The Neo Vent is built like a tank! The control knobs are mounted in a protected recessed area. The unit is extremely quiet in operation. I did get some very low level clicks and pops when going in and out of bypass mode but they weren't any bother to me. This can be solved by switching the unit over to DSP Bypass mode. To get the full benefit of the effect you need to use it in stereo by feeding the left and right outputs to separate amps or recording console inputs. The benefit of the stereo effect diminishes as you move away from the near field or player position. In my opinion the Line 6 Roto-Machine sounds about 75% like a real Leslie rotating speaker unit. The H and K Rotosphere to my ears has less of a doppler effect, more of phase shifting sound and is very noisy. Still it's in the 75% of the real Leslie sound ballpark. The Neo vent is more like 90% authentic not only at high and low speeds but it's ramping up and down is just dead on like the Leslie model 122! You do have to play with your setup a bit to figure out how to integrate a stompbox reverb if you want to maintain stereo reverb. I did try each and every setting in many different combinations. The factory presets sounded great to me so I went back to those for most of the recordings. Also you need to cut back a bit on the reverb level and sustain a bit when using the Vent. It just sounds more authentic that way but when switching the effect off I would want to go back to a hall reverb with more depth to it. If you want to keep your setup simple and just run the Vent in mono, the effect is still quite stunning and worth the cost. Overall the Vent is the closest sound to the real thing I've ever used and worth the extra cost if you want a top end sound. In most noisy on stage band situations, something like the Roto-Machine is plenty good enough for most people. I intend to keep both the Vent and Roto units and have sold all the others.