Analog Tape Delays: Echoplex vs Roland

[gekichan]

Hi everybody,
I'm pretty sure I wanna get a good vintage Tape Delay. I never owned one and I was asking myself which is the best machine to get. The market seamed mostly dedicate to the Echoplex or the Roland series. Do you have some advice regarding the difference between those? Which one would you try to buy?

Thanks!
g.

[pflosi]

afaik the roland ones have more dedicated "rate" knobs. they alter the speed in which the tape is played; the echoplex ones alter the distance between the tape heads. because of this difference, the roland ones can also have various tape heads (not only two), so different echo modes are possible. this is at least to my knowledge and experience a major difference, just not to begin to talk about the spring verbs and chorus in some roland units…

[wiss]

The big difference is the sound on sound that all echoplex have. I think the Roland 301 and 501 might have it, do not know for sure.

[sam]

The Roland 501/301 have SOS......