While I see what you are saying, this is slightly flawed. All of the reccomendations here say to use my POD with an amp that I need to plug my pod directly into the effects return of my amp. This bypasses the volume controls of my amplifier completely and I have to use the master volume knob on the pod to control volume to my amp which becomes useless when the squealing starts.

Also, on most amps, if I start to set my channel volume in the pod to max and set the mixer to max (which will max out what the pod is able to put out) then attenuate the volume externally, I will most certainly clip every effect after the mixer and probably every effect between the amp and the mixer in the pod. The device is not set up to max every possible volume then attenuate externally. It is set up to control volume itself which is why this is such a large and dangerous issue.

Luckily this only happened to me three times, all when I had taken off my headphones. Now I'm not editing on the computer, which has allowed me to get pretty adept at editing on the pod itself but I really miss being able to edit my tones quickly and with everything right in front of me on the computer screen. Hopefully this fix will hit soon and will take care of this problem completely.

@hullan Thanks for your concern, but the device has a headphone output built into it. The expectation of any piece of gear with a volume knob and a headphone output is that it is safe to use it. The idea that a headphone amp should be used for safety assumes that a similar problem wouldn't happen with a headphone amp, sound card, mixer or whatever redundant level of amplication might be being used. A fairly safe assumption, but an assumption and not a guarantee of safety. The vast majority of professional grade headphones do not have built in volume controls. I'm rather surprised Line 6 hasn't issued a fix to this. Seems like a lawsuit and/or product recall wating to happen. The number of folks encountering this bug pretty much guarantees a small percentage of them incurring some level of hearing damage. A rep posted on Jan 31st that a fix was likely to be available by the end of the week and the issue was initially reported on Dec 10th. Its past time to get this fixed. I personally rarely use HD Edit with my HD500, but I'm for sure not going to hook it up now that this bug has been identified until its confirmed fixed. This critical bug and Line 6's slow response is extremely concerning to me as a consumer.

I'm returning mine tomorrow. My 30 day return period is up Sunday. I was hit the very first day with the squeal and it still hasn't been fixed.

This is the worst product screw up I have ever experienced in my life.

Mike

EDIT: Okay. I'm over my temper tantrum. I may not return the HD but I sure would like to know if the patches at CustomTone are any good or not. I'm going to make a new thread (after a search).

Line 6 is currently preparing updates for both the POD HD firmware and POD HD Edit software application.  These updates address the intermittent high volume events reported by some of our users.

The updates are currently being qualified by both internal QA and external beta testers.  Barring any unexpected developments we expect to release new versions of the POD HD500 firmware and HD500 Edit software next week, with updates for POD HD Pro, POD HD, and their respective editors in the weeks following.  For further detail regarding these updates, please read the release notes that will be available when the updates are released and ready for download.

If you have not already done so, please register your device here and sign up to receive product updates here so that you are informed when these updates become available.

Yes I did.....

Just finished the install of new firmware and HD Edit versions.

I'm sorry to tell you that, but 10 minutes after I started to play I recieved a terrible "dull sound", extremly loud in my headphones!!!

Like always, it happened right after changing a preset in the HD Edit. I had shut down the pod and starting it up with a global settings reset....

So I'm sorry to tell you that, but the squeal was replaced by another thing.

Really tired and ****** off...

Ikkisama,

Please confirm that you have followed the steps below exactly in order. Not doing so could re-insert a corrupt patch and introduce the problem you're experiencing:

• Disconnect any audio connections to the POD HD500, connect to the computer via USB and save a preset Bundle, Set Lists, or individual presets from POD HD Edit v1.06 (if you do not wish to save any existing presets you may skip this step)
• Quit the POD HD500 Edit app and launch Line 6 Monkey to install POD HD500 Edit v1.08
• Complete the POD HD500 Edit installation, connect the POD HD500 to your computer’s USB port, and launch Monkey to install POD HD500 Flash Memory v1.43
• During installation Monkey will ask if you want to keep your presets – click “No”, and complete installation following the on-screen instructions.
• Launch POD HD500 Edit to restore any saved presets

If you have done so, and continue to experience this issue, please the bundle file of your presets to the support ticket in your account.

jimsreynolds wrote:

 

...

Can I plug my Pod back in ?

Perhaps you've answered your own question about lack of feedback? Why not try it out and report back?

Ah - I see. I'm curious too about whether the problem still persists for anyone; I never experienced it either. Like you, I'm assuming no news is good news.