Well it arrived at 11-o Clock this morning and I stuck my own batteries inside and gave it a try. I'd scrutinised the You Tube demos by many people so I had a good idea what to expect by way of sound quality, it is excellent. Sadly that's where it ends, because the necessary editing isn't available to do what needs to be done to achieve those Shadows echoes. There is a hell of a lot in there and it is a big improvement on stuff we've had in the past, but you cannot individually adjust the heads (or taps) tonally or by sound level, which is key to those magic patterns on the Meazzi. It does an almost perfect Binson Echorec II as well as a perfect Roland Space Echo, but the Binson was never right as the heads are all the same level on the real machine.
If I was desperate, I could easily use it as my main echo and put up with the 'flaws' and I don't think anyone in an audience would ever realise, but I won't be keeping it as I have several other machines that do the same thing.
Just one thing that niggles me about these people on YouTube who make these videos demonstrating this gear. Why don't they play recognisable music that is associated with the piece of kit they are demonstrating, instead of just occasionally name dropping David Gilmour or the bloody Edge whatever he is. They sit there spouting crap and strumming chords, totally ignoring the stuff for which we would be interested in buying the piece of kit. Just saying.
I ended up sending for this in the hope that the required editing would be on board, simply because the demonstrators mentioned many times how a great Binson, Space Echo and EchoPlex could be mimicked, but they never once showed it's multi-tap capabilities, instead buggering about with 'bit crushers', 'sweeps' , 'filters' and gimmicks that I don't give a toss about. Every echo they choose is a single delay, be it digital, analogue or tape. They do occasionally mention the 'dual' delay, but you find yourself losing the will to live, waiting for the best bits with the multi-taps, I honestly don't think they have a clue. Bottom line - it's going back from whence it came.