2CB or MDA are both wonderful compounds. Although it's almost two decades since I stopped partying, I have very fond memories of them both. At one point there was a huge MDMA and LSD drought in Europe, but the market was flooded with both MDA and 2CB.

While I wouldn't say that they are better than MDMA, psychedelic or hallucinogenic phenethylamines are equally as good, just in their own unique way.

Regarding empathogens, the only other thing in this class that even comes close is 4-methylmethcathinone (4-MMC, MCAT, etc). Since the ban, there have been so many attempts to create analogues to replace it, but none of them quite capture that magic. Even 3-MMC, which is what people these days usually get when buying 4-MMC, just isn't the same.

4-MMC was also the only thing I could do in the evening and get up for work the next morning feeling absolutely fine. It's a shame that it's almost non existent now, the only thing the laws accomplished was to encourage sellers to mislabel other RC's as 4-MMC and push the price up by about 800%.

Fun fact, my grandma tried 4-MMC and other phenethylamines when she was in her 80's and terminally ill. She grew up in an era where women were prescribed amphetamines and barbiturates easily "to help them through the day and life", so she was no stranger to it and was always curious about what I used to get up to at weekends. I think she was just looking for an escape from her final few months in the nursing home, so she figured that she's got nothing to lose by getting me to bring her stuff. Some of my final memories of her were of her sheer joy and happiness caused by us spending that time together with the help of empathogens. Instead of it being an upsetting and scary time, it was beautifully calm and peaceful. It's hard to put into words how special those memories are; imagine the birth of your own child and you're in the same ballpark.