Astaroth_CY

I think the refresh is a good thing. What I'm criticizing is the way Line6 decided to market it - they shouldn't have marketed it at all. It just makes it look like they've put in substantial research and development into this when in fact I'd estimate it took about a couple of hours to just change the production order to include the new processor instead of the old one. Most of the work would presumably have gone into the package design and marketing around it, which is absurd. You could even say the same about the HD500X. SLightly more substantial changes there but in the grand scheme of things it probably took very little time and effort to develop.

Most companies would not even have mentioned the product refresh, would not even have given it the X designation. They would have just started producing the new version under the same model number and gradually replaced the older one with it. It's so insubstantial. This is not a new product no matter how much you try to wring it out that way, Line6.

Did you do a settings reset? Save your tone bundle through HD Edit and reset to factory settings. Restore your tone bundle and make sure your settings are correct, e.g. you are using the correct output mode (Amp, Direct, etc.).

Yes, you will only send the guitar signal out, and will get each channel in each ear on your headphones, because that's how you panned them. The headphone jack replicates the panning that you set. You'll just have to make sure that Path A and Path B are perfectly separated all the way across the chain in all your tones so that you don't apply any effects or amplification to Path B. I actually never thought of this before, but you could assign Path B's Level parameter to a pedal controller, and adjust your own mix without having to have the sound guy do it for you! Also, of course this set up means that you can never use dual amps/dual cabs, or stereo effects. You could always buy a small 4-channel mixer and connect everything so that you're still able to end up with the same In Ear mix while using both Pod outputs and the XLR coming from the PA board.

Yes, read the top of this page.

Carrot-dangling is what I'm criticizing here. Unless the Experts have concrete information to convey to us, such as an update release date or a list of expected changes, they shouldn't bother doing this. I've expressed my satisfaction in response to the news that X updates will roll out to legacy owners like me, but firstly, there is no guarantee they won't run into issues and backpedal on that, and secondly, there is no timeline whatsoever. The update could come tomorrow, or it could come in 2015, or it could never come because L6 will decide to take all their developers off the HD500 and have them focus entirely on the next gen that is surely already in development. That will probably be decided by the X's sales figures. If nobody buys this thing, why would they bother updating it?

Actually, to be precise, it looks the same and has the same specs, but it has a brighter and slightly elongated LED. I'm sure it still flies off the socket if you sneeze at it though.

I think it's interesting that, when convenient, the X is either "not a new model, just an update", or "a new model".

Don't hold your breath. Just assume there will be no more updates, ever.

Progressively build identical patches on both until you hit the DSP limit in one machine, then continue on the other until you hit the limit on that one as well. Do this with various configurations, e.g. start off with two amps and add on tube screamers, or start off with one amp and add on pitch shifters, or no amps and add on '63 reverbs.

I run 100W per channel through two 10" 8-ohm two-ways and if I turned up my volume past 50% I think it might cause an earthquake.

Bigger cone means nothing if the speaker is crap. Pay more attention to the quality of the speaker and the cabinet more than just the size. Also, I'm not suire if by "juice" you mean volume, that is of course not related to the size of the speaker but the speaker's impedance (which relates to its efficiency) and your amp's wattage, and "more headroom" can easily also mean "more frequencies you need to worry about cutting".

10" will carry guitar just fine, but if you play 7-string or drop tunings then a 12" will help bring out your low end a bit. However, it also means your low end flab will come out more and you will clash with the bass more.

Could you please provide the sources of information you have for: - what processor the HD500 has - what clock speed the HD500X is running at This could be significant. If it's literally just an overclock of the same exact processor, HD500s could be easily overclocked with a firmware update to match the same DSP power.

Ah, never mind then. I remembered that leaked ad as if it was official. I retract my previous statement.