ozbadman

Thanks for your replies everyone. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try it myself next weekend!

Anyone tried it yet? I'd love to hear your opinions. A modelled Treble Booster has been missing from Line 6 for years.

Yes. See Digital_Igloos (Line6 product manager) comment at the top of this thread: http://line6.com/support/topic/16050-helix-cab-vs-third-party-ir-cabs/ I'm not sure how they do the mic and distance thing. It could be an I.R. at each point, and with each mic, or it could be modelling manipulation on top of the I.R., or some combination.

Can you select the models from the HELIX?

Just to be clear, the stock cabs ARE IRs. This discussion should be "I prefer the stock cab IRs to third-party IRs".

One of the retailers here that used to sell Line 6 gear has been told they cannot get on the distribution list now Yamaha is the distributor. No reason given, just that they were no longer able to sell Line 6 gear.

Yep, here in Oz Yamaha has become the distributor. It used to be music express, and Line 6 products were comparable to US prices, even after the Yamaha buyout. The Helix was priced at $AUD2399 until a few months ago, when all imports stopped for a while while Yamaha became the distributor. After stock was available again, the HELIX price had jumped to AUD$2799. So, if you are watching Yamaha Australia, I was going to get a HELIX until you bumped the price. I bought a Kemper PA instread, also for AUD$2799, That's right, the HELIX is now the same price as the Kemper PA in Australia. If Yamaha stops the price-gouging that happens sometimes here, and goes back to AUD$2399, or even better, AUD$2299, I will buy one, but not until. For what it's worth, the Variax Standard is still at a comparable price to the USA price, so I bought one of those at AUD$1399. Hopefully, everyone in Oz will refuse to buy the HELIX until the price is not a rip-off. I certainly will not be buying one with the screw-me-over-for-being-Australian markup.

Except by that logic, we would never have had clocks on phones. "Really, a phone manufacturer should put a clock on their phones so that customers have to take it out of their pocket to read it, instead of just glancing at their watch". I actually thought is was a sensible idea, but if the hardware isn't there to do it, so be it.

Wow. Flabbergasted. Gobsmacked. Talk about rewriting history. What you said was the EXACT opposite of what DI wrote. DI is saying EXACTLY what I was saying: There is no financial penalty for not delivering a product on a particular date, which was your initial post, and what this whole thing has been about. Everything else is a side issue. Let me repeat the only important point: There is no financial penalty for not delivering a product on a particular date (other than lost business).

Ummm, no. If I meant that, I would have written that. Yes, but they didn't. That's the point. Nope. Yep. Of course the dates are not pulled from thin air. There are simply no penalties for being wrong. We're not talking about real estate here. Yes, some building contracts have penalty clauses for running late. This is not real estate, and any penalties must be defined in the contract (gratuitous underlining and bolding added).

I won't bother responding to the other stuff, but: Extremely unlikely. Yes, they've signed contracts about prices, etc., but usually not with specific delivery schedules, or related penalties. Evidence: the constant changing of delivery dates from retailers. You really think Line 6 is paying a penalty to retailers for that?

I'm not sure what your point is. The Helix is principally a guitar amp and effects modeller, and can be used as an audio interface. But, if you want a device whose primary function is a USB audio interface then yes, you would normally be better off getting something designed specifically for that purpose. And Line 6 managers sometimes read these threads, but it's mostly a user forum, so they certainly may not read this. If you really want to send a message to a Line 6 manager, you need to contact Line 6 directly.

Since we're talking about apples and oranges, AX8 is single cab only, and a lot uglier. Less inputs. Lots more effects and amps, and similar price point, but very different beast to the Helix. And it has an editor. :)

What? A contract between who and whom? A contract requires at least two parties to sign to be legal. Who signed what? L6 and the General Public? So no. No such contract existed, and there are no legal ramifications for late delivery of a product, unless some contract was signed between the supplier and the customer, and either fines were included, or financial loss resulted. Having said that, it's often bad for business to not manage customer expectations well, but there are (usually) no legal implications. Again, without a contract, there is no 'contractual release date'. Just a proposed release date, that they may or may not hit. They probably have no obligations, just desires.