Hi Ron - it's nice to have at least one person who is thinking about the Line 6 venture into literal pioneering live audio equipment with this StageScape/SoundScape line of products.  However, the mixer as of this post is still not available.  This seems to be following the same release problems had by the JTV guitars from World Music in Korea.  Those were a year or more past the original release date.  I can only hope for those htat might have place pre-orders for this gear that they are not sitting on speakers that have very limited use without the M20d mixer attached to them. 

However...I've recently seen "Line 6 brand" of DMX cable in only two lengths. 6' & 50' on Sweetwater.com and few others.  The 50' cable is priced retail at $90.00!!!  Nothing about why the cable is so expensive?  Nothing about why anyone needs a Line 6 brand DMX cable instead of any other true DMX cable?  The need for true DMX cabling has been required and blown off by Line 6 in general for almost two years since the public release of the POD HD units and the DT50 amp as well as more recently the DT25 amp.

I was one of only a few that seemed to understand that using a standard audio XLR cable will "work", but could cause problems, and even potential long term gear failure.  Only now that the L6 PA gear is has the speakers out that Line 6 is now making "special cables" for use with the PA ..."and you can also use them for your other L6 Link equipped gear."  But why??? 

Why make a public statement on the sales info regarding these Line 6 branded cables?  I can only believe that the reason is nothing more than money. Accessories are the highest cost to sale ratio products in any field, like USB cables, Mic cables, Speaker cables and every other kind of cable for anything requiring a cable.  Even A/C extension cords are high margin products for those in retail.  I left a link to one of many quality cable companies that have true DMX cabling for about .30/ft with the 3-pin xlr-style ends on both sides.

So I come back to what I had been saying on all the forums regarding the POD HD units and the L6 link for the past two years that has been met with skepticism at best and downright nastiness from a few that I'm talking out my backside.

I've been trying my best to explain why a typical audio XLR cable is bad, and a true DMX 3-pin cable is correct at nearly any length.  I even posted a link that explains the difference in how an audio cable works as well as how a DMX cable works.

Here's one for ya Ron...

• The M20d mixer has FOUR aux sends.  All of which are DMX designed to work using the L6 Link.
• What if you want the mixer, but wish to use the rest of your own system?  Speakers, amps, monitors, etc.?
• I know the unit is designed for bands running sound from stage, but what if someone wanted to use this unit in front of the stage and has an audio snake?  How are any of these people supposed to connect up to the four Aux sends that have only XLR-style outputs when nearly all audio based stage snakes have TRS 1/4" plugs at the mixer end?
• Also - if using any of the Line 6 gear running through an audio snake of 50' or typically 100' - how is the digital signal supposed to get sent?  I don't just mean what I've already said about the connectors being incompatible, but the snake itself is very incompatible since it's designed for audio signal, not digital signal.  The inherent impedance would cause all sorts of problems at both ends.
• Simple explanation of XLR cables is Positive pin, Negative pin, Ground pin.  The reason is that audio signal sent can also have audio signal returned simultaneously without causing impedance problems like trying to run an instrument cable (TS) longer than 25ft.  The typical PA board has built in balancing transformers to keep the audio signal at both ends as close to the same strength as if you were only 10' apart.
• This is not how the digital signal works exactly.  Impedance issues are a much bigger problem and there are no compensating transformers in typical audio gear for such a digital signal.  Typical lighting gear has it, but not typical audio gear.
• And as far as I know - there is not a single audio snake made that covers both standard audio signal like from a microphone, as well as the digital signals that the L6 Link gear all use.
• It's almost like Line 6 is making StageScape/SoundScape users hook everything up on stage without giving any choice.  Unless you have an iPad 2.0 or higher and use the "free app" as mentioned at NAMM to you could go wireless and use that iPad to make off stage adjustments on the StageScape unit.

I'll leave it here for now, but I've also submitted a suggestion to Line 6 directly on what I believe it will take to get this line of products off the ground and also get the brand into the minds of the majority of working musicians/bands infinitely better than just promo material.  But my suggestion will cost a fair deal of money, plus a good amount of time in the short term.  I believe 100% that it would work and bring the company much long term gain as well as a very quick return on their capital investment beyond what must have already been spent to get this far.

Have you had any thoughts since your last post Ron?

Take care,

Neal