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New 75 Owner - My Thoughts


RafterRattler
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Hi folks.  I've been looking for a smallish STEREO practice amp for a while, and I have a Blackstar ID:Core40 on order.  Although quite a bit pricier, I picked up an Amplifi 75 yesterday as well - mainly because of the hype over its stereo effects.   I thought I'd share my thoughts here.  Do the Line 6 folks watch these forums?

 

After two days, I have mixed feelings.  I really like this thing because it's fun, cool looking, powerful and a great Bluetooth speaker - but if I look at the whole package objectively, I have far more dislikes than likes.   I went to bed last night pretty intent on taking it back.  Today I like it a little more...but just a little.  Unfortunately, if the consensus is that this is truly the completed product, it will likely go back.

 

First of all, I bought the 75 because I liked the size (and because GC didn't have the 150 in stock).   It's quite possible that some of my complaints will apply only to the 75.

 

Likes

- Really slick and modern styling (even though it does feel a bit delicate).

- One of the best sounding Bluetooth speakers I've heard

- Integrated PS - no brick

- For the most part, the app is easy to use 

- Seems to have quite a bit of low end for a small amp, even with just an 8" speaker

- Lots of power for the size

 

Dislikes

- Virtually NO stereo separation for guitar effects.  Where is all the hype coming from?  Given that this was sold as a feature, this one is baffling to me.  They are definitely running in stereo, but I have to stick my head right between the two little speakers and concentrate to notice it.   Would it really have been that hard to add 5-10ms between the channels to fill it out?   Any chance of adding an adjustable delay between the L/R channels in the next firmware & app drop?

- Bluetooth skips fairly often - VERY annoying when you're playing to tempo.

- Bluetooth can only pair with one device at a time - a real PITA when I want to use both my iPhone and iPad, or stream from my Android.

- Patch changes through the app are slow, and add Bluetooth breaks/skips.

- App is WAY too dependent on it's own player.  I have my music in a personal cloud and not local to my device - so I can't even use the player.  How about adding DLNA support to the player?

- Way too difficult to find tones.  I should be able to just search without going to the player.

- Annoying to create a brand new tone.  Can we have just a 'new tone' button where I can start from scratch?

- No way to type in parameter values directly...forced to use the sliders.  Can we have a value input box?

- No clear way to port tones from POD Farm (since it appears to be based on the POD Farm tech).  I ported a few of my tones manually and they actually translated fairly well - much to my surprise.

- No clear way to back up tones other than in the cloud - which is automatically synced.  Make a mistake, lose your tone.

- Higher gains leave something to be desired.  I almost want to say they have a cocked wah sound to them....at least to my ears.

- No detailed manual anywhere that I can find

- Why is it so hard to find detailed specs?  How big are the satellite speakers?   Does it use BT 4.0?  APTX? 

- Can we have a way to turn off that infernal tap temp light when we don't need it?

 

Like I said earlier, it's a shame because I really like this thing....but I also find some of it's limitations extremely annoying.  It's kind of an expensive toy to be on the fence about....

 

Mike

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, ultimately you were right.  It went back yesterday.   I REALLY tried to bond with this thing....I WANTED to bond with it.   The design is slick, it's one of the best looking and sounding bluetooth speakers I've come across, and it's a great practice concept.  Unfortunately, to me it comes down to value....it was simply too expensive to have to deal with so many shortcomings.  Again, purely a personal judgement.   The bluetooth dropouts were the biggest annoyance, happening across multiple devices, even when just using the thing as a bluetooth speaker.  It would just hiccup every once in a while, but it was enough to be annoying (again, considering the price).   All I kept thinking was 'this is a great start', but I couldn't escape the nagging feeling that as time went on, it would never get finished, the fixes would stop, and Line 6 would end up releasing a new version after figuring out they couldn't overcome the hurdles with the existing hardware....leaving me with a $400 brick.   Unfortunately, with the business model for most hardware/software companies these days being 'just release it and let the public do the thorough testing', it just wasn't for me.   I'll check back after the next generation.

 

FWIW, I did submit several ides to the idea website....hopefully Line 6 is listening.  I'd like to go back and get one of these someday.

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I sat with the amplifi for about 2 hours today. It is the most unusable and synthetic sounding amp I have ever sat with. Slick bells and whistles, fancy pants iPad app, pulling tones from the cloud? What the hell? Hopefully Line 6 sells 6 million of these things so they can have enough money to design a kick butt all tube amp with a volume, treble, bass and master knob. One that pugs in and sounds balls to the wall without having to go to the cloud to dial in a tone. Cloud? Bluetooth? iPad? You have to have a frickin' internet connection!! 

 

Come on MAN!

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Like I said, there were several annoyances.  However, I had no expectations of it being a real amp.   I went into it viewing it as a practice tool.  I still think it can be a darn good one provided they fix the annoyances without running into hardware limitations.

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Like I said, there were several annoyances.  However, I had no expectations of it being a real amp.   I went into it viewing it as a practice tool.  I still think it can be a darn good one provided they fix the annoyances without running into hardware limitations.

When you say practice tool, what type of practice are you referring to? Who needs a 75/150 watt amp to practice AC/DC covers in the bedroom? With a Sonic Port iPad and headphones, You can rock out all night long!

 

If you are referring to practicing with a band, then this is the amp you plan on using in a live situation. I mean why would anyone practice with their band using an amp they had no intention of using live right? Now I am back to who wants to go to a cloud to get a tone? What if the club has no wi-fi? Why is my tone so synthetic? Why am I rockin' a 150 watt amp in my bedroom? this one confuses me. But it sure does look sharp!

 

Technology can be a wonderful thing. Sometimes not.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Why am I rockin' a 150 watt amp in my bedroom? this one confuses me.

It is designed to operate as as music player, too. I have a tube amp that I love, but bought this to take to rehearsal. Schlepping that thing all over is a pain. We bought the 75 primarily for a second music system and it is pretty nice, but I am going to swap it out for the 150.

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I drove to Guitar Center yesterday and swapped out the 75 for the 150.  Big difference.  If you plan to use this for rehearsal or occasional gigs, spend the extra 100.  I isn't that much bigger or heavier and has a ton more bottom end and volume.  This transfers over to music on BluTooth also.   Really neat solution for an old guy like me who doesn't want to schlep a 100lb tube amp to a weekly rehearsal.   

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