600 and I still feel it was worth it.
 
WRT who "wins", I dunno. I just use what I use when I use it. I'm not a big "compare" guy.
 
BTW, the Waves WUP had been very good to me as I bought in on Mercury 8 and have got some major additions since then. 

Waves all the way because of a simple thing : tools !!
 
yep you ain't gonna use all , all the time , but dude you need a noise reduction on a crapy recording : biggo
 
you need metering , there you go , need m/s plugins, there you go , need aphase alignement tools ?§ , you got it ....neeed to give a client a high quality premix with pro sounding voclas ?  signature series ...you need to mix on a laptop (some of their plugins are super light on cpu !! can use a boucnh on a microsoft surface !!!) ect
 
If you can offord : get it and then focus on making music !!
 
It was hard decision for me to buy it because in EU we tend to boycott this Country products , but thos guyz are serious , makes great product , support it and you're not linked with a dangerous HW that will be obsolete since they release cpu heavy plugins time after time (smart) ....you will avoid headaches and limitations  ...
 

I hate Waves as a Company - they ripped me off very badly a couple of times, so even though I own some of their stuff still, I took the decision never to upgrade their stuff, so it now does not work in X3 - so be it.
Now UAD on the other hand are a great company - on my computer upgrade here in Cape Town just before Christmas, I had a problem - even allowing for the time difference, UAD support sorted it all out extremely quickly and they are FRIENDLY.
So for me, UAD EVERY time - purchase waves at your peril would be my advice.
Nigel
 
 

I own the Waves Mercury kit and a bunch of UAD plugs.  If pressed, I'd go for UAD and buy a few Waves plugs a la carte.
 
There are certain Wave plugs that are outstanding, like the Vocal and Bass Riders.
 
As a company, Waves isn't as friendly/supportive to musicians as I'd like.  UAD's customer service is unquestionably at the top of my list.
 
Depending on your computing power, it could also be worth it to offset the cpu load and go with UAD.