Line 6 POD XT / Behringer V-amp

[jdawg]

Heya guys,

I'm contemplating on buyer either the Line 6 POD XT or Behringer V-amp. Purpose would be both as a headphone practice amp and playing through my iBook and out through my powered monitor speakers.

Does anyone have any experience on either of these products?

http://www.v-amp.com/V-AMP2/index.cfm
http://www.line6.com/podxt/US/

Offhand, my preference is leaning towards the POD because I'm more impressed with the demo sounds of the POD compared to the V-amp. But the V-amp is one-third the price of the POD so I'm not really sure if it's worth splurging US$400 on the POD. Another good thing about the POD is this: http://www.line6.com/podxt/US/customTone.htm

Would appreciate any input on this...

[Henjie]

Have you looked at Native Instruments' Guitar Rig? I've read a user report by a session guitarist wherein he stated that Guitar Rig's better than the Line 6 POD, the Roland VG-8, and even Line 6's Amp Farm. A bit more expensive than that POD though ($499). :-)

UPDATE: found the review here. Scroll down for jeremymcp's post.


~Henjie

[Edited on 7-7-2004 by Henjie]

[jdawg]

I've only seen the Guitar Rig demo on their WWDC presentation plus a handful of reviews online. Looks promising, although I wouldn't want to be tied down to using the iBook to be able to practice.

[Henjie]

Originally posted by jdawg
I've only seen the Guitar Rig demo on their WWDC presentation plus a handful of reviews online. Looks promising, although I wouldn't want to be tied down to using the iBook to be able to practice.

Oh yeah, missed the part about the headphone practice amp. Sorry. :-)

Offhand, my preference is leaning towards the POD because I'm more impressed with the demo sounds of the POD compared to the V-amp. But the V-amp is one-third the price of the POD so I'm not really sure if it's worth splurging US$400 on the POD.

I think the reason why the POD demo clips sound so much better is due to the fact that they're all in 192Kbps MP3s with file sizes greater than 500KB for each clip. Contrast this to 384KB for the V-AMP 2's entire demo (Virtual Gear). ;-)


~Henjie

[vicicasas]

I'm not a guitar player, but here in the studio, we have a VG-8, a V-Bass (the bass version of the VG-8, obviously), and a Line6, and the VG-8 is by far the most used piece of gear. Hands down.

[Kelvin]

My best advice would be to try both products. I think Audiophile has a demo unit of the Line 6 available at their San Marcelino branch (which I think closed and now they're back in their old UN office).

[jdawg]

hey guys thanks for the replies.

Vic -- I checked out the VG-8. Whoa! I think it's way over my budget. But it looks like a solid piece of professional equipment.

About testing both products, yeah, I've actually tested the V-amp already. I'm not sure if I got a lemon or what, but that damn thing was noisy! Noisy as in very strong hum and crackle. Even if I lower the gain on some of the distorted amp models, it was really really noisy. Wasn't able to figure out how to turn on the noise gate though so can't conclusively say that it's a crappy product. Suffice it to say though that I wasn't too impressed with the sounds I got. Yeah, I know you have to tweak these things considerably, but offhand, some of the sounds were very dry and very solid-state-ish and not warm and tubey at all. Oh well, gotta do more research I guess...

Anyway, I'm going to the Line 6 distributor here probably on Saturday to try out the POD XT.

BTW, I'm in Singapore.

[Henjie]

Originally posted by Kelvin
I think Audiophile has a demo unit of the Line 6 available at their San Marcelino branch (which I think closed and now they're back in their old UN office).

Kelvin, where exactly in UN Ave.? Yup, mukhang sarado na nga San Marcelino branch nila.

Originally posted by jdawg
Anyway, I'm going to the Line 6 distributor here probably on Saturday to try out the POD XT.

BTW, I'm in Singapore.

Like Kelvin said, nothing better than testing the products yourself. :-) BTW, are there any Vox dealers there in Singapore? Maybe you can also try out the Vox ToneLab. Sucker's got a real tube. ;-)

BTW, the Guitar Rig OS X demo is available here in case you wanna try it out. 22MB download.


~Henjie

[jdawg]

Originally posted by Henjie

Originally posted by Kelvin
I think Audiophile has a demo unit of the Line 6 available at their San Marcelino branch (which I think closed and now they're back in their old UN office).

Kelvin, where exactly in UN Ave.? Yup, mukhang sarado na nga San Marcelino branch nila.

Originally posted by jdawg
Anyway, I'm going to the Line 6 distributor here probably on Saturday to try out the POD XT.

BTW, I'm in Singapore.

Like Kelvin said, nothing better than testing the products yourself. :-) BTW, are there any Vox dealers there in Singapore? Maybe you can also try out the Vox ToneLab. Sucker's got a real tube. ;-)

BTW, the Guitar Rig OS X demo is available here in case you wanna try it out. 22MB download.


~Henjie

Oh my, that Vox looks good! Ok, now I'm confused...

[Henjie]

Originally posted by jdawg
Oh my, that Vox looks good! Ok, now I'm confused...

The Vox ToneLab is featured in City Music's website. Since they're also the Line 6 distributor in Singapore... shootout! ;-)


~Henjie