Words can only do so much to explain it, but there’s something about it that came off artificial sounding to my ears, kinda like having something with fake vs real sugar or almost like hearing a modeler vs real amp. Pedals tend to be a more subjective area and of course very dependent on the amp and other stuff you’re playing through, so it’s very possible that the strymon works perfectly with what you’re using it through, but I bet if I could hypothetically zero in on all the gear you’re using it with, playing style and what it is specifically that the pedal is doing well in your setup, that I could recommend something that would work as good or better without what I perceive as an inorganic tone, but it seems like most others aren’t as turned off as I am with that less organic tone. From my experience, most pedal companies seem to consistently make pedals of similar quality across their whole line up. For example all the Thorpy pedals I’ve had sounded very organic (but also very noisy), they didn’t sound as pedal like/toy-like (more like an extension of the amp), even though I ultimately just kept one. The strymons consistently had a more processed/recorded tone to my ears. The empress pedals consistently have this clinical quality with ugly artifacts to their tone and so on with other brands having their own general qualities to them. Just my opinion
