I own the early grey box version. I use this pedal through the fx loop of my Mesa Lonestar Special. This pedal may not look like much but the tone coming out of this thing is just so warm and natural. I used to have a Maxon AD-900 analog delay which was a good pedal (although it costs $300+. That pedal had more delay capabilities due to more delay time available but needless to say, i never found myself using the longer delays anyway. Anyway, i couldn't justify keeping the pedal considering how much i paid, so i sold it. I bought the Line 6 delay modeler for an array of delays which is nice for digital type stuff, but still doesn't give me that one great, natural delay tone that I would feel good about having on all the time with any amp/guitar/effect. It is good for what it does, but I find that it takes away some of my natural tone, especially when using overdrive/distortion. Well, I bought this Arion delay and let me tell you, this thing is a keeper. In all honesty, i think it has more vibe than the the Maxon. The delay from the Arion is less noticable, it's there, but not in your face, and definately retains the tone you already have, just adds it's own thing, which in my opinion, sounds cool. And when you kick in some overdrive, this thing fits right in great and smooths everything out without adding the harshness that some delays add. I can't say it's the end all delay because it is limited as to how much it can do as far as delay time goes, but for what it does do, it's great. That's all you can ask out of an effect, is to sound great for what it does, and this one fits the bill!!! I feel like I can rate the sound quality a 10 because I've owned the Maxon AD900, which is considered one of the best analog delays, an EH memory man which is great for what it does, and own a Line 6 delay, so I've owned several very high quality delay fx and have a good feel for what's available, and am the most pleased with the Arion!!!
