Strymon TimeLine MX: The Legendary Delay Pedal Just Got a Major Upgrade
- Noise Harmony
- 13 hours ago
- 5 min read
Strymon just pulled the cover off the TimeLine MX, and the company is not being shy about it. They're calling the Strymon TimeLine MX "the most powerful delay pedal ever." After the original TimeLine spent roughly fifteen years bolted to pro pedalboards all over the world, that's a bold thing to say about your own gear. Dig into the spec sheet, though, and the claim holds up better than most marketing lines do.
Table of contents
What is the Strymon TimeLine MX?
The TimeLine MX is a stereo delay pedal, but calling it a "pedal" undersells it a little. Strymon builds it as a delay workstation: one box that packs eleven delay machines, a dedicated reverb, a five-minute looper, and enough routing and MIDI control to run the front end of a studio rack. Strymon has long been the name people reach for when they want studio-grade ambience on the floor, and the original TimeLine (launched back in 2011) is a big reason why. It showed up on so many touring boards that it quietly became the default high-end delay.
If you're newer to all this, "stereo delay" just means the pedal can throw its echoes across two outputs, left and right, instead of one. That's what makes the repeats feel wide and three-dimensional instead of flat. It's the same trick that makes a delay sound huge on a record, and it's the kind of thing we chase when we build [guitar presets](https://www.noiseharmony.com/post/what-are-guitar-presets), just done here in hardware.
What's new compared to the original TimeLine
Here's where the MX earns the new name. The original TimeLine gave you one delay machine at a time. The Strymon TimeLine MX runs two engines at once, and you can wire them up in series (one feeding into the next), in parallel (side by side), or split across the stereo field, each with its own panning. That alone opens up sounds the old TimeLine simply couldn't make.
Doing the heavy lifting is a tri-core 800 MHz ARM processor, a big jump from the DSP in the 2011 unit. That extra headroom pays for four new delay algorithms. Oil Can is a woozy take on those old oil-can echo units. Drum recreates a vintage mechanical drum echo, the rotating-drum kind used in machines like the Binson Echorec. MultiTap gives you up to eight separate taps, each with its own level, pan, and filtering. And Spectral is a granular delay that chops your signal into tiny grains, then lets you pitch, reverse, and stretch them into textures that barely sound like a delay at all. (Granular just means the sound gets sliced into very short fragments the pedal can rearrange on the fly.)
The addition a lot of players will care about is reverb. The original TimeLine had none. The MX bakes in a full reverb engine, complete with an optional Flint-style tremolo on the wet signal that Strymon fans will recognize, so you can add real space to your repeats without stacking a second pedal in front of it. Swell and Duck used to occupy dedicated machine slots on the old unit. Now they live on every engine.
The rest got bumped up too. The looper went from 30 seconds to a full five minutes in stereo, with a dead-simple one-button mode. Preset slots went from 200 to 300. A new OLED screen replaces the old display and reads far better on a dark stage. And for the first time there's USB-C on board, so you can edit and back up patches from a computer using Strymon's Nixie 2 software.
Also check:
TimeLine vs TimeLine MX at a glance
If you already own the original and you're wondering whether any of this changes your setup, the side-by-side makes it obvious. Here's how the two generations line up on the things that actually matter.
The short version: the MX is a much bigger deal than a spec bump. Two engines, a built-in reverb, and a five-minute looper turn it into a different instrument, even though the panel still feels like a TimeLine the second you plug in.
Price and availability
The Strymon TimeLine MX is available now, priced at €799 at Thomann (roughly $679 street in the US), and it's already listed at the usual retailers including Perfect Circuit. That's a real step up from the original TimeLine, which still sells for about €465 if the classic feature set is all you need.
For a flagship delay in 2026, €799 is steep but not shocking. You're paying for two simultaneous engines, the new reverb, and the kind of build Strymon gear is known for surviving years of touring. Whether that's worth it comes down to one question: is delay a core part of your sound, or a finishing touch? If it's the former, the MX is one of the easiest recommendations of the year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Strymon TimeLine MX worth it over the original TimeLine?
If delay is central to your playing, yes. The Strymon TimeLine MX adds a second simultaneous engine, a built-in reverb, four new delay algorithms, and a five-minute looper, none of which the original offers. If you only use one simple delay at a time, the older TimeLine still does that beautifully for a lot less money.
What's the difference between the TimeLine and the TimeLine MX?
The biggest difference is the dual-engine design: the MX runs two delay engines at once in series, parallel, or split routing, while the original ran one machine at a time. The MX also adds a reverb engine, a faster tri-core processor, an OLED screen, 300 presets, USB-C, and a longer five-minute stereo looper.
Does the Strymon TimeLine MX have reverb?
Yes. Unlike the original TimeLine, the MX includes a dedicated reverb engine, complete with an optional Flint-style tremolo on the wet signal, so you can layer real ambience onto your delays without adding a separate reverb pedal.
How much does the Strymon TimeLine MX cost?
The Strymon TimeLine MX sells for €799 at Thomann and around $679 street in the US. The original TimeLine is still available for roughly €465.
