Sorry Line 6, The Amplifi 150 Is Going Back! Will Try Again When...

[gipser]

Okay folks,

 

I have tried to give this amp a fair chance but adding the pluses and subtracting the minuses, I think that Line 6 needs to improve a few things such as:

 

-  Better cabinet enclosure meaning baltic birch 13 ply.

-  Increase "depth" of the cabinet to 14".

-  Vintage 30 or similar Celestion Speaker.

-  If sold as a gig amp, you need to double the ponies and build a better cabinet..

-  Output Jacks for 2x12 or 4x12 with adjustable impedance.

-  On board effects suck, really suck!

-  Spring reverb.

-  Sub-woofer output Jack.

-  Better stereo separation.  I can't notice it when playing mp3s.

 

On the software side:

 

-  Provide a manual.  No manual tells us that you don't have your ducks on a row yet or you don't care.

-  Make it as intuitive and functional as possible.  Nobody wants to become a computer guru.  They want to turn knobs even if they are virtual and call it the day.

 

On the board support side:

 

-  You don't say much and that shows me that you don't care or you have all hands on deck improving this thing (wishful thinking....).

 

So, I will re-evaluate on the second or third generation, as of right now, it looks like a premature release with major price point constraints to provide a better product for the discriminating ears of people like the one writing.  The cheap loudness of the amplifi 150 gives me an ear acke because it is all middle and treble, the bass is non existent IMHO.

 

On the plus side, for a small bedroom practice amp is fine but leave it there and please dont try to invite your friends and party on with this amp.  Your home stereo would probably sound 10 times better, at least it will have the bass punch that this one lacks.

[TheRealZap]

conclusion:

 

this amp was never meant to meet your needs.

 

hope you get yourself something that works, good luck.

[Guitarplayer1130]

Well gipser, we will certainly miss your complaints. I know that everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and you have defiantly made yours well known.

 

Good luck and happy trails.

[phil_m]

 

:)

[Triryche]

The pics you took took are cool...

[Shakey64]

@gipser. You make some valid points about the lack of manual and perhaps visibility of line6 taking suggestions on board but... These are from the Line6 site showing specs

 

12†custom Celestion speaker - no mention of a Vintage 30

1/4†Guitar input and 1/8†Stereo Aux input

1/4†Headphone output - no mention of output jacks for 2x12 or 4x12 with adjustable impedance, no mention of sub-woofer outboard jack

Nowhere in any of the pics of the amp is there any suggestion of spring-reverb.

Might be okay for a bedroom practice amp? You must have a big bedroom or severe hearing loss!

 

Good luck with whatever you go with in the end but maybe do some research next time? And you better hope that wherever you bought the 150 from doesn't find out you've been at it with a screwdriver ;-)

[gipser]

Shakey64,

 

Granted, no mention of a vintage 30, I added that request. The vintage 30 cost twice as much and sounds twice as good. :) The problem is that Line 6 techs are MIA. They could have said, we tried that and it didn't work, wrong this, wrong that...whatever, I mean, be engaged in their customer's input.

 

Some tech in another thread stated that the headphone plug serves as the output jack. I said what? I tried and the hum was horrendous. I should have tried messing with the mixer knobs, I admit. The spring reverb was just a wish list type of thing. I mean, I want a decent reverb if you offer one.

 

All in all, they need to get busy if they want to succeed in this product line. Yes, the potential is there, but they are not there at this time. It sounds like crap to my ears overall. There are exceptions though where the guitar sound comes out okay but the mp3 sound is bad. I think that you can't mix a guitar frequency speaker with enough bass to enjoy the experience. If they just add a sub-woofer jack, they will be there. They did not wake up when I made the call and I vote with my $500. Sink or swim.

 

As I said, I see tremendous educational potential if they enhance the software to capture to what is played to the songs on mp3 and provide feedback, progress, etc.

 

Enjoy your toy shakey. I have more than to do with toy wise and like to test this stuff and post feed back to see if they wake up...from a regular Joe perspective..LOL

 

The Item has been returned. I returned it as I got it. I am an honest person believe it or not. :)

[gunpointmetal]

Line 6 has no interest in broad-scope customer interaction except for IdeaScale, which is mostly a placeholder to keep the "WTLollipop?!?! Line 6" threads to a minimum....they don't even respond to general inquiries via support ticket...try asking them why the EQs on the HD series are still the way they are, or if using the effects loop is actually noisier than running the chain A & B in parallel on the HD series, as proposed by some users in that forum. 

[TheRealZap]

Support tickets go to support personnel. They will have no idea why developers did what they did and they won't have an answer for you. But go ahead and let them tell you that.

[Shakey64]

@ TheRealZap Very true but there is nothing preventing developers or designers getting a better understanding of customers needs and frustrations by interacting with them.    This isn't a criticism of L6 per se, it applies to most major companies.  Some of the best interaction I have seen has actually been with iOS developers, which is slightly ironic...

[Brazzy]

This is a cool thread, I love it when someone disects new stuff and tells what they find and think about it. Good job the OP and thank you.

[gunpointmetal]

Support tickets go to support personnel. They will have no idea why developers did what they did and they won't have an answer for you. But go ahead and let them tell you that.

Because they totally don't work for the same company and have no way of communicating with each other.

 

It's no more than laziness and general lack of concern. 

[Brazzy]

As they used to say in the job shop (machinist industry) "Machinist's make mistakes and the Engineer's make revvisions" nice Eh? lol The right hand don't know what the left hand is doing. That seems like an oxymoron in the Music industry doesn't it? Hahaha

[TheRealZap]

gee imagine that... you disagreed with me... that's abnormal...

seriously... they have different responsibilities... and sure they could talk...

but if they haven't answered you 3 years after release....

well they apparently are either too busy working on it to respond...

or they are working on the nextgen or... whatever.

you could have been a professor of EQ by percent at this point with only a fraction of your moan time dedicated to the topic.

but i get it... it's more important to you that it works how you want it to...

than it is... that it just works...

anyway... 

i'm not going to engage in another epic internet battle about the same topic...

i acknowledge your viewpoint and i expressed mine... groovy? probably no more groovy than it ever was... but groove on regardless.

 

 

Because they totally don't work for the same company and have no way of communicating with each other.

 

It's no more than laziness and general lack of concern. 

[gunpointmetal]

I don't have a problem implementing the EQ's, it just doesn't make a single lick of sense and the lack of communication on the issue leads me to believe either A) The company doesn't give a lollipop if A TON OF USERS have asked for something in regards to it or B) They have no idea why its that way, and don't care. Either way. its sh!tty customer support. 

 

I'm not trying to pick a fight with anyone here, dude. I'm referring to a company and a product, that is all.

[TheRealZap]

for what its worth.... i agree it could have been done better....

i just think that the timeframe between now and release indicates that it isn't going to happen for whatever reason...

[gunpointmetal]

I just want to make sure they're aware that it was dumb before they do the same stupid crap in the next gen

[TheRealZap]

I'm certain they got that message many times over.

 

I just want to make sure they're aware that it was dumb before they do the same stupid crap in the next gen

[gunpointmetal]

You'd think so, but then who would think to put EQs in % in the first place?

[Triryche]

Because they totally don't work for the same company and have no way of communicating with each other.

 

It's no more than laziness and general lack of concern. 

 

Lack of concern?

 

Have you worked for a large successful company that manufactures products for consumers/prosumers?

 

Are you insinuating Line6 is not concerned with being a successful innovative business, which ends up making money?

 

Can't tell you how many times I have experienced 1st hand a large to huge successful company reinvent the wheel, miss the mark, fall short (insert any other similar idioms), and/or drop the ball, do to lack of effective communication between cross functional groups.  Typically the bigger the company the more rampant the dysfunctional communication is.

 

For every department a communication is transferred to, the taller the tale (further from the user experience) grows down the line.

 

Which is why so many consulting companies make millions of dollars by selling other companies companies concepts of how to run their (successful) company successfully.  Most of the concepts I have had the pleasure of learning were pure snake oil.

 

Don't get me wrong, I work hard for my $$$, and if a company pries my hard earned cash out of my hands, I want a great product.

 

But just because complaints that go to tech support do not translate to a quadrillion lines of code, I'm not gonna sit behind my keyboard and call a company lazy.

[gunpointmetal]

I'll walk up to the office and tell them.

[Shakey64]

Line6 Gurus/Uber Gurus, don't take it all so personally. I don't know the history between you guys but I thought the whole point of this forum is to discuss what we, the forum community, feel is good or not so good about L6 products or pass tips on etc.

 

From an outsider point of view it perhaps does feel like no-one is listening and if you look at the ideascale page that nothing is moving. From a consumer pov if there is a process for logging enhancement requests that L6 have put in place then you like to feel that these are being taken seriously and worked on or at least considered. At the minute, if I'm being honest, and as someone new to L6 products I'm on the fence re the quality of customer experience.

 

Time (and I mean weeks or a few months) will define my opinion of customer service from L6 and potentially my desire to purchase further items. However, having said that I did some research & the product does what it said it would: it's a great product. BUT the app could be so much better.

 

I get that there is a specific support team who will just be ensuring it does as described and designed (I work in application development and maintenance for a large [FTSE 100] UK company) but as I said earlier there is nothing wrong with the developers checking out these threads and understanding what can be done to enhance the experience. May not be common across many companies but not radical thinking either...

Peace to all & have a great weekend

[Triryche]

Well Line6 does not monitor these forums that frequently.

 

Just for the record, I was not specifically defending Line6, just annoyed by the comment that insinuated Line6 is lazy and unconcerned.

 

Hopefully the app will get better with future updates, time will tell.

[gonzogo]

Hi Everyone...

Just took delivery of our new 150.

Looks like it will take a while to get the hang of all the available options (which look terrific.)

Question: How do we configure the amp to just use it initially as a "regular amp."

By that I mean just be able to plug in the Strat and hear it as a "regular" amp without any special effects etc.

I know this is a very simple basic question but would appreciate hearing how to set this up.

Thanks and look forward to the help.

(Obviously we're not real techies..but with your help, we'll get there.)

[phil_m]

Hi Everyone...

Just took delivery of our new 150.

Looks like it will take a while to get the hang of all the available options (which look terrific.)

Question: How do we configure the amp to just use it initially as a "regular amp."

By that I mean just be able to plug in the Strat and hear it as a "regular" amp without any special effects etc.

I know this is a very simple basic question but would appreciate hearing how to set this up.

Thanks and look forward to the help.

(Obviously we're not real techies..but with your help, we'll get there.)

 

You may be better off starting a new thread.

 

The short answer to your question, though, is to go into the editor function in the app (assuming you're already connected via Bluetooth), and go and toggle any effects that are turned on off. Apart from using the FBV Shortboard controller, there's no other way to bypass the effects. You can't do from the amp standalone. If you want to save some dry amp tones in the onboard presets, you can do that in the app by using the "Save to Hardware" option once you have a tone you like.

[Spantik]

knowing specs from the Line6 website, one shall decide whether this is the product or not.

 

I have the AmpliFi 150 as second amp for practice, to replace my Yamaha THR10 and it is faaaaar better than the Yamaha, just what I was looking for based on all rerviews in mags and YouTubes.

 

Ther are enough literature and videos publicly available to make one's informed decision.