Line 6 Pod X3 or HD500X for quiet practice?

zepp76

As title, I'm going to be in need of something for quiet practice and have narrowed it down to these two modellers (budget of only £200 max) I don't want to have to use a computer for adjusting parameters so it would need to be done purely from the unit itself so which would be best for my needs please? Does anyone have experience of these two units? If so what would be your preference? I have decent headphones but am unsure if the HD500X is any good for quiet practice, any advice you can give would be much appreciated, thank you.

JAYJO

Have you had a look at the line 6 jm4 looper. youtube. They can be got for cheaper than your budget used or a liitle more will get you a new one. 

stimpsonslostson

For several years my headphone practice tool has been a Zoom G1xon- it's cheap, simple and sounds good. The looper & drum machine are excellent additions. 

I recently got an HD500 to compliment my Variax Standard, it's also good for headphone practice. 
It's a bit bewildering at first- there are SO many options & settings (especially compared to the Zoom), but using the computer interface makes it all much more intuitive. I know you said you want to avoid that, but it really is part of the "system" with the line6. I can make & store sounds using the unit, but it's a bit fiddly. 
The sound quality is very good, but some (most) of the presets are a bit OTT- you can download thousands of user generated patches to experiment with. 

impmann

Tbh, the user interface of the HD500 had a lot of criticism (not least internally from me - I think it’s shit) and it only really makes sense if you use the editor on a computer.
That said the X3 was flipping awful too! 

At the time these were made, menu based systems were very fashionable and ‘less is more’ wasn’t the watchword.

Soundwise, imho there isn’t much in it. The HD500 was billed as having HD models - and they are next generation etc etc  but the reality is you can get some great sounds with either.

Dont overpay for either - neither are worth a fortune these days. And if you find a fault on them the chances of being able to get the bits are slim, although there are ways around these things.

Hope that helps

thecolourbox

You get a lot more models on the X3 if I recall correctly, which may be a plus or a minus depending on your viewpoint

Jalapeno

An HD500 you say ...... ?

<cough> <shameless plug> /www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/158400/clearout-forum-first-dibs

zepp76

Thank you to you all for the replies, is there anything else I should be looking at within my budget i.e Boss GT-100? 

zepp76

Well I procrastinated for too long and the X3 sold so that's that out of the picture. @ICBM didn't you champion a certain Boss multi effects unit on here or am I misremembering? I MUST be able to use headphones with it so any recommendations would be much appreciated. Thank you.

NelsonP

For your budget I'd look for a hd500x or boss gt100, possibly a zoom g5. My money would go to Line6 I think. 

There are other options slightly above (Amplifire) and below (mooer ge200, line 6 firehawk fx, boss gt1) your budget but those above are probably your best bet.

Having an aux in is a nice feature, since it allows you to play backing tracks into the unit from your phone so you can jam along. Have a look at www.guitarbackingtrack.com. Not all modellers have that so it's worth looking for it.

Musicwolf

impmann said:

Tbh, the user interface of the HD500 had a lot of criticism (not least internally from me - I think it’s shit) and it only really makes sense if you use the editor on a computer.
That said the X3 was flipping awful too! 

I would agree, I always edited mine using the computer.  Not only is the onboard editing a bit of a faff you also need to bend right down to get at it.  Happily the editing on the Helix is much better (although I still use a computer most of the time).

In my opinion the HD500 is more than adequate for practice.  It could also be used as a multi fx board in a live situation and as a backup in case of amp failure.  I gigged with mine many times.

KrisGee

Zoomg g5n. Bought one very recently, stupid easy to edit patches on the unit and I dare to say it sounds A LOT better than x3 and hd500x. Owned both L6 units you mentioned and no matter what you do the mid to high gain tones will always have that annoying top end fizz. Also x3 is so little intuitive to use.

guitarcookie1

Pod 2 can be had for £40 ish. Sounds good to me for headphone practice (add a cheap Behringer mixer for aux in). 

zepp76

KrisGee said:

Zoomg g5n. Bought one very recently, stupid easy to edit patches on the unit and I dare to say it sounds A LOT better than x3 and hd500x. Owned both L6 units you mentioned and no matter what you do the mid to high gain tones will always have that annoying top end fizz. Also x3 is so little intuitive to use.

@KrisGee  what are the amp and cab sims like? The only thing putting me off of the G5N is the small amount of amp and cab sims but if they are better than the X3 and HD500X it is definitely on the list of possibilities. Anyone have any other recommendations please?

KrisGee

With the v3 update you have enough nice amps there to keep you busy. And they're better than most on the pod hd IMO.

Grumpyrocker

I own an HD500 and a Zoom G3. The latter is by far the better headphone practice device. The headphone output of the HD500 sounds dreadful, whereas the G3 sounds great and if you add the "Air" effects block it sounds more like a room than headphones.

zepp76

Well I ended up scoring an X3 off eBay for only £50 I couldn't really say no at that price I won't lose a lot if I don't like it.

longi

The Firehawk looks nice, it has the older POD models on it plus the HD models and I've heard it's easy to use.