Hi all,
I received my stadium XL at last Friday, and I've put over 20 hours in it. I am also a helix and hx stomp owner, I never Had a fractal device in order to make a comparison, I do own a tonex pedal, and a boss katana gen 3 head among other stuff. I am mainly a high gain / modern metal / chugs all day kind of player.
I'll write some of my thoughts on the device:
Stadium modeling is something that you 're gonna have to get used to I suppose. This reminded me of when I first got my hx stomp, I could not a get usable sound out of it. After watching a lot of videos and tweaking I did found some ways to dial in some heavy sounds that were awesome to hear and felt good. One year after, I bought a helix and transferred my hx-stomp tones to it and I thought that they felt even better than in the hx-stomp. But maybe I got used to hx modeling in the way,
I feel the same way with stadium. The sound and feel is different than in the helix, even if you transfer the same patches from OG helix.
I found myself hating some presets I transferred from my OG helix, but those presets where my favorite in the helix.
This does not apply to every preset I transferred, but they all feel a little different.
There is a difference in the sound and feeling in the Mids. There is some honkiness -a cocked wah felling- and also a lack of pick attack - a lack of overall tightness, compared to hx.
I could not get a great sound out of panamas (yet) but I did From revv gen purple. I love Mark IIC+. I think its my favorite amp along with Revv Purple. Mark IIC+ has a great clean channel, but there is a pop sound when changing from clean to lead which I don't like at all.
There is a small (but perceivable) delay when changing snapshots. Also when changing from a clean amp to a high gain amp there is a volume jump, or a hiccup, a sound glitch. And this did not happened in the OG helix. I am comparing the same preset in both units.
I found a way to reduce this, by changing from clean to dirt by putting amp A to path 1A and amp B to path 2A and using a split a/b which is controlled by snapshots to change between the 2 amps.
I am looking for a way to see all assignments in the desktop app.
I found myself working with the app 99% of the time. I didn't have any disconnections but did run into syncing problems. i.e. the amp or effect in helix was on but showed off in the app.
Snapshot toggle (return to previous snapshot) does not work when you are in 'command center' mode.
Tranferring IR's Songs and Favorites via wi-fi and organizing them in folders is cool.
I have encountered many bugs so far, and restarted the device way too many times. I think I found a bug where the device stops outputing any sound when you import presets that utilize the last og hx amps, clarity oblivion etc or the moon cabs.
The concern I have now, is the expression pedal. It's a little difficult to describe it in english but I'll try. After 3 days of very little use, the exp started having a 'play'.
This means that when I move the pedal to toe down position from 0% it moves easily for 20% then 'locks' and gets stiffer for the remaining 80%.
The same when moving it heel down from 100% to zero. I think the internal nut of the pedal got a little loose so there is a little 'play' of about 20% at the start of the movement.
I did opened OG helix once to apply some grease to it's expression pedal that got squeaky after 3 years of use, but to open a 2.4k € device after 3 days? I mean come on now line 6..
Does anyone experienced something like this? Do you think I should open it and fix it or return it and get a replacement? I mean in order to return it I need to send it to another country, and maybe the replacement will have the same problem after all.
