So what's the difference...

[MikeMaben]

...between an HD500(X) and the Amplifi FX100 performance wise ?

 

I think I'd dump my 500 for the FX100 just for the excellent iOS interface.

I hear they're working on android. Amplifi looks to be the same thing w/o

a looper. Anything else ? :blink:

[silverhead]

The main difference for me is in the modelling software. The AMPLIFi product is a clever repackaging of much older Line 6 technology while taking advantage of non-proprietary recent technology (iOS, Bluetooth). The HD is (at least for now) Line 6 state-of-the-art amp modelling technology and delivers more realistic tones and dynamics.

[radatats]

I'd think long and hard before making that jump...  seen plenty of gripes about BT dropping connections.  I think performance wise, the HD is a far superior product.  Amplifi has its niche but it won't outperform the POD...  then again it depends on what you want to do.  Just playing around at home it might be fine; gigging you are better off staying with the POD.

 

For the record, Line 6 has never said there is an Android app in the future.  That is strictly wishful thinking on the boards...  They have reserved the USB port for future use so maybe a PC connection but nothing is certain.

[Charlie_Watt]

From what I gather, you would be dropping down a level in the modeling.

[mdt0266]

As someone who used an XT Live for many years, then switched to the AMPLIFi FX100 (because of the iOS capability)...I can tell you that you will be disappointed. After 2 weeks, I took it back and got the HD500X and haven't looked back.

[joel_brown]

If you spend more time on the phone than guitar, then get the Amplifi.  My suggestion is spend more time on the guitar and stop looking at your phone, then get the PODHD.

 

PODHD - much better quality, harder to use.  More pro level sound.

Amplifi - lower quality, easier to use.  More for the occasional player.

[smrybacki]

The main difference for me is in the modelling software. The AMPLIFi product is a clever repackaging of much older Line 6 technology while taking advantage of non-proprietary recent technology (iOS, Bluetooth). The HD is (at least for now) Line 6 state-of-the-art amp modelling technology and delivers more realistic tones and dynamics.

Did you ever wonder why they chose the older XT modelling instead of HD for the Amplifi?  Has that ever been answered elsewhere and I missed it?

 

 

For the record, Line 6 has never said there is an Android app in the future.  That is strictly wishful thinking on the boards...  They have reserved the USB port for future use so maybe a PC connection but nothing is certain.

Not directed at you per say, but reading this prompted me to say that I've been thinking a lot about this trend lately.  Being an avid and perfectly happy Android user myself, if Line 6 and others (like Propellerhead for example) want to snub the Android users of the world, then I think it will eventually be it's own reward in terms of alienated customers when the market turns against Apple.  It might be all wine and roses right now for whatever reasons, and people may think iOS is God's own operating system, but Android has the larger share of the total mobile market plus they are addressing the fragmentation issues that plagued early releases and Google has deep pockets.  As for my own part, all I can say is neither Line 6 or Propellerheads (my two main digital music making avenues) haven't come up with anything yet in any area of my life that would make me drop Android OS for iOS and I know I'm not alone.  So Line6 (and others) had better hope that Apple doesn't take a second fiscal nose dive one day I guess.  Maybe this comes off as sour grapes, but it's not.  I can remember a time when the Mac crowd was crying the blues because apps weren't being made for their OS while the PC crowd had their choice of things to use for any particular task just before Apple had it's first near death experience.  In other words, what goes around eventually comes around.

[gunpointmetal]

Of course they use the iOS for more creative stuff....its the only place the creative stuff exists right now. Most of the arguments against android will become moot once they've solidified a unified format between devices for a lot of stuff...

 

But back to the real reason the thread started....

If you like jamming in your living room to backing tracks and have no concern for live use, go ahead and get an Amplifi. If you intend on playing in front of people and you want to sound good, get something from the HD series. The whole reason for the old modeling (as stated) was to have access to the gajillions of pre-existing patches from your app.

[smrybacki]

They chose to use a modified version of the XT(?) modeling because of the number of patches/presets currently available for it. The main marketing ploy for Amplifi is that you can pretty much find a readily available preset for just about any song that you would like to play a long with. I imagine that they also want a clear separation between their product lines with the X  and Pro being at the top of the pecking order.

 

The market will not turn against Apple.

 

The Android market share argument, as a reason for why developers should turn more attention and investment toward the platform, has been decimated  many times over by people and industries for more intelligent than most of us. A simple web search will turn up enough articles, commentary and opinion that will keep you busy for the rest of the week. No offense intended to anyone and I am not implying a lack of intelligence. The industry studies these situations with hard data and they can back it up.

 

In a nutshell, for every $1 earned by an iOS app in download revenue, an Android app earns just $0.19. In layman's terms, Apple users use their devices significantly more with respect to apps and actually being creative and working on their devices. Also, many a developer has stated that developing for IOS is a joy and very rewarding (financial and other wise) which had not been the case with Android.

 

The best outcome for all, both business and the user, would be for apps and software to be available on all platforms and no one is left behind, but I don't see that scenario occurring for quite some time.

Well, I can tell you this much; Satan will have icicles in his beard before I spend a dime on anything Apple just because of what you just said.  If people in this world want to spend more than they have to for what is, outside of some music making applications, a second rate, hamstrung operating system made more for developers than users -- then that's fine by me.  I can afford Apple products personally, but I find them to be substandard -- they can't even make a multiple user iPad, instead opting to force two people to each own their own at $700 a pop.  People will eventually wise up, but hey maybe not.  And I AM a developer, albeit not currently creating either Android or iOS apps but web applications in the mobile space.

 

In any event, back to the topic at hand, I guess the Amplifi is an Apple exclusive club, but my recent run through on the thing confirmed my suspicions that it is aimed at that crowd with deadly accuracy as their expectations are very low..

[phil_m]

Apple makes computers for people who want to use computers, but don't consider themselves a "computer person". My wife has a Macbook Air and loves it. I actually think it is a beautiful piece of industrial design. It's pretty darn cool. I still use a PC for work and my personal laptop, but I do love my iPhone. I just find it much easier to navigate. My boss has a Samsung Galaxy, and she asks me to help her do stuff with it sometimes, and I just find it takes about twice as many steps to do anything you want to do. I think there is a lot to be said for ergonomic design. I actually think that's what made Line 6 successful in its early existence. It made digital stuff that didn't look and feel like digital stuff.

[smrybacki]

Apple makes computers for people who want to use computers, but don't consider themselves a "computer person". My wife has a Macbook Air and loves it. I actually think it is a beautiful piece of industrial design. It's pretty darn cool. I still use a PC for work and my personal laptop, but I do love my iPhone. I just find it much easier to navigate. My boss has a Samsung Galaxy, and she asks me to help her do stuff with it sometimes, and I just find it takes about twice as many steps to do anything you want to do. I think there is a lot to be said for ergonomic design. I actually think that's what made Line 6 successful in its early existence. It made digital stuff that didn't look and feel like digital stuff.

With all due respect to you personally, whatever.

 

My wife has an iPhone and an iPad 2 and is forever asking me how to do this, that or the other with them.  So much for easy.  She paid $300 for her 16GB iPhone 5 from Verizon while I paid $50 for my 32GB Droid RAZR MAXX.  She paid $700 for her iPad and I paid $194 for my Chromebook.  Say what you will, but I saved $756 on my gear and I don't need anyone's help using it, ever.

 

Edit to add: Don't really want a flame war here with anyone, so I'll drop it here.  It's not personal, it's principled.

[phil_m]

With all due respect to you personally, whatever.

 

My wife has an iPhone and an iPad 2 and is forever asking me how to do this, that or the other with them.  So much for easy.  She paid $300 for her 16GB iPhone 5 from Verizon while I paid $50 for my 32GB Droid RAZR MAXX.  She paid $700 for her iPad and I paid $194 for my Chromebook.  Say what you will, but I saved $756 on my gear and I don't need anyone's help using it, ever.

 

Edit to add: Don't really want a flame war here with anyone, so I'll drop it here.  It's not personal, it's principled.

 

I wasn't trying to get into a flame war, either. I was just pointing out the reasons why I think Apple products are what they are, and why companies like Line 6 create stuff that works with them. In politics, there's a saying, "perception is reality". I think that's the way it is in the consumer electronics world, too. People like what they like, and no amount of arguing is going to change most people's minds.

 

I will throw this out. Line 6 hasn't said they aren't going to make an Android app for Amplifi. I don't think I'd assume they won't ever release one.

[smrybacki]

I wasn't trying to get into a flame war, either. I was just pointing out the reasons why I think Apple products are what they are, and why companies like Line 6 create stuff that works with them. In politics, there's a saying, "perception is reality". I think that's the way it is in the consumer electronics world, too. People like what they like, and no amount of arguing is going to change most people's minds.

 

I will throw this out. Line 6 hasn't said they aren't going to make an Android app for Amplifi. I don't think I'd assume they won't ever release one.

You are right about people because if paying 4x (and up) what something is actually worth is OK by them, then nothing I'm gonna say is going to reach them.  I don't feel like my choices are in danger of disappearing on me, so I really don't mind in that respect but it's amazing what people will pay for some things.  As I said, my wife got a new iPhone 5 and she was at her friends house and needed to recharge and her friend has an iPhone 4.  Guess what?  She couldn't, because Apple changed the connector on the iPhone 5 from what it was on the iPhone 4 and NEITHER of them fit another bloody thing other than those phones anyway!  Neither would mine work although I can charge my phone, my tablet, my DSLR camera and my MP3 player with the very same $5 cord.  Now tell me, why would so many consumers blindly say "OK, I guess" to that when these charger chords go for $20 a pop minimum?  I see a sociology dissertation in that somewhere lol...

 

I know, I said I'd let it go but this is educational!

 

 

RE the makeup sex from Line6 with Amplifi?  I think they are already too late in my case.  I refuse to be treated like a second class citizen because of the phone or tablet I choose to use.

[mdmayfield]

I'll just stay out of the OS debate (I use Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, and OS X, and I don't think any of them get everything right), but it seems pretty clear to me that this is the real reason there are many audio apps on iOS and practically none on Android:

 

http://superpowered.com/low-latency-audio-android-ios/

 

My main phone at the moment is a Galaxy S4 with a custom ROM. Audio latency if I try to run an amp sim app is like 200+ milliseconds - utterly and completely unusable. On my old phone, an iPhone 4, I could run an amp simulator and play to backing tracks with the same latency as on a decent audio computer.

 

Google has been trying for two or three years now to improve this, but as yet there has been very little in the way of real-world progress.

 

If Android had had low-latency but high-performing audio as a priority from the beginning, I think we would have equal representation in music apps now.

[gunpointmetal]

I can't wait to see people fumbling around foolishly when their bluetooth connection fails or gets hijacked in a live situation.....

[smrybacki]

I'll just stay out of the OS debate (I use Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, and OS X, and I don't think any of them get everything right), but it seems pretty clear to me that this is the real reason there are many audio apps on iOS and practically none on Android:

 

http://superpowered.com/low-latency-audio-android-ios/

 

My main phone at the moment is a Galaxy S4 with a custom ROM. Audio latency if I try to run an amp sim app is like 200+ milliseconds - utterly and completely unusable. On my old phone, an iPhone 4, I could run an amp simulator and play to backing tracks with the same latency as on a decent audio computer.

 

Google has been trying for two or three years now to improve this, but as yet there has been very little in the way of real-world progress.

 

If Android had had low-latency but high-performing audio as a priority from the beginning, I think we would have equal representation in music apps now.

 

I'll just stay out of the OS debate (I use Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, and OS X, and I don't think any of them get everything right), but it seems pretty clear to me that this is the real reason there are many audio apps on iOS and practically none on Android:

 

http://superpowered.com/low-latency-audio-android-ios/

 

My main phone at the moment is a Galaxy S4 with a custom ROM. Audio latency if I try to run an amp sim app is like 200+ milliseconds - utterly and completely unusable. On my old phone, an iPhone 4, I could run an amp simulator and play to backing tracks with the same latency as on a decent audio computer.

 

Google has been trying for two or three years now to improve this, but as yet there has been very little in the way of real-world progress.

 

If Android had had low-latency but high-performing audio as a priority from the beginning, I think we would have equal representation in music apps now.

This is a good point I cannot argue with, however perhaps my problem is simply this;  When I want to make music whether it's guitar, or synthesizers  or recording any of it, the last thing in the world that crosses my mind to use is my phone.  In fact, when I get home, my phone goes on the shelf and I forget it until tomorrow morning on my way out the door to work.

[smrybacki]

I can't wait to be able to turn on a little overdrive boost by tapping my Apple Watch while I'm playing live, or change tunings on my JTV by tapping my Apple Watch, or...................on my Apple Watch. :lol:

Me either lol...

[phil_m]

I can't wait to see people fumbling around foolishly when their bluetooth connection fails or gets hijacked in a live situation.....

 

If you're using the Amplifi live, there's really no reason you'd need to use the BT connection at the gig. If you decide to edit your presets there, you would I guess. But if you're just be calling up presets and turning individual effects on or off with with the FBV controller. With the latest updates, they have 100 preset banks, so that should be enough to make it through any gig. Also, regarding the hacking the BT connection thing, you still have to press the BT button on the Amplifi in order to get it to pair with your phone or tablet. So I don't really think it's a real risk.

 

Personally, I have to say that editing tones with the Amplifi app is super cool. I wish there was a similar thing for the HD stuff. I actually think that if you did have to make changes at a gig, using the app would be easier than editing on the device itself (of course on the Amplifi, you can't really edit most parameters directly on the device itself).

[radatats]

I can't wait to be able to turn on a little overdrive boost by tapping my Apple Watch while I'm playing live, or change tunings on my JTV by tapping my Apple Watch, or...................on my Apple Watch. :lol:

 

I assume you are joking because I am trying to figure out how the flock I am going to even see my watch, let alone tapping something on it while still strangling the neck on my axe...  I have enough trouble tapping strings... lol...

[TheRealZap]

they're going to come out with the iTip a special attachment to your trem bar for poking the apple watch! :D

 

I assume you are joking because I am trying to figure out how the flock I am going to even see my watch, let alone tapping something on it while still strangling the neck on my axe...  I have enough trouble tapping strings... lol...

[radatats]

You could also just tell or sing to Siri 

 

Siri says "Oh, I can't do that either..." lol...

[MikeMaben]

If you spend more time on the phone than guitar, then get the Amplifi.  My suggestion is spend more time on the guitar and stop looking at your phone, then get the PODHD.

 

PODHD - much better quality, harder to use.  More pro level sound.

Amplifi - lower quality, easier to use.  More for the occasional player.

 

Snarky, but answers my question succinctly. I'm a 'hobbyist' not a professional so the FX100 does

appeal to me. Most attractive to me is the 'visual' aspect of the interface. I like the swiping slide bar

control better than the click and drag the tiny little knobs and squinting to read in HD edit.

Not being a long time guitar geek, I don't really know the difference between a modeled Blackface

or Script Phase and a real one (never owned either). I figure they'll come up with a bigger better

interface but it will have to be for the HD600. The Youtube videos for the FX100 sound acceptable

to me so I'll probably go that direction. I'll keep my 500, of course, until I decide which one I like using best.

Thanks very much for everybody's input, it has been quite helpful.

[joel_brown]

It was meant as a joke - sorry.  Fortunately used PODHD gear seems to sell fairly quick on eBay.

[Digital_Igloo]

AMPLIFi isn't meant for any particular type of player, and the only "professional musician" vs. "occasional player" distinction would be whether it's their fifth amp or first and only amp. Obviously, AMPLIFi wasn't designed to be Metallica's backline on their world tour, but that doesn't mean it doesn't perfectly belong on their private plane, tour bus, yacht, living room, vacation home's living room, and their kids' condo.

 

AMPLIFi isn't about who uses it—it's about where and how it's used. Personally, my POD HD Pro doesn't belong in my living room. My AMPLIFi 150 does, and it gets way more use that way.

[smrybacki]

AMPLIFi isn't about who uses it—it's about where and how it's used. Personally, my POD HD Pro doesn't belong in my living room. My AMPLIFi 150 does, and it gets way more use that way.

Did you get that Amplifi 150 at cost brother? :lol:

[MikeMaben]

It was meant as a joke - sorry.  Fortunately used PODHD gear seems to sell fairly quick on eBay.

 

No offense taken Joel, snarky is OK with me.

I don't even have a smartphone tho. I'm more interested in the larger (ipad/tablet) interface.

The 2 most important factors for me are 'easy to see' bigger display, I like the amp and pedal graphics,

and 'easy to manipulate', I like touch screen better than click and drag, plus of course the wirelessness of it.

The future of this stuff looks interesting :)

[watchbr]

Your good!

 

I wish I could tell Siri to adjust the EQ's: "Siri, increase the Low Pass Frequency to 30%" 

Haha that'd be rad! Though I do find it interesting that even in your fantasy Line 6 still hasn't changed frequency to Hz ;)

[lkes335]

I took an Amplifi FX100 home over the weekend, its going back VERY quickly.

 

Its simple enough to use and the app works well.... but the dropped bluetotoh connection is highly irritating and I was also getting signal drop outs with the one I was using... maybe just a DOA unit?

 

That being said, I couldn't figure out (and couldn't be bothered) to disable "preset" model and use it in "pedal" mode.  Viewing and changing banks via the app is well... horrid.

 

It's a cool unit overall, but I think for the functionality it delivers (and the price) I would rather just by an Amplifi 75 to put in my den at home to use as a bluetooth speaker for my phone/computer while still offering me an amp to play through. Especially since my wife wants to move my hi-fi system out of the den and into the living room. Apparently she has some vinyl she would also like to listen too from time to time... who knew?

 

I think better money could be spent on a used HD500, new HD400...or saved for a DT