Good morning Roger an all other interested parties. I have unpacked my Hall & Collins machine and done some comparing, A-B tests with similar timings and feedback etc.
Listening and playing with it again, I have to say that Charlie's H&C machine is terrific and although the Strymon is good, it isn't by any means better.
The Strymon is more like a 'real' machine would have been back in the day, with everything visible to edit your sound, where Charlie's is pre-programmed but editable in a slightly more complicated way, but only more complicated if you are not a technical minded type. Sound-wise I don't hear anything between them for the stuff we play.
OK, the Strymon comes in at £375 against Charlie's £599, but the extra that Charlie's costs is surely worth it for the programmes for people who don't understand how to achieve the echo patches. I personally love the challenge of finding the sounds on the old school machine and playing with the controls and making discoveries.
One thin is certain, we live in exiting times as we have never before had such a wealth of good gear to use for not too much money.
I'll have a bit of lunch, then I'll get the Blue Nebula out and do a similar comparison. I'll then record some samples and post them here later, is there anything that I could perhaps play other than the usual Apache / Wonderful Land that would show the machine's potential ? I do get tired of playing the same stuff so I'm open to suggestion, but I can tell you that I'm really enjoying this and really that's what life should be all about isn't it ?