Who Here Actually Has a Quad Cortex? Matchless Content

Do you own a Quad Cortex?

  • Yes

    Votes: 13 27.1%
  • No

    Votes: 22 45.8%
  • I want to

    Votes: 1 2.1%
  • Sold it

    Votes: 12 25.0%

  • Total voters
    48
As the biggest ‘naysayer’ of NDSP, maybe I’m a little out of line saying it, but let’s give the newcomers enough time to take off their jackets before going apesh*t on NDSP. :rofl
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And also: "Have you sold your Quad Cortex?"

I had 2 and sold one - but mainly because I needed the money and it was just a backup. I won't sell the other one - esp cause it's one of the first 1k run. And I don't share the hate for NDSP that others have and still consider switching back to using the QC all the time.

FTR - I've also owned and sold 2 FM3s and an FM9

My main QC issues are:
Tuner is not instant - silly but a big deal for me live
Output level is pretty low
Content management is still extremely annoying
I strongly don't agree with the privatized content ownership / share protection model
I'm worried about reliability since I've had it fail on me once already and sent it back, and I see a disproportionately high number of similar reports
Routing limitations that are annoying on bass (doesn't matter for guitar really)

But even though tonex can do captures perhaps a bit better, there are still no real complaints from me sound wise. I can often get that more raw / truly imperfect amp character that is very difficult to get from fractal without tone matching. Even though the QC captures are a bit less dynamic/responsive than fractal and miss some ultra low movement, I always gravitated towards them because I felt they seemed a little more alive. Plus the form factor is just perfect.
 
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I'm worried about reliability since I've had it fail on me once already and sent it back, and I see a disproportionately high number of similar reports

This is something I’ve nagged on about a lot as this seems, to me anyway, like a more serious issue rather than something that can be resolved with a software update or bug fix. Sometimes you’d read the Discord and see ”They want me to send it in” and then the replies would fill up with “Yeah, I had to as well, but don’t worry, it’s a quick turn around” while no one was really taking into account how many were being RMA’d.

I know they’d never give the numbers up, but I’m very curious of what the return-for-repairs percentage is.
 
This is something I’ve nagged on about a lot as this seems, to me anyway, like a more serious issue rather than something that can be resolved with a software update or bug fix. Sometimes you’d read the Discord and see ”They want me to send it in” and then the replies would fill up with “Yeah, I had to as well, but don’t worry, it’s a quick turn around” while no one was really taking into account how many were being RMA’d.

I know they’d never give the numbers up, but I’m very curious of what the return-for-repairs percentage is.

Almost all of the regulars in there have had to send it back at least once, afaik. I wouldn't use it without a backup anymore. Granted, some of the issues are just SD card related which I can fix easily myself - but seems like a fair amount of hardware issues like mine pop up too. Using the discord as an example is pretty skewed since that's where everyone with issues shows up at, but I've seen similar on a lot of the other socials as well. I will say, they were quick and nice to me in my instance even as a non-warrantied user. But it's a hard unit to replace in a pinch.

one upside to using fm/hx with tonex is that it's basically like having a backup already to go onstage with both there
 
This is something I’ve nagged on about a lot as this seems, to me anyway, like a more serious issue rather than something that can be resolved with a software update or bug fix. Sometimes you’d read the Discord and see ”They want me to send it in” and then the replies would fill up with “Yeah, I had to as well, but don’t worry, it’s a quick turn around” while no one was really taking into account how many were being RMA’d.

I know they’d never give the numbers up, but I’m very curious of what the return-for-repairs percentage is.
I think it's worth considering that RMA's ultimately hurt NDSP even more than they hurt the end user. So NDSP will, inevitably and by necessity, be improving their manufacturing processes to reduce and ultimately minimize these incidents.

That doesn't do you any good if you have an early unit with issues. As you say, that can't be fixed in software; and as @northern_fox points out, it's not like you can just pop into Guitar Center and grab a replacement off the shelf.
 
I think it's worth considering that RMA's ultimately hurt NDSP even more than they hurt the end user. So NDSP will, inevitably and by necessity, be improving their manufacturing processes to reduce and ultimately minimize these incidents.

That doesn't do you any good if you have an early unit with issues. As you say, that can't be fixed in software; and as @northern_fox points out, it's not like you can just pop into Guitar Center and grab a replacement off the shelf.
Can I take a random visit to see my friends at Sweetwater and hopefully run into another random visit in Fluff?
 
I think it's worth considering that RMA's ultimately hurt NDSP even more than they hurt the end user. So NDSP will, inevitably and by necessity, be improving their manufacturing processes to reduce and ultimately minimize these incidents.

That doesn't do you any good if you have an early unit with issues. As you say, that can't be fixed in software; and as @northern_fox points out, it's not like you can just pop into Guitar Center and grab a replacement off the shelf.

Yeah - I wouldn't be surprised if some of this is due to having to source new parts and redesign the thing quickly in 2020
 
I know I sound like a broken record but the issue is management not how the device sounds imo (although I think the models are lacking). The device is absolutely capable but is run by clowns.


Anyway, clips sounded great!
Yup. Lots of promise but I sold my launch unit because it was clearly half baked and didn't have confidence Neural would come through or that the hardware didn't have any unfixable flaws they would take care of in a subsequent revision. I REALLY wanted it to be good, the design approach was clearly right but they executed really poorly.

If they fix their act and do a good V2 I'll consider buying one again no problem.
 
Yup. Lots of promise but I sold my launch unit because it was clearly half baked and didn't have confidence Neural would come through or that the hardware didn't have any unfixable flaws they would take care of in a subsequent revision. I REALLY wanted it to be good, the design approach was clearly right but they executed really poorly.

If they fix their act and do a good V2 I'll consider buying one again no problem.
Or a dual cortex :bag
 
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