I bought mine back in July of 2006. Got it for my dad who was wanting to replace an old Homelite XL2. He seems to love it, but he's no professional by any means, just a weekend cutter. I've used it a time or two and I think it's a good little saw. I opened up the muffler on it like Sawinredneck did in a thread on here. Use the search function to see the details. My dad says it's got more "oomph" to it after doing the muffler and adjusting the carb. I think I paid around $260 for it. I've never used an Echo before, but I've handled a few of them at the saw shop, so I can't really give you a true comparison. It's really light, I do like that about it. I had a 12 inch bar put on it when I got it for my dad. It cuts good for what it is. My only complaint is that the plastic cases don't seem to match up well on the saw. It's like they're warped or something. Other that that, it gets thumbs up from me.
