RIP Stadium

[cacibi]

Received my Stadium XL at 9am this morning, the unit is dead at 3pm. Spent the morning just trying to work through update issues. Still couldn't get it to show me the QR code or enter my account info after updating to 1.2 via Line 6 Central. Hooked it up to various gizmos (Powercab, audio interface, wedge monitor), started dialing in a vocal chain path then went to import my first song into Showcase, left the room during upload and when I came back - the unit was dark. Now....nothing, won't power up at all. 

Have reported to support and hoping there is some kind of magical recovery mode but - at the moment, seems like a pretty expensive boat anchor.

[silverhead]

 Fear not. It’s under warranty. Open a support ticket to get it recovered or replaced.

[cacibi]

Oh it's going back...just not sure if it's going back for good.

[cacibi]

Line 6 is going to ship me out a new unit. Still kind of freaked out that the thing just went dark in a (seemingly) non-recoverable way.

To be honest, I don't even want to turn the new one on until there's another firmware release but...we'll see. 

[silverhead]

On 1/14/2026 at 12:16 PM, cacibi said:

...
To be honest, I don't even want to turn the new one on until there's another firmware release but...we'll see. 

Well, if you want to wait you'll still have to turn it on to get the new firmware. Might as well test it out first. If it's sane, try updating to the current firmware. Then you'll be ready to update to the next release comfortably when that happens.

 

I don't believe it was a firmware issue. I expect you just got a lemon. It happens.

[cacibi]

On 1/14/2026 at 9:48 AM, silverhead said:

Well, if you want to wait you'll still have to turn it on to get the new firmware. Might as well test it out first. If it's sane, try updating to the current firmware. Then you'll be ready to update to the next release comfortably when that happens.

 

I don't believe it was a firmware issue. I expect you just got a lemon. It happens.

I don't think it's just hardware or onboard firmware issues that people are experiencing. The device is obviously phoning home for various reasons including attempting account login. More than previous devices, given that there is onboard wi-fi, this thing is going to be communicating with Line 6 servers. Proxy captures are going to happen in the cloud, not on the device. I don't know if any processing of Showcase audio files is happening in the cloud or if it's strictly handled by the Stadium app. 

But I think that some of the issues people are experiencing with regard to firmware updates, etc. are not just happening on the device but on the server side as well OR there is more potential for issues related to computer security like connections being blocked by firewalls, etc.

I remember early on with my Helix floor unit, there was a period where I couldn't have a web browser open during firmware updates. And before the update process became pretty stable and easy through the Helix Edit app....it was a lot of reading and re-reading a long list of firmware update instructions for every release and it seemed like one wrong move and you were doing a hard reset of the unit.

[cacibi]

Received my replacement unit from Line 6 yesterday. Was very glad to see a new firmware release just in time.

 

I skipped the startup screen to disable automatic time sync and set the time/date on the unit manually as others have reported here that this fixed the "no QR code" issue during the setup process. After restarting and logging onto wi-fi - QR code was there and I was able to login and install 1.2.1 directly on the device.

I then proceeded to format and install new SD card (512GB Samsung SDXC card) and by following the manual instructions carefully (and maybe too literally at times) this was successful.

Next I took a breath and started the process during which the original unit was bricked: namely importing tracks to Showcase via the Stadium App. Again, I followed the manual instructions carefully and completed my first import with no issues. Bit of a drag that the unit does not display the track names as imported, and that tracks have to be renamed in all three Matrix views separately but....guessing this will get fixed/updated in future firmware.

I then created a basic setlist structure and imported some 3rd party presets. Next I started creating an IR folder structure and importing IRs.

So far, so good. It was a lot of anxiety to have the first unit fail, especially during Showcase import as that was a big selling point for me to purchase the unit in the first place. Logic Pro has become my main rehearsal for learning tracks since I discovered the Stem Splitter feature. So handy to be able to solo and reference the guitar parts or vocal harmonies along with creating loop points and markers. To be able to replicate that basic experience on my pedalboard and take it into the rehearsal space will be huge and the ability to make 3 custom mixes on top is beautiful. But it's a lot of money for me and not fun to hear the Arrested Development theme and think "I've made a huge mistake".

Thankful that Line 6 support took care of it by sending me a new unit and that they were willing to send advance replacement and glad to see issues starting to be patched up in the firmware releases.