Akai Head Rush E2

There is a very slight learning curve, lots of features included in this pedal. I find the lay-out to be user-friendly and easy to understand.

I really enjoy using the looper on this pedal for building layers of sound, creating soundscapes and working out song ideas. It is a very useful tool.

The delays are decent digital delays. The high-end rolloff and echo modes aren't as convincing as my Deluxe Memory Man.

The only real use I get from the Akai is the looper. It is way too noisy for live use or recording. I like to use this in front of or in the effects loop of my amps - Fender Dual Showman, Soldano Hot Rod +, Peavey Classic 50. The Akai introduces an unacceptable amount of noise into the soundpath. Therefore, I can only use it at home as an idea generator. Low rating for loud hiss.

No problems in two years.

Like the usefulness, hate the noise. Will look elsewere for my next looper.

Once you read the manual, it's really easy to use. Without reading it, it's actually hard to get the right sound. This is because there are three different modes and a number of controls (time course/fine time) that take some time getting used to. Once you've spent 5 minutes reading the manual, you know what each knob does and it's rather easy to get the sound you want.

However, there are some 'flaws'. In normal delay mode, there is one control for rough time setting, and one control to fine tune this. The control to fine tune it (and you will need it) will control the 'head gap' in tape echo mode. This is really annoying, because you might depend on fine time for accuracy in normal delay, while head gap is something you will probably want to set differently.

Another thing I don't like is that you can either fix the loop level (which is a nice function to have) or have its level controlled by the same knob you use for the delay level. Don't get me wrong, it's better than not having this choice (between 'fix' and 'vari') but I would have preferred a separate level knob.

Either way, after playing with it a lot, I know how it works and it mainly works just fine.

My setup: Fender Jaguar (CIJ with stock pickups) and Epiphone Les Paul Custom (stock pickups) through a whole lot of other pedals and finally into a Fender Blues Junior.

It's not really noisy, sometimes I do notice a little noise in tape echo mode, but it's not too bad.

The only thing I don't like about the sound quality is that it often sounds slightly processed. Especially with feedback turned all the way up and hf damp turned up to at least 12 o'clock, it sounds somewhat 'cold' - while hf damp does its job really well. On more normal delay settings, like a little slapback, it sounds like I need it to sound. On tape mode, especially when using the head gap function (which is really fun to toy with, it can sound as if you're using two separate delays), it has this shrill sound to it as well, but overal it sounds alright.

Can I depend on it? Simple answer: No.

The first headrush I got, started having problems with the footswitches after a week or so. The problem was that both footswitches only worked half the time you stomped them, meaning that you can't depend on tap tempo or looping in time.
I emailed the shop about it, they gave me a new one. This one didn't have the poor footswitches, but it did tend to just stop playing the loop every now and then. It's as simple as that: you record a loop, maybe an overdub or two, playing along to it and then it just stops playing. It has forgotten that it's supposed to be playing a loop, and you can't put the same loop back on either. As if you've never recorded that loop in the first place.

So, I had that one returned as well. With my third, I've given up. The footswitches work most of the time but not all the time, it forgets the loop every now and then, but it's alright. I make sure that I know how to set the time knobs for the right delay time when I need to use it (for example for RHCP - Don't Forget Me), and I just don't really use the looper live. Just for some noises for an intro, but not through an entire song. But that's also due to the fact that it's hard to do the timing right when playing with a drummer.

I do gig with this without a backup, but I don't use very much delay so if it stopped working completely, I wouldn't miss it.

I haven't dealt with Akai, but have with Musicstore.de and they were very helpful and just. The two times I emailed them about my problems, they had a postal service collect my old one and sent a new one. Took some time, but that's alright.

If this pedal worked properly, it would be a perfect match for my playing. I want a looper with long looping time for writing music on my own, an analog sounding short delay to make my sound a bit fuller, and a longer tap tempo delay for a few specific songs, including a very psychedelic jam I once recorded.

I've been playing for 6 years, I've already mentioned my guitars and amp elsewhere in this review. Other pedals are a Korg DT-10 tuner, Boss DS-1, Ibanez SF-5 fuzz, Dunlop crybaby, Marshall vibratrem, MXR Phase90, Blackstar overdrive, EHX Holy Grail and a Moogerfooger Freqbox.
I'd say this pedal is one of the poorer elements in my gear. in theory, it's a great pedal. But it's just too unreliable and it sounds alright, but not great.

If it were stolen, I would look out to buy myself the same features in one or more different pedals. I simply don't get how a few artists (KT Tunstall, Radiohead) can depend on a pedal that, in my case, 3 out of 3 times, don't properly work. As long as it works, it's a nice pedal that is exactly what I need.

The usability is pretty immediate out of the box. The looping facility takes a bit of getting used to and timing is everything with pressing the buttons.

The manual is minimal but with the limited number of controls it's pretty easy to figure out what does exactly what. Having searched the web I've managed to discover that the looping time switch is a toggle for the sampling frequency.

I'm using this with various guitars: Ibanez Jem, Fender Strat and a Traveller Speedster through a Laney AOR 30/12. I can't fault the sound quality. There are a few clicks and pops when changing between modes but this doesn't bother me too much.

Early days but the build standard looks and feels good.

No comment.

My setup these days is based around home recording. With a Line-6 Tone Port GX and Gear Works software. What I hugely enjoy is running iTunes with all my music out through the Tone Port, into the Head Rush and out to the amp. I can sample-and-hold a break from a favourite track and then jam over the top. With a little practice this can all be done quite seamlessly and the possibilities are endless.

It's wonderful for practice and jamming. It's great for working out riffs and licks.

I'd certainly recommend it and would replace if lost.

Very easy to use. Basically three sections: looping, standard delay, and anlog "multi-head" simulation. My manual was a little off on how to use the looper - translation issue probably...but nothing major. It said after you record your initial loop you hit the record switch again to put it in play mode. That's wrong - you hit the play switch, then the record switch again when you want to overdub. You must hit the play switch to get out of overdub - if you hit the record switch while overdubbing it will erase everything except your intital loop.

Great sound quality. I have a lot of delays in my studio. My best and most versatile by far is the Damage Control Timeline. High resolution, tubes, stereo, modulation, reverse, ping-pong, multi-head, looping, tap, strum, and midi tempo. But its much more expensive.

The Headrush's analog delay mode has a really cool multi-head simulation. The rhythmic permutations are really usable and inspiring. The longest delay time is 24 seconds not 35. You can get a 35 second loop when using the low resolution loop mode. When you use the standard resolution your maximum loop time is 24 seconds - that is if you just do one loop. If you want to overdub you only have 12 seconds. (17.5 in low res mode). 12 seconds is not that much time - but its dead easy to use and sounds great as long as you watch your levels.

seems to be built very well

haven't had to use it

I bought this pedal for two reasons - first: the ease in which you can loop. I saw KT Tunstall use it to build her loops for Black Horse and A Cherry Tree. She layers two measures and it kicks ass. The 2nd: for the multiple outs. In the "analog" delay mode your repeats can be routed to four separate outs along with the main out. Very unique feature! Its great for ambient/electronic/drone/experimental stuff. You can process each repeat separately. The pleasant suprise was the cool rhythms you can creat with that multi-head simulation.

This is less of a review and more of a quick question to all you headrush experts! :)
I recently bought an Akai E2 headrush and so far i have to say i am very pleased with it. However, i don't understand what it is i am missing which will allow me to put both the vocals and the guitar through the headrush at once? Please...help me if you can...as stopping between songs to change between microphones and guitars is really beginning to grate on me! Thanks in advance!

It takes a bit of time to figure out the best settings you'd like for both the tape echo and the digital delay, but there are trimming which allow you to really capture the exact feel you want - this is especially true for the Tape Echo. The Tap Tempo is a huge plus. The looping feature is fairly transparent - you just need to have your timing down!

There was no color to the tone. The unit speaks when spoken to... otherwise remains dead silent. Because of the broad amount of space provided for each echo type you have the ability to really get some great controlled bits of feedback from your echoes. I was especially interested in the Tape Echo and while it's no true tape/reel unit - it doesn't sound as cold as many others professing to have Tape Echo features.

Had mine for about 6 months... so far so good! It's built in a fairly durable case. I handle my equipment with care, so I anticipate this unit will last.

I haven't had this experience yet, and I hope I never have to contact them.

I play a good match of Indie Rock, some fusion and a bit of lo-fi singer-songwriter material. With the headrush you can really fill in the gaps and thicken a trio - as well as make yourself a one-man band. I use it to loop over riffs - so I can hit the melodies overtop. It's also great for the ocassional and lazy (note to self) singer, who doesn't want to play intricate runs while struggling for the harmony notes.

This pedal is very easy to use! You can select which setting (echo heads, delay, or loop) to use by simple hitting both buttons at the same time which means you dont have to bend down. This is a HUGE plus for live performers. Not to mention, recording a loop is CAKE (if you have good timing its absolutely stellar). But say for instance you're on stage, and you start your loop but faulter on a single note - you can hit the "start" button again to restart the loop at the next measure. This is an AMAZING capability in a loop pedal that is tailored to live performers!!! If youre thinking about getting the RC20XL - forget that piece of junk and go with the e2.

Agile>LPB1 Power Booster>TrueBypassSwitch>ZOOM505>EH Pulsar>BUDDAWAH>EH Memory Man with Hazarai> AKAI Headrush
No extra fuzz when disengaged
The loop playing back sounds great!!! its 16-bit to ensure excellent quality playbacks.
Russian Circles uses this pedal!! I found this out 2 days after I bought it and was not surprised at all.

I have a secondary looper in my Memory Man Hazarai. But even if I did not I would gig with out a backup. The unit is VERY solid.

I hear good things from AKAI, I have never dealt with them personally

If some jerk stole this, I would spend my food money on another one!!! I got the extended warranty for 20.00!

Its essentially a fancy delay pedal, a simple stomp box...that is until you get playing with it. the delay has a nice variation on sounds as well as times, owing to the "fine time" function. you can get the edge like arpeggio stlye delay, long, almost loop like delays using only the tap tempo button. and, a biggy for me, its easy to create and shape stunning dub delay using the hf damp feature.

The echo feature is something i havent used much yet, but i imagine i will seeing as one of the bands im in is surfy-rockabilly. what i've learnt so far is that it is sufficiently different from the delay to choose this pedal ahead of say a dedicated digital delay. All this before i've got the loop bit!

looping and overdubbing is easy (with correct timing, which i'm still working on). the unit will carry on adding new layers that you play during the loop. things start to get a little muffled after 7 or 8 layers, but thats still impressive in my book. the lack of storage and editing is only a minor blotch on a simple, yet clever system.

The manual is simplistic, but really if you play with the head rush for more than half an hour you wont need it any way.

Well, well. I bought this bad boy primarily to add atmospheres and sonic swiftness to my bands sound, and I am not disappointed. within seconds I was creating a vast array of noises, such as weird robot like sounds, sitar tones and seemingly never ending repeat tones that are just superb. the hf damp feature is a godsend, allowing you to dampen the higher frequencies that you are playing, which not only lends itself to sounding very cool and analogue, but also provides what is essentially an analogue and digital delay/echo system.

I'm not sure what the ratio does exactly yet, but it sounds cool when you play with it, so go nuts!

As mentioned earlier, the quality of the looped samples starts to decline after around layer 7 or so, but if you want more layers than that you should spend the extra fifty pounds on the boss rc-20 xl.

Not sure yet, only had it a couple of days. it does have a rugged build though and switch buttoned stomp boxes have always lasted me longer than boss style pedal ones.

i'm gigging with it next week for the first time so I will let you know what i think then.

my friend has the previous model (the e1) and he has never had any trouble with it in the last 5 years.

I've dealt with akai before when my MPC broke down, and they were very helpful and saw that it was repaired with 10 days, which is quite impressive i think.

I play atmospheric rock/dub/rockabilly and i think i have found my perfect delay. the boss digital delay is too noisy i think, and doesnt offer you nearly as much in features and scope, for what is, in the uk at least, the same/similar prices.

Using it at home with the electro harmonix holy grail, boss od 3 and electro harmonix double muff has worked brilliantly for me. it takes no tone away, and some of the echos even a warmth to the overall tone.

i play an epiphone dot through a marshall dfx100, and it sounds just fine. also tried it with bass through an ashdown combo and it loses nothing with the lower frequencies.

i compared this product to the boss rc series, and the boss digital delay. although the loop system is basic, i felt this offered me a whole lot more. and as mentioned, the price is a pull.

the only thing i can say is that i wish the looping was slightly more complex and the live modelling a little smoother. other than that though, i have absolutely no complaints.

ive messed with a few different looping pedals--boomerang, boss, line 6, digitech-- i went back out and purchased the akai after having the old E1 model. essentially the same pedal. i prefer this looping pedal over the others mostly because of its use in live situations for both the delay and looping settings are much more practical and quicker than all others. the line 6 a close second.

there are some knobs and features that i still dont use mainly because ive never tried. i know what i need the pedal for and believe me, it is heavily abused already.

originally with the old E1, if my gain on my guitar was cranked, id distort the delayed signal. but that has been fixed with the E2. also, with the old E1, after years and years of use and abuse, the delay and looping tracks were hissy. ive had the E2 for 2 years now and have no problems.

ive never had it fail on me. its one of my main pedals. in fact, if i had to choose just one pedal (god forbid) id choose this one. the old E1 in its last days lost its accuracy on the tap tempo. still, no problems with the E2 in this regard over the last 2 years.

unless you need a looping pedal that lasts longer than 25-30 seconds (14 when stacking loops), this is bar none the pedal i would recommend.

it's pretty easy to use once you learn how. i recomend reading the instructions so you get the full experience. but if you're like me and hate reading them, just plug it in and play with it. you wont be disappointed

i have never heard anything sound like it. i was about to buy a line6 dl4 but a friend talked me out of it and told me to try this. i love the sounds i get out of it.the delay is crisp and it does not color your tone. it's dead silent and the best thing about it is the ratio and head spacing features. it allows you to keep the repeats the same volume or diminish as you wish, plus you can do 4 repeats in a row or couple 2 together for a really cool double delay effect. i can get anything from U2, to coldplay as well as some Muse out of it. i absolutely love this pedal. i believe it to be better than the DL-4, though i have not tried it. i haven't played with the loop feature much, but when i do i can almost be a band by myself.

it's built like a tank, i like the nice metal casing it comes with and the switches seem pretty sturdy. i'm taking it out on it's maiden voyage in an month. i'll repost when i play with the rest of my band.

havent heard anything about them. hopefully i won't have to

my set up: Jay Turser Les Paul copy(fully customized, did it my self as a project)and a telecaster->A/B box->Behringer nf100(loop send->DOD Mystic Blues Overdrive-> boss OD-3->Keeley Ds-1 Ultra)-Akai Headrush e2->digitech Digidelay->Boss Nf-1(mij)->1970's Univox 1226 60w tube half stack.
I play pretty much anything, and i've loved delay sounds for years. i've been playing for close to 10 years, not a pro, but getting close.

The overall abilities you can achieve out of the pedal are more then easily found after a little bit of time spent playing around with each of the controls.
The dampening control is especially useful when trying to achieve a good old delay sound.
It comes with a very descriptive manual, easy to read/understand.
I recommend you work out something decent before you try it out though, hard to get the optimum performances out of it if you haven't rehearsed anything to play. My fave is Teen Town al la Michael Manring.

I became interested after learning the bands Russian Circles and Don Caballero use it. All of the functions of the pedal produce a very accurate tone, very impressed with the sound.

I play both bass and guitar and have used both through it. I used my cousins Eden rig, not sure of the model numbers, it was a WT head and the one of the highest quality 2 by 10's at 4 ohms.
sounds like butter.
my bass is a Dean Razor NT, jazz p/ups.
I used my Epiphone LP custom through my performance amp, a custom built peter paisley amp. mainly yamaha components with a 15" EV speaker, a bass and guitar amp for me.
Both instruements buzz slightly especially if they are biased on one of the p/ups. the pedal is as quiet as a mouse though, if i turn the instrument down the loop or delay sound has a less obvious buzz then the instrument produces, might be quite the phenomonon.
The Tape echo simulation is awesome, you can produce very odd delay rhythms, as it explains in the manual, by working with the Feedback, the distance between the four head delays and the over all delay time. if you had a few amps you could also effect each delay differently.

I will definatly be using this in a live situation.
very good tool to fatten up sound if your in a smaller ensemble.

After i practice quite abit with it i'll definatly perform with it.

I bought it from Turramurra music in Sydney Australia.
I'm on a first name basis with the owner so i get very good customer support. Got a 25% discount on it.

Not sure about the company, but if they are anything as reliable as their products, they must be close to God.

I play alot of music, and many styles.
Rock, Progressive, Jazz, Metal, Fusion, Pop.

bands i mentioned earlier, Russian Circles and Don Cab are both large influences, as with King Crimson, Kayo Dot, Time of Orchids and many many more. These bands however inspired me hugely to purchase a looper/delay pedal.

if it were stolen i would a) track the bastard down and steal it back or b) buy another for sure.

i love every aspect, when jamming with a drummer you can do some very interesting breakbeat thing, play a bass line, add chords, turn of the loop to jam then hit the play loop button to go back to the head etc.

the only other loop pedal i have used was put to shame by the Headrush. I used the Line 6 delay modeller. and it doesn't compare at all.

I highly recommend buying one of these pedals. either for a looper, a tape echo simulator or plainly as a delay pedal. for all 3 of its features it is of high quality.

The sound quality is good with no discernable hiss which means I can have it patched into my mixer permanently and route stuff through it, as i do with say a midiverb. Overall I found it very easy to learn and use, and not forget again.

But, there isn't an input volume control, I guess because it presumes guitar level signals. I play keyboards and plugged it into a bus output from my desk and caused it to clip. I had then to reroute things taking it down a full 15db before I was safe, tying up channels when I really just wanted to use an Aux.

The sound is marred though when you tweak a knob. e.g adjusting the feedback control interjects irritating glitches into the sound. Also when the delay time knob is adjusted it mutes out part of the sound from the loop. I would expect tweaking knobs to not affect the sound beyond the obvious.

Changing patches is easy. I did consider the Boss rc-20xl until I read about the complexity, then opted for the E2. I like the way that the functionality is right there, just behind the knobs, not buried under bewildering options. The simple footswitch arrangement works well, Play and Rec, although I do have an issue with the implementation of overdub.

The manual is fine, but I need things A4 for my eyesight and studio gloominess! I just download all my manuals from the interknot and stuff them on a CD.

Firmware is November 2007 vintage

The favorite artist inspiring me to use this box is Fripp and Eno. For this the digital delay is good, especially using the damping feature.

I don't use the 4 head echo simulation and I'm not sure why they bothered implementing this especially the individual head output circuits which seem to be a waste of some good digital/analog converters. These could have been used to implement stereo.

The loop mode is in my opinion poorly thought out. There are other comments in this forum on this, but basically you can't build the sound layers that you would expect. It is just a recorder, a one shot track for an underlying theme plus a second looping track which plays on top, and can be discarded in its entirety so you can start again. This process just doesn't satisfy though. IMHO they should have implemented it differently. I want to be able to build up a loop progressively, just like in digital echo mode, then mush it down using the filter and feedback knobs, then if I like it commit it to safe memory so it carries on playing perpetually. Then I want to build up another loop using the same process and if I like it to commit that into the safe memory, pushing the original track in safe memory back by say 3db. This would require no more processing power or memory or hardware. Give us the source code and I'll do it myself!

Dependabiliy I would think is good considering its construction and simplicity. I would use it at a gig without a backup, its one of the more solid bits of kit that I own.

I've not needed to deal with the company yet

It matches the style of music I want to play etc

I would buy it again, and I'm almost thinking of buying another one to put in series because I reckon that with two you could almost have the perfect looping setup.

Anything I wish it had......well here goes...

1. An input attenuator switch that knocks the input down by say 15db for people using desks
2. A better looping algorithm along the lines described that allow proper texturing. I believe this would be easy to implement and a massive benefit
3. Stereo instead of the extra head output jacks - this would need more memory and yeah I know its supposed to be for guitar etc
4. Filter cut knob that doesn't just suppress the HF. I would suggest an hf cut plus a degree of none linear compression to emulate the mushing that you get from a tape deck
5. Knobs that don't put artefacts into the sound when you twiddle them
6. A MIDI in out for time sync. I would love to be able to properly lock it to my drum machine

Overall this is a great product and I love its simplicity. Bring on the E3 I say and please akai, incorporate some of the features in this forum.

Pretty simple for sampler/loopers. Once you get the hang of it, it's very user friendly. Timing is everything! In the Looper feature, you must know that if you use all the recording time, you can not overdub and record that and build endless layers. You can only overdub if you do not use all the original time. Possible buyers need to know this fact. The Digitech Jamman doesn't have this issue. Delay is average. The unit has several options for routing out the delays in the tape mode. Nice feature.

Here's where this pedal shines! What tone you put in it is the tone you get out of it. I'm a tone freak, so this single feature was highly important to me. Delay is clean and clear. My other delay pedal(Line 6 Echo Park) put out a rythmic hum even when disengaged because of the tap temp and being digital. The Headrush does not have that problem with it's tap tempo. The Looper quality is excellent. I researched a lot of loopers like the 'Rang and its problem seems to be that it's a tone hog; not an issue with the Headrush!

I've only had it about a day, but so far it's holding up to my long jams! Can't say as to long term reliability.

I found this pedal through audioMidi.com. Haven't spoke to anyone at Akai yet. Hope i don't have to.

Overall, I love this pedal. I have all these tunes in my head, and now I can lay them down and jam overtop! This feature will help all players develop their technique. The record time could be longer. Also, a major flaw this pedal has is that you can not save any of your looped creations. The Jamman has this saving ability. FYI buyers! It would be nice to save what I've created for later use, but I guess it makes you better building it again and again. Practice makes perfect. All in all, this is a great pedal. Ease of use, sound quality and the ability to jam endlessly is GREAT!!!

It's easy to use even though it has 3 modes of operation. The front panel graphics let you know what each function does by color code.

Sound quality is really good. I've used it for guitar and vocals.

built like a tank. no problems so far.

never needed to

Rockabilly - the tape delay is great for that.
U2 the Edge delay - the digital delay works well for this.
Looping delat - don't use it for this much but it is fun to play with.

I compared it with the Line 6 DL6, and the other delay pedals. It sounds better and is easy to use live.
If it was lost or stolen, I'd get another.
It has a separate out for each simulated head in the tape delay mode which I've never used and probably never will but it could so some interesting surround things if you were into it.

This is my first time using a looper and its extremely easy to use. The manual is sufficient enough but you could figure out how to use it without one.

The best part is after you create the initial loop you can overdub as many layers as you want with only tapping one footswitch. I can be 10 ft away from the Headrush and still layer loops, its great.

This thing is dead quiet.

The delay is great and with the HF Damp you can get a more natural analog sounding delay, very nice.

The tape echo delay is fun to muck around with to, I can forsee some ambient compositions.

The looping playback samples sound great too.

Seems pretty well built. Solid metal housing.

I've always wanted a looper and for the price of a Boss rc2 you can get a normal delay, a tape echo, and a looper all in one pedal. If you need more control over your loops or want the ability to save your loops go with another pedal. If you are a simplistic this is the looper for you.

This thing really gets the creative juices flowing. I've been jamming nonstop with my invisible band for hours now. Its great.

Very easy to use - The looper is more user friendly than others I have used. The delay and echo are just about tweaking knobs and tapping the tempo.
But lets face it - IDK anyone who would buy this just to send 4 outs for different tape echos! - If you are doing that sort of thing you probably have much more complicated effects - Not sure what Akai was thinking with all those outs -
MY Suggestion - get rid of all the outs and extra knobs and make it half the size - Put a half speed or reverse button for the looper -

IN ANY CASE - I havent decided to keep it but IT IS GREAT - just cant afford 3 loopers.

Play with the features and you will learn it on your own -
GREAT ASPECTS: press the buttons simultaneously and it switches modes (great for live .vs. the DL-4 which cannot change using buttons)
The looper is simple and great - Too short with overdubs - you cant do much more than a cool riff r harmonized melody - BUT one thing: YOu can just leave the record button on and keep overdubbing whenever you press the red button - this means you can undo and refdo over and over or leave it on until you are ready to record (also great for live with a band)
NEgatives: Too big for what it does - uses own adapter - the Outs for the Echo is just a waste of space - The overdubbing must be longer - even 20 or 30 seconds would make a difference
ALSO: would love to have 1/2 speed button or reverse (like boomerang or Dl-4)
BIGGEST FLAW: No delay/echo while looping (Dl4 does have echo while looping) - so if you want to loop a delayed sound you need another delay somewhere in the mix (C'mon Akai think - functional for gig!)
Overall - Noone makes the perfect looper at a reasonable price - and I like having the tap tempo delay option -

This thing is great for gigging with a full band - setting up a rhythm - intro a song - or harmonize a line - Also switch to echo and delay and it is a breeze to use - also while it is a bit bulky it is smaller than the Dl4 and boomerang

Great Delay sound and range though it is just an echo or delay - no reverse or ping pong or anything like that - Plus as stated you need to have another delay if you want to loop with delay -
I havent found it noisy - the EXTENDED looping sounds pretty good and very usable - very crisp
I use Strat - Synth wah - Vol - Cry baby - TS/snasamp - Sometimes delay - then AKAI - Line 6/Fender amp

Delay - I personally dont get the High Damp thing so I leave it down - The tap tempo is great and I can get really LONG time so it mimics a looper on a long delay tap
Looper - on the fly - it is great - easy to use - you dont need to hold down the Overdub and you can build and build and press the overdub and it will get right back to the original loop
WISH it had reverse - more time - delay on the loop

Havent had it long - but it looks like a tank (heard bad things aout the DL4) all cool metal and solid - but I am sure it will get some serious wear after a year
Knobs move like butta - so nice when it feels solid

Not applicable

I pay rock - blues - mid eastern - fusion -
Strat - Godin Mando - Line 6 or Fender tube -
If boomerang makes a small version - I hope they research the HR -
This is not the looper for long full songs or practicing Jazz tunes etc... -
BUT - it is the best for easy live application with a full band (Boss adjusts your tempo - assholes!! - boomerang is a bit big and the overdub must be held down - Dl4 has less time on single loop, some button problems and it is bigger) - For solo gigs go with a longer time looper - with a project this thing does a lot and is an easy user friendly looper/delay

It is easy to use for a looper. Delay feature has lots of knobs and options. it's can get pretty complicated using 5 outputs diefferent head gaps etc...but how often are you going to do that?

New features on this that the E1 didn't have are an extended time mode and the ability to adjust the playback level of the loop.

I had the original headrush and was never happy with it. It had a 60 cycle hum, sucked tone, input overloaded very easily. i had to get rid of it because of the flaws but i really liked what it could do. I was sceptical about this unit thinking it was probably the same thing in a different box, but eventualy i had to get one and try it because i had been missing the old unit in spite of its flaws.

With the E2 Akai has fixed every flaw in the original E1 and added the abilility to make a loop 12 seconds longer, and adjust the loop level. The hum is gone. The input does not distort. The unit is very hi-fi sounding and dead quiet. everything i always wished the E2 could be. The lo-fi mode sounds better to me than the E1 and the normal mode even better. I am very pleased with what akai has done here.

The delay can go from pristine to down right spooky. It wouldn't be fair to say that it sounds like tape, analog, or any other digital delay. It sounds like itself. it is a very good sound and you can do things with it that you cannot do with analog, tape, or other digital delays. I have many of all three types and this is the quietest.

My tape delay has three heads and it has a cool character that this unit doesn't. you cannot change the head gap on most real tape delays. You can on an echoplex but that only has one playback head so you are really just changing the delay time. Thee only digital delay i have used with 4 taps is the tc electronic g-force. I have much more fun with the E2 than I ever did programing that beast and the sound quality is almost as high. Plus the E2 lets your repeats spill over when turned off while the g-force abruptly cuts off the tail.

The E1 had a plastic outer housing. This unit is solid metal. looks kind of like an car stereo power amp. It is very rugged another great improvement. I use a lot of akai gear. They make very reliable products.

Akai has really great customer support. If they can't answer something right off they will find out and call you back. I have allways had very positive dealings with them. i use the dps16, mpc2000xl, and s5000.

Most user friendly looper product ever made by far. The delay is also great. This is really a must have for players that use a looper live on the fly or to help work out parts. It doesn't store anything or have a ton of loop time like some other units, but for the usability and sound quality it is unrivaled. It would be worthy of a 10 if it was only a looper, but with the delay options it's like 3 pedals in one. I do wish it had more loop time but it is more than enough for most things with the extended mode. I think i will have this one for many years.

I'm using this unit strictly for making loops. I've tinkered with the delay, but I have a DD-5 for that, and the tape delay concept, I don't quite understand yet.

But as for making loops on the fly, this unit is amazingly simple to use. Loops can be created quickly and erased quickly, making it a great tool for a live show.

I am using this pedal as an effects loop on my mixer. That way I'm free to loop everything that is going into my mixer (guitars, vocals, keyboards, anything). If you'd like to see a demonstation of the unit, go to the website below and click on video. (http://home.comcast.net/~kkatayama76)

The sound quality could be better, but I'm not a sound buff anyway.

I've played gigs with this unit, and its held up fine. As with anything, it'll last if you take care of it.

Haven't had the need yet.

I did recently purchase a Digitech Jamman, basically because the 24 seconds available on the Headrush was just not enough. The main problem with looping pedals is memory. And it looks like Digitech may have figured out a good solution to this by adding a removable CF card to their unit. But the Headrush is still a great unit!

It's so easy to get a good sound out of the e2 that in a day you could be a good looper and delayer.
The manual's better than boss ehx and other stuff manuals.
Clear, synthetic, progressive.

Mexican Tele Custom 72, American Tele Plus 95 on Fender De Luxe 900.
Mexican Jazz Bass on crate bx15

It's not noisy, perfect sound in every modality.

The E2 is a perfect partner in homeplayng and homestuding, use it turning on your brain: composition, cover, improvisation. All in your hand and feet. Good delay.

Live E2 can make you an exibitionist guitarist-bassist!

Solid stuff, take care of it and you'll always could depend on e2.

Never dealt with them.
In Italy seems that akai had a great service of assistence.

Good for every elastic-player, when are you playing remember that in a guitar you can found ritmical drum sound, bass sound and more stuff, this can help you to create something good.

I'll buy it again and again, waiting for E3. (The only e2 limitation is tempo of looping but this could make an help to make your idea more synthetic)

Easy to use, see below

Excellent
See above

It comes in a good solid heavy metal case, and the two footswitches are have exactly the right amount of resistance.

N/A

I bought this primarily for use as a looper. My first thought was that if I'd bought this as an echo / delay box, I would probably be a bit disappointed. It is somewhat lacking in delay features for the price, certainly compared to, say, a Boss DD6 or an Line 6 echo park, and it's more expensive than either of those. There are a few nice touches for echo fans, the HF damping control does a nice job of filtering off the echo trails over time if you like that sort of thing, the multihead tape echo simulation is quite neat, you can vary the relative ouput from each head and also change the spacings of the heads to give a more random effect. It is also possible to switch off any of the heads (by inserting a jack plug into the relevant output socket - crude, but it works), like you used to be able to do on, for instance, the copicats. Other than that, the delay is lacking some of the fancy features found on other devices, such as reverse, warp etc. The sound quality is excellent, though. The two delay time knobs offer coarse and fine control, but if anything longer than 1.4 seconds is required, it is neccesary to use the tap tempo (right) footswitch. There is one jack input, one mixed (dry/wet) output and 4 separate 'tape head' outputs, the first of which can also be used as an effect only (wet) output. All these connections are on 1/4" jacks.

One good thing about this box is the amount of delay time available. For the digital echo, you can have up to almost 24 seconds of delay, for the tape echo, it's about 6 seconds per head. Things get a bit complicated for the looper times. I was expecting to have 24 seconds of looping time available, so I was a little disappointed to find I had less; In hi-quality mode (44kHz sampling rate), the maximum loop time allowed with overdubbing is only 12 seconds, this extending to 18 seconds using the 'extend' mode lower sample rate (29kHz - which is actually good enough quality for guitar). However, these times can be doubled (ie 24 and 36 seconds) if single shot looping is used (ie, no overdubbing possible), though I doubt if many loopers out there would find this mode particularly useful. By the way, to choose between single shot and overdub mode depends on how long you decide to let the sample go on for. By this I mean, you keep on recording until the red LED starts to flash, after which you have 3 seconds to stop recording. If you let the recording go on for longer than this, you are commited to single shot looping, ie, you can't overdub on that sample.

Akai has made it possible to erase ALL the overdubs and just return to the original loop. This is done by saving the original loop and overdubs in separate memory locations (this is why the maximum looping time is exactly half that of the available delay time). It is rather nice to be able to strip everything back to the original loop and then build it up again, perhaps going off in a different direction (although very annoying when you do it accidentally by pressing the wrong push-swicth!). However, it would be more useful if it was possible to erase just the most recent overdub, ie, store the original loop and subsequent overdubs in one memory location, and store the current overdub in a separate memory location. At the loop point, the current overdub could be added to the previous store (original loop and overdubs). However, if a mistake is made, the current overdub memory could be flushed and re-started.

What would be even better would be to have a switch to give three choices; (1) erase all overdubs and return to the original loop (as it does now), (2) erase the most recent overdub (as described above), or (3) lose the ability to partially erase, but have a longer overdub / looping time of 24 / 36 seconds. This would really make the unit a lot more useful and versatile. (They would sell like hotcakes. Are you listening Akai, start working on version E3 now!)

The output level of the loop can be controll

Very easy to use. Tap tempo is great. The looping function is the best. That's primarily what I bought it for. There are other looper pedals out there, and some do things better than others. The main thing I like about the Headrush E2 is the ability to overdub, and ERASE the overdubs. BUT, ALL overdubs will be erased leaving only the first loop. The Line6 DL4 is a competitor, but it cannot erase any overdubs. The Boomerang seems to be the best in this department. IT is also twice as much!

The delay function is easy to use. BUT, delay time CANNOT be adjusted once the tempo is set. It appears that te delay is function is just an extension of the looping function. If you try to adjust either Time pots, the delay (or, really the LOOP) will be cut up and stuttering. ITs like it was recording in RAM and the whole sample was spread across all the addresses. If you then adjust the time once it has been recorded, its like the stack pointers are moved only playing back PART of the whole sample.

Great Sound! On an amp, I could not detect any extra noise or aliasing with the looping function. I have not tried it with headphones yet. The Tape delay is awesome. It is too clean for someone to mistake it for an echoplex, but the simulation with the High frequency dampening, is still great fun! I suppose one could ADD noise and distortion to complete the simulation, if they wanted.

The multiple outputs is a lot of fun for the delay. I love multi-tap delays, and with the headspace, time, and head outputs one can get pretty wild delays!

So far, I 've had no problems.

Haven't needed them yet.
The manual is so-so, but almost all pedal manuals are like that.

I bought it primarily as a looper. But as a synth player, I've found the tape echo simulation to be extremely useful and fun to play.
I bought the Boss RC-XL loop station, and promptly returned it. It seemed that you could do overdubs, but you had to bend over and turn knobs to do it. Not useful for anyone standing up. I also tried out the Line6 DL4. I maight have bought that instead, but again, there is no way to erase the overdubs. The Boomerang and the others not mentioned are just too expensive.
All in all, I've found the Akai Headrush E2 to be the best LOOPER pedal in its price range.