Empress EchoSystem vs Strymon TimeLine

Up until this point I was a fully avowed and singularly dedicated Strymon follower, being a huge fan of their flagship pedals which I use daily - The Mobius, TimeLine and BigSky. In fact I had been aware of Empress for a while - for their ParaEq, Multidrive and Heavy pedals in particular. Although it wasn’t really until the Empress Reverb that my interest was fully piqued. Both the Empress Reverb and Strymon BigSky are amazing Reverb workstations and each has its pros and cons - while there is much to recommend either choice. On balance though I concluded that for my current needs etc. the BigSky was largely preferable for now. This does not mean I have discounted the Empress Reverb entirely, as it is still high on my wishlist - I am hoping that Empress does a Dual Engine version of that too so I don’t need to concern myself overly with the forthcoming Source Audio Dual Engine Ventris Reverb.

For the Empress EchoSystem it’s already a totally different ballgame - not only does it house a phenomenal 36 different delay effects algorithms, it allows you to deploy them singularly or in dual-stack combinations - in series / parallel / or left/right stereo split. What this new pedal empowers you to do with your guitar is just second to none - it is easily the most capable and versatile delay pedal currently available. And however good the TimeLine is - and it is plenty amazing in its own right, it is now somewhat overshadowed by the powerful virtuosity of the EchoSystem.

I have tried to compare the two pedals head-to-head as fairly as possible- outlining both their inherent strengths and weaknesses. It must be said that I am by no means getting rid of the TimeLine - I still love it, and there are some things it still does better than anything else, it’s just that the EchoSystem has taken over as my day-to-day delay pedal of choice.

Both pedals are similar in price (£439 | £427), in fact I added the Strymon Looper Multiswitch (£82) to my TimeLine which brings its price up somewhat. Considering what both these pedals offer, the quality of build, technology onboard etc. these are relatively fair prices for high-grade studio-quality hardware.

For Studio Technicians, the TimeLine is probably more closely matched to those needs - as all the settings can be finely calibrated via sub-menus - to whole integers, and midi etc. is fully onboard, while with the EchoSystem - control is fully analogue as such (dials), and you need an additional external midi box.

Empress EchoSystem - Summary

A significantly smaller footprint than the TimeLine with a more hands-on user experience - all the settings are right there on the surface - via dials and switches. It’s easier to dial in specific effects directly, although not necessarily quicker to get started as you don’t have the already available 100 presets of the TimeLine. Also it’s not as easy to dial in the same settings the second time - as you don’t have exact integers on display (no screen) to cross-reference with.

These two pedals are actually technically quite different approaches, as the TimeLine has 12 full-scale engines with lots of scope for sub-menu settings and refinements - different waveforms etc. while the EchoSystem effectively separates out specific sounding effects - as an example - for Tape/dTape delay - the TimeLine gives you a variety of settings to modulate age, crinkle, wow & flutter, - while the EchoSystem has separate New Tape and Old Tape engines etc. - with just a couple of parameter settings via the Thing 1 & Thing 2 dials.

Overall I sort of prefer the EchoSystem approach, but it is tricky to keep having to go back to the handbook to recall what function Thing 1 and Thing 2 are serving. Even though I love the overall functionality and the aesthetic of this pedal, I still think it would / could benefit from a screen display - and I’m not talking about sub-menu selections, but simply to highlight what presets are active, and what parameters are assignable on Thing 1 & Thing 2. When you are stood up it’s not always easy to grasp what is selected - as the writing is relatively small.

I still have a few operational issues to get over while I am ongoingly learning about and living with the pedal - i.e. like how to switch back to manual panel mode once you are done with using presets? Otherwise my experience thus far has been enormously favourable. There are just a couple of things worth mentioning which the TimeLine handles better.

Firstly the volume on the EchoSystem seems to jump fairly significantly between Engines, and particularly when switching to dual modes - which require a little more tweaking of the Mix and Output Dials than I would like - the Strymon seems to equalise the effects much better for smoother sequencing between effects.
Lastly, the TimeLine also really benefits from assignable High Pass filter which cuts the low-end warble - meaning that effects are applied in a slightly more balanced fashion versus the EchoSystem which can suffer from distortion artefacts - particularly when ramping up through gain stages - seems that the TimeLine has a smoother curve.

The ideal solution is probably to make use of the best elements from each of the pedals - hopefully Empress can incorporate some of those improvements into firmware updates or at least the next version of this amazing pedal.

NOTE - one minor annoyance for me is that there are 36 mode types, but only 35 presets available, and unlike the TimeLine those presets aren’t fully populated. Would have been good to have all effect types populated to preset - so you can easily flip between and tweak to your preferences, as is the case on the TimeLine. We know that there are more modes en-route, so I’m not sure 35 presets will necessarily and wholly be enough?

EchoSystem - Control Dials & Switches 

Elegance itself in arrangement and use, although not always instantly clear what is going on - 13 dials and switches:

• mode - digital | tape | analog | multi | mod | filter | ambient | delay + reverb | reverse | stutter | lo-fi | whisky
• engines - single | dual parallel | dual serial | left / right
• delay time | ratio
• mix (wet/dry)
• output (level)
• feedback (decay)
• tone
• thing 1
• thing 2
• tap
• shift (+engines = order | +mode = solo active engine | +knob/s = assign to expression pedal | +tap = global/delay time source | +scroll = save preset)
• scroll
• bypass