A dilemma between two great loopers

[InventorMachine]

I am at a standstill. I used to own a Digitech Jam man but never fully enjoyed it as a pedal. Im currently looking at a Boss RCxl as a nice dedicated looper (and frankly I like the idea of auto quantize, unless someone can convince me otherwise?). Ive been hearing good things about the Akai headrush but sadly, I still like the reverse/quantize functions on the boss, although I know those pedals get a lot of flak. I use a memory boy delay already, but the idea of another tape echo on top of that when not looping (or when looping? Can someone give me details?) sounds great too. Does anybody have experience with both and/or could just help me with this decision.

Insert smiley for extra emotional appeal.

[Swift713]

I've never tried the Digitech but the Boss loopers are solid. I had the RC-20xl and currently have the RC-2 which has more drum patterns. The auto quantize feature is invaluable IMO and the drum patterns are pretty useful as well. I'll sell you my RC-2 if you'd like

[sunbeast]

The Headrush is only capable of the very simplest of looping tasks, and you can only use the delay and tape echo seperately from the looper. It is the easiest to use and one of the best sounding loopers I have personally used, but really only useful for someone looking to make the most basic loop/overdub structures and only for relatively short loops (30 seconds max if I recall).

The Boss loopers might be the most feature filled loopers in their pricepoint, and are a good intro into more complex looping functions. I had an RC-20xl for a bit and loved most of the functionality. For me the downside was that it seemed to affect my tone in a bad way. Many others say they hear no tonal degradation, so YMMV, but for me it was a deal killer. I now use a Boomerang III and love it, but it is closer to the price range of the RC-50. There really isn't a holy grail of loopers under $1000 as far as I can tell, they all seem to have different advantages and weaknesses