Harley Benton MiniStomp Edgy

The good: really classy packaging, solid metal casing and buttons with a good feel.

The not so great: the device has extremely noisy electronics. whenever the echo is playing there is an audible hiss in the background. it becomes extremely noticeable when using very long tails, as the sound from the guitar slowly fades, but the hiss not. only once the output is below a certain level the hiss is gated out.

apart from this noise there is also another noise that is present all the time, whether a sample is playing or not, like a disturbance in the electrical output. if you put any high gain effect - like distortion etc. - after the Edgy in the sound chain this noise gets amplified to ridiculous levels. I found several of the ministomp units I ordered were suffering from this same problem, which makes it practically impossible to use several of the ministomp effects in the same chain, as each may amplify the hiss from the previous one and then adds it's own noise on top. I find this very unfortunate, that although they clearly put attention and money onto the packaging and the casing they seem to have skipped on quality where it matters most, IE in the electronic components which affect the audio output. As it is these devices may be shiny and classy looking, but the sound quality is just not there. Will be returning it.