What's preventing you from getting a Helix Stadium (if you really want to buy it eventually)?

[GurthPeedler]

I don't own the Stadium yet but I'm sure there are a few individuals here that can chime in.

I can say though either Mirrorprofiles clips with the OG Helix or many of Sonic Drive Studio's historical comparison videos of Fractal vs real vs the OG Helix, the sound wasn't that dissimilar with the amp. Therefore, there is only so much better/closer to the real amp that it can get.

Here's an oldie.

Definitely a fan of Sonic Drive Studio and his comparisons! I think at this point all the main modelers are definitely close enough to the real thing, but aside from differences in features and what not, they do all have a bit of a different feel and vibe to them when playing on them. It just comes down to personal taste. Otherwise we'd all be playing the same one.

 

[[Nathan]]

The agora stuff feels a notch better to play under the hands than the legacy stuff.
I was flicking from the revvs, Mesa iic+ and Panama back and forth with the old rockverb and invective. Obviously these amps are all different but the older stuff felt less 3d or alive or whatever you want to call it.

It’s funny because the sonics aren’t night and day difference but something different is there (In a good way)

 

[ChordInversion]

Enginewide improvements have also taken place across the life of Helix to the point where they stated confidently before the Stadium announcement that the 3.8 firmware was equivalent to a Helix 2.5 or 3 or whatever already.

But as I've said, that claim gets nothing but disbelief and scrutiny, while any improvement or engine tweak listed in a Fractal release note is taken at face value and raved about. Whatevs.

I only care that it met my personal standard for great tone, and the OG Helix did that long ago. I bought Stadium XL on launch week because I wanted to enjoy all the years of runway it'll have going forward.

Like others have said.....people will reevaluate when Proxy is running at full speed and they drop new Gen of delays and/or reverbs.

And I'll enjoy that too.

Fair enough. And yes, it's all about each player finding what works for them. I'm not interested in asserting that I have the best [insert category of gear here]. I just want something that suits me.

And I like the Line6 folks, and I hope they do well.

 

[EOengineer]

Boy we sure are getting an interesting influx of negative sentiment from 1 day old accounts in this thread. Nothing fishy about that at all.

Again read my post above. It’s a helix with touchscreen. At price.

many expected a new named flagship with the new amp models all inside and new effects as well at 2200$
Not the helix models and effects with slow trickle of new tech in the unit. Hence I guess the helix name vs. A new name

Please die in a fire immediately.

Still, the thing is beautiful. The workflow and GUI are groundbreaking. I also think that as many here have said, we are all just hoping to be "wow"ed and that is getting increasingly difficult to do .

I see people who don’t own the hardware making a lot of claims about it. The one thing that you universally see from actual owners is that Agoura feels obviously more amp-like than Hx. It’s the most apparent change in the platform.

I frankly abandon feedback coming from non-owners at this point because that feel is such an important part of the experience.

 

[Jarick]

Well the title of the thread was "what's preventing you from buying the Stadium"...so it's pretty much a thread for non-owners.

I don't doubt that Stadium will be amazing in a couple of years. I'm pretty confident Line 6 will enhance and support it for close to a decade as they did with the original Helix.

The mantra that gets repeated is "don't buy a modeler for what it might be able to do, buy it for what it does today." Well the Stadium breaks that completely. There's features that were announced as planned and a limited amount of models at launch. So it very well may be the case that when they hit a tipping point of completion, more people jump to it.

It kind of reminds me of video game consoles. I went from NES to Super NES to Playstation and each generation was a massive leap forward. But going from the Switch to the Switch 2 was very minor. Some games had a bit quicker loading time and some games had slightly improved graphics with a new patch, but it's all very subtle.

 

[dbfretz]

Is it better than a Quad Cortex or an FM9? I think it’s very debatable and I was expecting more. In a few years that might be the case.

 

[EOengineer]

Well the title of the thread was "what's preventing you from buying the Stadium"...so it's pretty much a thread for non-owners.

Nah. End of this week we’re rounding you all up and locking you in a poorly stocked guitar center.

What I’m saying, though, is make sure you consider your sources carefully if you haven’t at least sat down with it for a few minutes. I’ll leave it at that.

It kind of reminds me of video game consoles. I went from NES to Super NES to Playstation and each generation was a massive leap forward. But going from the Switch to the Switch 2 was very minor. Some games had a bit quicker loading time and some games had slightly improved graphics with a new patch, but it's all very subtle.

Each time a new gen modeling platform comes out it brings me back to those days…where we couldn’t believe how real that new 100 pixel sprite looked compared to the last one. IT LOOKS SO REAL NOW.

 

[JiveTurkey]

 

[hehasthejazzhands]

I'm more into Tonex modeling now lol. So I'm fine with using my Helix for effects and Tonex for amp modeling. In fact if Tonex does a proper full-sized multi-FX/modeler with parallel amp capabilities I'm jumping ship lol

 

[GTR37]

I sat down with one a few weeks ago my buddy has an XL and I brought over my AM4

The feel definitely is different from OG in a good way I don’t know if it’s exactly like a tube amp but it improved

We pulled up same amps and just
Went through them listening this is in no way scientific just what we heard through FRFR

Regarding the heavier tones with the exception of XTC and Revv
Which Cliff modelled completely different amps
I thought the AM4 had the better models

On the clean side of things it was a bit closer I would say maybe the line6 Agoura was little brighter

The Marshalls as other have said the plexi just didn’t wow me
The 2203 was good but so was the Fractal and FAS just had so many different models to get where you want ,

Fx was a different story delays and reverbs on the Fractal were just richer , and more transparent to my ears , Stadium were certainly serviceable to good but we both preferred Fractal

Overall Cole’s notes
Marshalls Fractal
Cleans. Close call
Modern hi gain stuff Fractal
Fx mostly Fractal

My buddy was actually blown away by the AM4 basically being 1/3 the cost of stadium and all that was packed in there
At the end of the day he is thinking of getting an AM4 as it represents terrific bang for the buck

He might keep the stadium for the backing tracks but of the time we spent it was mostly him playing the Fractal models and going Wow

Again this is not scientific at all this is my opinion of playing stadium for one afternoon and commenting on what we heard

He also had mentioned he had experienced a few bugs nothing catastrophic but annoying
1.2 fixed a few but some still popped up time to time

I should also add to discussion
Here in Canada
Helix XL my buddy paid $3275
AM4 cost me like $1100

 

[Orvillain]

TBH, the only reason I'm not buying an AM4 at this point is because I have the AxeIII in my rack. I have the VP4 already, and it is sick.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Ooh wait for me. I always wanted to do a Thelma and Louise with a bazooka

 

[EOengineer]

Ooh wait for me. I always wanted to do a Thelma and Louise with a bazooka

Imagine being on the hazmat crew that has to deal with THAT after-party.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Imagine being on the hazmat crew that has to deal with THAT after-party.

Reminds me of the conversations we used to have when we were kids "would you rather be shot with a machine gun or a rocket launcher?"

 

[Dez]

 

[Orvillain]

Reminds me of the conversations we used to have when we were kids "would you rather be shot with a machine gun or a rocket launcher?"

Oh rocket launcher definitely. There's a non-zero chance that parts of my face flesh fly off and hit the firer in the face after I'm exploded. So I'll go for that.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Oh rocket launcher definitely. There's a non-zero chance that parts of my face flesh fly off and hit the firer in the face after I'm exploded. So I'll go for that.

Make sure to wear the goatmask

 

[TubeStack]

In response to the OP:

While I've (happily) used HX Floor in 4cm in the past as a complete pedalboard replacement with a tube amp, I'm currently doing the analog pedals in front, digital in the loop thing and feeling like I'll stay there. Pedals + VP4 has really hit the sweet spot for me.

Other general reasons:

- big touchscreen makes me nervous for bar gigs
- price too much for my use case
- size too big to fit on a PT Jr with my other pedals
- if I do get a modeler, it will be the AM4 to go with my VP4

 

[SeeD]

Price, Proxy, what will it do? will it do 2 in a row, 3-4 in a row? No new Efx, and I got a bad vibe (owning old Line 6 things) form the past, that other devices " feels" and sounds better. It`s a wierd thing, but it`s true

 

[mbenigni]

It’s basically a helix with touchscreen. It’s more or less a bridge product to the new named flagship likely coming in way less then 10 yrs. But the stadium is that midfle stepping stone to capture current helix owners and future nd the next diff named flagship

I was going to change my underwear today, but then I realized, it's more or less just bridge underwear for the new underwear likely coming in way less than 10 years.