So I got back from a fun night at HippieTim's. We compared maybe 30 stock patches between the II and the III, back forth over and over.
Honestly, the units are very close tonally now. in some cases, I actually liked the II better than the III ... in some cases the III was better, in some cases they were nearly indistinguishable. The III often won, in my opinion, because it just sounded more full, for lack of a better word. Bigger, wider...
Tim had a friend over, who's a die-hard tube guy, and a great player. He got on the Ruby Rocket patch and got lost in it. You know when you and the gear are jivin' and all of a sudden 10 straight minutes of playing are gone and you look up and go "Whoa...". He raved about that patch, it was totally dynamic, expressive, cleaned up beautifully, and was gainy but perfectly clear and articulate. And this was at moderately loud volume, certainly not the volume it would take to get a real Ruby to sing like that.
We didn't even break out the CLR. Tim had these two, maybe 5", speakers ...
Great night, great tones. Thanks, Cliff, for the parting gift! Much appreciated!