Variax Mags crackling only when using VDI

[mike_bomb]

Hi All, appreciate any help with this.

 

I've mainly used my variax for the models and in the past I had almost always used it with the battery, recently I started playing around with connecting it through VDI to my POD HD500X and realized that when I strum the strings somewhat hard I'm getting what seems to be loss of signal for a fraction of a second, followed by the sound finally coming through but crackly then finally settling down and ringing out just fine , it doesn't do it if I strum more gently and the crackling itself seems unaffected by the volume knob, like it'll still have that loss of signal and crackle just at a lower volume, it'll also happen on any position of the pickup selector. This does not happen at all when I connect through 1/4" and battery powered, nor if I switch to the piezos. I tried switching cables for a multitude of CAT5e I had laying around and even purchased an official VDI cable from Line6 but all of them show the same behavior. Anyone got any idea what may be going on?

 

I tried updating the firmware on both the POD and the Variax but still same issue. Also I get the same issue no matter the POD preset, I even tried running the 1/4" cable through an external amp and I hear the same crackle, so at least the audio part of it doesn't seem related to the POD.

[psarkissian]

The guitar and VDI line on the 500X should be checked out by a Line 6 authorized service tech.