moonK9, on 03 May 2014 - 10:08 PM, said:
That's not much good news. I had high hopes for the AMPLIFi, but now understand how useful it may be to a student, and how useless it is to a musician. There are numerous issues. First, there is a USB for 'future use', but no PC app interface as there is with their Pod series and most anything else. Second, while I have no issue with Apple products, believing that they are in fact great options, they are not the only options. I'm kinda tired of Line 6 doing everything Apple, and here with the AMPLIFi line, literally no other option. This product is useless unless you have an iPad on a stand next to you, and you must stay next to that stand. Even in a practive environment, I'm all over the place. That's why I bought their Line 6 wireless for my guitar rig, so I can jump around.
Of course, you may are satisfied with using only four presets with very little control from the pedalboard...rediculous. I was looking for the perfect little brother for my main rig (G50 wireless -> Bad Horsie 2 wah -> Line 6 Pod HD500 -> BBE -> MosValve -> Genz Benz 2x12"). Could have considered this if we could use the Bluetooth/multi-functionality if I was able to Line 6 link my Pod to it, but nope.
This is a great bedroom or apartment setup where the AMPLIFi is sitting on the floor with the guitar on a stand next to it, with the mandatory iPad on the bed of coffee table next to that. I guess that's its target and that's fine, but I wish they'd made a version that's a little less of a toy. If the 150 was available with a Pod HD Pro X built into it and cost $1000, I'd buy it and the shortboard. I could control it, set it up and really use it in a realistic, practice/jam session environment. Hell, done well enough you could probably use it for gigs, going out of it directly into the house sound.
The few things that these do that are in fact very cool indeed just do not overcome the limitations that make it useless to a working/serious guitarist.
P.S: The answers to all of the questions above and more should be available in the product information. We shouldn't have to learn it ourselves, and or learn it from other customers after the fact. The section on iOS for these units should specify clearly that the ONLY control access is via iOS device. That would have prevented me from wasting a bunch of time looking into it, and would have spared me having to write this.
