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pod xt live vs pod hd500x


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2016:I love the pod xt live, fun to play, easy editing to get great sounds,bought hd500 and hd500x 3 times and man it just sucks for me. all the presets suck and even the downloads ones are weak imo.I am done with it.sticking with xt live even though its older.before saying its because I like my patches I found that just the pod xt live presets are fun to play and sound better. who are all these saps saying the 500 is better? maybe going direct which I don't do. feel wise a tiny difference between the two. the 500 sound is kind of flat sounding even after downloading custom patches.maybe its because I am not going direct.

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Well if all you're relying on is other people's patches and not creating your own then that's never a good basis for judging tone. All the presets and Customtone patches were made on different guitars to yours, with different pick-ups, different strings, monitored on different speakers to you.

Also if the patches were designed for direct monitoring and you ran them through an amp unchanged then yes they won't sound right. It's not just a case of switching from studio to amp output mode, you need to know how to program your tone.

Nobody's a 'sap' for preferring the HD. Equally neither are you for liking the XT. Saying the HD sounds flat however is just plain wrong regardless.

Use what you enjoy but there's no need to criticise those that enjoy what they prefer.

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update: don't mean to offend,being honest here I really tried both side by side with some custom tone patches and editing my own and the pod xt live jt blows the hd500x out of the water for me anyway,all I got with the pod hd500x was this digital flat fizz on each patch I tried, disappointed even with the f/x in the hd500x, wow how lame could it be?! with the pod xt live I started playing and it wasnt 3 minutes that I forgot I was testing the units as it was so much fun to play and inspiring to write stuff.the hd500x took all the fun out of playing guitar altogether for me.just blahh...sounding.I feel sorry for all these poor saps putting hours and hours into their hd500x patches instead of playing [ok I know I am being a bit harsh and they are not saps, but sad that they have to go through that - .I must admit I never ran into a product that took the fun out of playing guitar like the hd500x for me anyway except for maybe the roland gp16 turd and its inbred kid brother the roland rc-50 looping station what crap..Ive recorded many albums been playing for many years and have been through a lot of gear,the pod hd500x made me sound like a beginner guitarist (like 30 years ago on my peavey backstage plus practice amp).I would go as far to say that I had a better time with a $50 digitech rp-50. maybe my pod hd500x is defective or has some global eq messed up then again I bought it from some guy who just bought it and ditched it as well as I am going to.hope I can get $425 out of it before they come out with the $499 helix jr [guessing]......anyway pod hd500x is just not for me..done deal.......

I wanted the hd500x to work as it syncs to midi clock and as a midi controller for external f/x these two things the pod xt live cant do.

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oj I should add , I run the pod xt live into solid state amp and two cabinets with jensen speakers. did the same withhd500x.I use an external effect unit for some delay and reverb I thought I could get the same out of pod hd500x but no,its just not as good as exteral f/x unit .I will work with it some more and see if perhaps I am not hooking it up right or  something....

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TBH with you dude, the HDs do sound better than the X3/XT series but only if you spend some time with them. If you are only now figuring out that the output modes change significantly the sounds then that should tell you all your above comments are based on a lack of knowledge of the unit.

 

The XTs were the kings of fizz until you EQ'd the snots out of them and 99% of the patches DL'd sounded crappy too. If you've had it for years you probably forgot the initial learning curve the unit had.

 

I still use the XTL (add-ons fully loaded) for a grab and go for jams (love the Big Bottom amp) but the HD is better.

 

-Sap

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Well just goes to show. This particular sap enjoyed the RC-50. I only sold it so I could it the RC-300. Guess that makes me a double-sap 😀

 

Anyway the first thing I tried on the HD and my XT was the Gibtone amp and even without any programming I could here how it felt more dynamic to my playing, hence I don't think you can use the word flat.

 

Maybe you prefer the XT's less dynamic sound and that is fine. I imagine you've been programming theXT for years. How long did you program the HD for?

 

Anyway enjoy what you enjoy but no-one's a sap for it.

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