fireman

Ok, I've had every POD up to and including the HD500 as well as an Eleven Rack and now a HeadRush Pedalboard and I can tell you from first hand experience and not based on hearsay, quotes from fanboys or bad YouTube videos that the HeadRush Pedalboard is vastly superior to the HD500. It takes the already impressive sound quality of the 11R and goes to a new level. The touch dynamics and sound quality are amazing but the editing via the 7" touch screen via drag and drop makes it probably the easiest modeller available today to edit patches quickly. I love the LIne 6 edit program for editing patches on the HD500 but if you are without a computer, you have resort to the HD500 for editing which is not the best experience. For someone to claim that the HeadRush is equivalent to a HD500 is absurd, the HeadRush is in a different league completely. After comparing the Helix and the HeadRush by physically using both of them, I can say that the HeadRush is in the same quality level as the Helix for the amp sims. I personally prefer the speaker models in the HeadRush over the Helix but as both units allow the import of 3rd party IR's, that is not a deal breaker. The Helix beats the HeadRush for number and variation of effects and the Helix delays and reverbs are also superior. Also, the Helix IO's are more comprehensive but for my personal needs, the HeadRush IO's are sufficient (for now).

Yeah, I read that I could use the model pack on several devices, but the fact that sometimes both PODs are in different locations at the same time and I'm basically lazy and the 30% off sale, I decided to buy 2 licences. I'll give support another week, then try to follow it up with them. Gotta admit though, without these forums and the people that contribute, life would impossible with these high tech gadgets.

Thanks, but I've done that. Licence Manager is telling me that I have reached my lifetime limit of authorisations. I've removed the authorisation for everything but 2 devices.

I purchased 2 copies of the High Gain HD Model Pack for my HD500 and HD Desktop (I need to have both installed as sometimes both PODs are in different locations). Installed the pack on the HD500, no problems. Tried to install the other copy on the HD Desktop but according to Licence Manager, the HD bean is not authorised. OK, tried to authorise it but it tells me I have reached my device limit for authorisation. I have bought every POD since the original version 2 in both bean and live versions plus a stack of other Line6 gear, so you can imagine that my Licence Manager is pretty full. Unfortunately, a couple of devices are still authorised that I no longer own - a POD XT that developed a USB fault that prevented any communication with my PC (which I tried to get Line6 to de-authorise but they never responded to the support ticket), and a X3 bean that I forgot to de-authorise before selling it. After de-authorising everything that was not needed, I tried again to authorise the HD bean again but now Licence Manager is telling me that I have reached my lifetime limit. I tried Line6 support, but as of yet they have not responded and have a model pack I cant install, If Line6 don't respond, how am I supposed to get this fixed? Do I start a whole new account and try to transfer everything across or what. Do I have to de-register all my gear then re-register to the new account and then try to "Gift" the model packs to the new account? If Line6 didn't make this difficult by putting limits on how many devices I can authorise, I wouldn't have this issue. Also, the fact that of the 4 times I have raised a support ticket, they have only responded to 2, ignored 1 completely and I'm STILL waiting on the latest ticket. If anyone can guide me through fixing this, I would be very appreciative.

I use Pro Tools for tracking and use plug-ins extensively for pretty well everything except guitar. As far as guitar tracking goes, I'm fairly old fashioned - I try to get exactly the tone and effects I'm after coming out of the POD and rarely process the recorded track except for a small amount of EQ tweaking. Re-amping is another area I'm not really into, so from your response, I gather the HD500 would probably suit me better. I must admit though, I am very tempted by the Eleven Rack but at almost twice the cost of an HD500 new, I don't know whether its "twice" as good.

I need advise from the community of HD users. I've been a long time user of the POD starting with the POD 2.0, going through every generation and ending up with the X3 (and a SpiderValve). Live playing is very rare for me theses days and on those occasions, the SpiderValve and FBV Shortboard do nicely. Most of my POD use theses days is recording and even though I'm really pleased with my X3 patches, I'm thinking about upgrading to the HD500. What I'm looking for is greater "touch" dynamics - I want to be able to vary my picking intensity to vary the amount of distortion in medium/high gain patches (the one thing the X3 doesn't do well at all). Can existing HD500 owners tell me how well the HD series performs compared to the X3 as far as dynamics and also, are the amp models in the HD much better than the X3? I know some people will ask "why don't I just try one myself?" - problem is, I can't find a dealer in Melbourne at the moment with any Line 6 gear in stock. I would really appreciate any opinions on the HD series and how they compare to the X3 series or, for what I want, am I better of with a Eleven Rack (or an AxeFX - I'm sure I've got a spare kidney or 2!) Thanks.