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This is being compared to my Randall Rd 20. The Randall is hooked up to a Rivera RockRec, then is fed IRs. I compared both with no pedals of any kind. Also compared them with the stock Blackstar IRs and being fed both the same IRs. As for the amount of gain, they're both similar (to me anyway). The Randall sounds much more 'dark'. I dialed in a similar eq with the Blackstar (as close as I could get it), and it seemed to be livelier and a bit tighter. As for features, the Blackstar obviously has more, which I won't get into (it's all in the product description). I really love the clean channel. That combined with certain black star IRs, I can get a really good, classy, smooth jazz tone. A touch of reverb is a nice touch. The crunch channel is great for blues. The overdrive channel with the pre-boost can easily get into modern metal. If I want even more, I can switch on an overdrive pedal for a little extra gain. Though, it's not really needed.I love the Tube response feature. I personally prefer EL34 for overdrive, and EL84 for clean.I can't comment on the Power features, as I record silently. I've recorded with both the USB method, and the XLR method. The USB is very useful if you want to change up the IRs later with the unprocessed signal. There is latency, so I would recommend hooking your headphones up to the actual unit, and not through your audio interface. Reaper (which I use) automatically adjusts for the latency, so the recorded result is fine. The other thing I love is the size and portability of it. It's only the size of a few pedals, sits on my desk, and I even brought it on vacation. Overall, I'm starting to enjoy it more than the Randall. However, everyone's tastes will be different. The only thing I wish it had was a way to load in your own IRs to the actual unit. It's not a deal breaker, since you can just add them later to the recording. I didn't comment on everything. These are the things that just jumped out at me.