In my opinion, probably better... Listen, there are a lot of people around with a million different criteria for liking or not a particular piece of equip...
This solo just blows! It can make a brick dance (not just slide) across my driveway, it's quiet, uses so little gas that I take it off of my back to check... You know? I don't know about other people's brand loyalty, I don't really have one... But the 471 is in use all the time. I do the BR600 more to justify my purchase of the damn thing - Usually I give it to my guy though, which should say something. I don't know, try one for yourself... I would only say that I've found that guys that like the noise always say that these things are no good... But if you like moving leaves, wet leaves, sticks, rocks, sticks etc, this is an almost unbelievable value.