Proud of Line6! They finally are coming out with an obviously top quality all in one modeler[...]
We don't know about the quality part yet.
All I see is a - admittedly - damn nice visual design with far too many LCDs for my taste.
I get why everyone is hyped for the crisp color display, LED encoder knobs and the LCD button tags, but remember that this also takes away from the production cost.
With the Axe, you know that of those 2300$ you pay, like, estimated 500-600$ go into the actual components. And those few components we have on the Axe are top-notch quality to make sure they last. The rest goes into the Algorithm design. Which is what brought us here.
With the Helix, I can already see how the algorithm engineering simply
has to suffer in order to get all those visual fluff on board. Just look at all the LEDs, screens and additional components needed for those. Look at all the additional components that can now
fail if someone drops his beer.
I know, most guitarists are a sucker for looks. But the barebones and functional chassis design of the Axe comes at a huge advantage: it doesn't take resources away from what
really matters.
But you got to admit: Peeps at L6 definitely
did their homework for aesthetically pleasing design...
EDIT:
But I dig the new Midi foot controller. I think this thing beats the MFC by far in terms of user friendliness.