What is better, budgetwise: HX stomp with some external ODs, or just buy an HD500X which sounds good for the buck?

[galapito]

I have not owned any Line 6 products but demoed an HD500X once. I am looking for a budget-friendly rig, and have considered many options, to which I narrow to 2. My options are:

 

-Owning an HX stomp, with an additional, mission exp pedal, and an OCD and Fulldrive that I already own. This is about 720 bucks.

OR

-Owning an HD500X for 550 bucks.

 

I know that the first option will sound really good, due to the great selection of amps/FX/IRs/Cabs + the versatility of using the HX stomp by itself for lightweight gigs and recordings or integrating it into a pedalboard which BTW can become quite heavy if I fill it with all the external pedals and MIDI and other add-ons to the HX stomp. However, the HD500x really sounds good if you sit with it for some time and tweak it to your liking+ external Cabs like mooer radar (yea... its stock cabs don't sound THAT great), BUT it is budget-friendly compared to the first option.

 

So, please, I would like your suggestion on what would be better considering my budget and versatility of weight, tone, and uses.

[joel_brown]

Get the HX Stomp.  Get the new better sounding stuff, not the decade old dated stuff.  If you can't afford the extra couple hundred bucks then wait and save up for it.  Cheaper is not always better.  You get what you pay for.

[galliar]

I have an HD500X and use it for church service.  It is a great machine, old technology or not.  There are a multitude of inputs, outputs, midi, etc. and the sounds are absolutely fantastic.  There isn’t anything it lacks for what I use it for, except maybe an ambient reverb, but I just downloaded an ambient patch that somebody created and it sounds exceptional.  I got it on sale at Guitar center for $399.00.  It does split channels and I have never ran into a DSP limit yet.  Now, just due to size and wanting something small to take to worship services once in a while I am testing out a Stomp HX in a couple of days.  It does look like a great device and you can get one for 15% off at Guitar center or around $500.  You may need a foot pedal though with it, and like somebody said above, it is new technology.  However, the POD 500X is not really very old and the HD amps sounds awesome.  It also has a much more analog sound than software like BIAS fx, close to actual pedals.  If you need really heavy duty, volume/wha pedal (or whatever function you assign it to), thee POD being all self contained is an excellent choice.