I bought a used 650 the other day and got it all set up. I loaded about 20 rounds of 9mm yesterday to get it dialed in and went back and loaded 200 rounds today. Here are my observations in comparison.
1)Decapping:
no difference from one to the other. They both decap just fine
2)Priming:
The Lee primer loading system is by far superior to the Dillon. I absolutely hate having to pick up each primer in a tube and then dump them into another tube. Some of you guys may be a lot faster than me at that but in my opinion, that is a slow operation.
The actual seating system of the Dillon is superior to the Lee. It is much easier to seat the primers and I had zero bad primers. I usually have 3 or 4 sideways primers in the lee through 200 rounds.
I love the low primer buzzer on the Dillon. I have gotten to the point with the lee that I know when it is getting ready to run out by how many bullets I have in my container. When I first started loading, I wouldn't think about it and let it run out. I would notice my press getting powder on it and then I would realize what I had done after about 20 unprimed cases.
3)Powder drop:
For adjustability, the Dillon wins. I am stuck with .2gr increments with the Lee. The Lee has been very accurate and repeatable for me whereas the Dillon would throw as much as .2 gr high at times with E3. I don't know why that would be, maybe someone could explain that?
4) Bullet seating:
I actually got more and larger variance from the Dillon. I had believed that due to the tool head set up on the Dillon, this would be exactly opposite. My oal should have been 1.135 and out of 200 rounds, I had 33 rounds that I had to run back through because they were at or over 1.140.
5) Cost new for just the basics to start loading.
Dillon $660.00 with Lee dies
Lee $231 with Lee dies
General observation:
The Dillon would shake the case so hard, when indexing, that powder would spill onto the plate. Youtube to the rescue on that one. I trimmed the spring under the ball bearing and VOILA! problem solved. Overall, the Dillon seemed to run much smoother than the Lee which is probably why you can load 100 more rounds an hour than on the Lee.
I like the way that Dillon did their primer catch tray better than the Lee in theory. However, I probably had 10 spent primers pop out and land on the floor. If you miss a case in the primer station, the Dillon has a little ramp where the primer is supposed slide down and you can retrieve it. Most of the time the primer ended up on the ground.
The loadmaster will kick out .380 rounds at the priming station. I have never loaded a 380 round on the Lee and very rarely even primed a case. I completely loaded (3) 380 rounds on the Dillon and primed another 3. You will need to be extra careful sorting brass for 9mm with the Dillon.
Without the case feeder for the Dillon (a $218 accessory), The Lee wins for speed at loading cases by hand. I am sure that with the case feeder, the Dillon will kick Lee's ass but with the case collator ($12 accessory), the Lee would be close enough to the Dillon to forego the $206 accessory. Just my opinion.
Summation:
The Dillon is a fine machine but seems to have as many quirks as the Lee. With a price difference of $429, I would not buy a new one and am actually toying with the idea of selling the Dillon and putting the money towards something else. These are all my opinions from 1 loading session with the Dillon. I have probably loaded 10000 rounds on the Lee Loadmaster.