silverhead

There is no ‘best’ way in terms of sound. Whatever sounds best to you is best for you. The most flexible way, however, would be to use the 4 Cable Method (4CM) as described in the HX FX Cheat Sheet that came with your device (assuming your amp has an FX Loop). That allows you to place your individual HX FX blocks before or after your amp’s preamp section in the signal chain. If you’re not familiar with 4CM do a little research to understand the benefits.

You’re right that, in theory, you ‘should’ be using the POD Go preamps because you are connecting to you physical amp’s FX Return. But there’s no right or wrong. Go with whatever sounds best to you. If the POD Go preamps sound better than using the full amps then spend some time figuring out how to balance the volume levels among them. If they don’t sound better then don’t waste your time.

Sorry you were disappointed but glad that you have things up to date and working now. Is your Amplifi 75 now working as expected? If not, please continue to report any issues and seek support here from other users, or open a support ticket to get directly from Line 6 tech support. Regarding your specific issues.... 1) There’s no easy way of telling when your particular amp rolled off the assembly line. You could probably determine that by asking Line 6 based on your serial number. It’s not uncommon for products to sit in a retailer’s inventory for a long time, perhaps years, by which time firmware updates are usually available. Line 6 has no control over this, but does integrate new firmware into the manufacturing process at some point after the firmware is publicly available. However, the general practice is that purchasers of a new device should expect to update their firmware immediately after purchase. This is discussed on the last page of the Pilot’s Guide. Did you download and read this Guide as part of your pre-purchase product research? 2) As described in the above mentioned Guide the firmware update process using the Line 6 Updater program is compatible with Mac and PC devices. There is no mention of Linux compatibility. This should not have been a ‘surprise’ to you. 3) Device drivers are ubiquitous in the Windows world. I believe the Line 6 Updater program installs the necessary device driver as part of the firmware update process. At least it does so with other Line 6 products and I don’t expect it behaves differently for the Amplifi products. Hence you should not need to know, or be concerned about, the need for a device driver unless you deviated from the firmware update instructions. However, the need for the device driver and how to get it is also described in the Guide. As with all product purchases, effective pre-purchase product research will usually help avoid disappointment and surprises.

Ha Ha! Well that certainly narrows it down. (I'm just messin' witcha. - not being serious) :-)

Well, someday you will be proven right. Not only the HX FX will someday be targeted for EOL. All other Helix products will be too. Shocking! .... or did you have a timeframe in mind when we can check up on your theory?

That typically refers to ‘early reflections’ and applies to a cab model. This parameter models the reflections of sound waves in the room.

I haven’t checked your math so can’t say whether that’s accurate. But since you’re exploring so deeply, have you calculated the difference between using a pre-amp vs. a full amp (including power amp section) block? Don’t know whether or not you need the power amp section when going straight to FOH. ... but as cruisinon2 says..... beyond a certain point (which you’re already well past) your number crunching doesn’t mean much.

Check the Global Settings -> Footswitches section. There are many options to control the display and behaviour of your footswitches. Experiment until you find the settings you most prefer. The manual clearly explains the options. (P.S. - since you’re brand new to Helix you will have many questions answered by reading the manual.)

The answer to all your questions is no, with one clarification. Using a second signal path will use more DSP if you add blocks to the path. But it’s not the added path that uses DSP - it’s the added blocks.

I’m not saying it’s a bad or unworkable idea. Just that it’s hard to define exactly what is meant by the sound of ‘a 4x12 Marshall in a living room’ because, as you note, there are lots of factors involved. I know that the sound waves are there whether someone is listening or not, but not everyone in the room will hear the same thing. That’s why I have trouble with the ‘perfect mic’ concept. Thanks for the interesting (to me, at least) discussion.

A ‘perfect’ mic? Hmmmm..... interesting. Perfect according to whom or to what standard? We can get really metaphysical here. Do your ears perceive sound exactly the same way mine do, and generate exactly the same neural responses in the brain? Are there hearing blind people in the same way there are colour blind people? Do you see the same shade of red that I do? Do we both hear 440 hz at exactly the same pitch? Aristotle would be proud! I did major in philosophy......

In other words...... what sound does a tree make when it falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it? Using a microphone to capture the sound is artificial!! I want the ‘real’ sound as if I were standing there at the time. How can you ever know what that sounds like without recording it? And then, of course, what you get is the sound coloured by the actual mic used to record it.

Not sure whether this would be a real hurdle, but it occurs to me that this raises an immediate technical issue: how (without using a mic) do you capture and emulate/model the sound of the ‘real’ cab? I could be totally oversimplifying and completely misunderstanding the modeling technology Line 6 uses but it seems to me that the heart of the technology is some sort of comparison: you capture a waveform of the sound of the ‘real thing’ and then your DSP software is designed to reproduce that waveform as closely as possible. Where does the waveform of the ‘real cab’ come from for comparison purposes if you don’t use a mic to capture it? Again, maybe I just haven’t had enough coffee yet.....

Both the Firehawk 1500 amp and the Firehawk FX device are listed on the current Line 6 Products page (see top of this page).

The UX2 can be used with any recording software that supports ASIO. It comes with the Line 6 Pod Farm software but is not restricted to that.

How do you plan to operate the Helix Floor device in this situation? Do you still envision having access somehow to the device footswitches etc or do you have some remote controller in mind?

I suggest you go with minimum 6” speakers. Bigger is better so if 8” fits in your budget I’d go with those. You don’t need 10” for your purposes. As for brand, any powered studio monitors (virtually all of which are FRFR) should work fine. Most audio stores that sell these speakers have a test setup in the store where you can compare different brands. Pricing is a very local determination, so let your ears be your guide re: cost/value preference.

Is this what you want? https://www.long-mcquade.com/66725/Guitars/Cables_Power_Supplies/Line_6/Lightning_Cable_for_SonicPort.htm. Seems it’s out of stock but you may be able to order it.

I use the P-180 antennas because I have 5 units and the rabbit ears are just too messy. However, if I only had 2 units in a single rack space I would use one rabbit ear on the front of each unit and use 2 short cables in the rear to connect the other antenna inputs in a daisy chain manner. https://www.long-mcquade.com/17742/Pro_Audio_Recording/Accessories/Line_6/Line6_6_Inch_Coaxial_Cables_-_Pair.htm

The above is my experience too. The original materials include the rackmount equipment for 2 units side-by-side in a standard 19" 1U rack space. I successfully mounted and connected 5 units in a 4U rack, leaving me 1U space beneath for spare cables and other equipment. No problems and no need for extra materials except a 5-port power hub and short cables for daisy chaining the units inside the rack.

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." - Yogi Berra

No, not possible using the unit itself. You can, of course, record the loop into a recording program on your computer before it gets deleted on the Pod Go. If looping is an important feature for you consider getting a dedicated fully-featured looper pedal that includes the ability to save recordings.

As of firmware 3.0 (I think) you can assign a footswitch to recall any snapshot. So you can use any one of your 8 available footswitches for this purpose without having to enter Snapshot mode.

I would start with the manual. Choose the one for your Variax guitar model. https://line6.com/support/manuals/#guitars The POD Go does not have a Variax VDI connection but you can still use the Variax guitar with it. Use the Variax 1/4” analog output just like a normal guitar. The manual describes how changing models works.

Not really. Different headphones will sound different even to each other, and quite different from FRFR speakers. Headphones will sound closer to FRFR than to an amp but still quite different.