I came from a POD X3/Live / M13 combination and POD HD500 to the Axe FX II / XL (as the Axe was always my "must have" device). For me Line 6 was always a "good sound for fair price", but knowing that I was not on the upper end of tone. I didnt like the delays of Line 6, especially of the POD HD, as they sounded too washed out and muddy for me. But overall nice stuff, again, for the price.
I will stick with the Axe FX II/XL of course now as I am really really happy with it from all its possibilities and tone, but I am really suprised that Line 6, as it seems right now, really hits the right spot with the Helix series for their market segment. OK/good sound (from what I've seen), great design and nice interface. For a price range that is higher than their line currently, but still on a level where people are willing to buy it. Well done. And quite some stuff where I think Fractal Audio really should have looked at too besides their tone! I think thats fair to say, especially as they say themselfs that they focus at different topics (tone 1st, which is the right focus I agree).
But there is one thing I think FA should consider revisit their strategy: The midi footcontroller. Which is all about quality and robustness, but also even important about being a UI and interface between the guitarist and his sound device.
And now look at the separately available Helix Foot Controller. Nice simple design, displays per knob (yeah), different colors available per knob. Compare that with the more expensive MFC101, and tell me anything that might be a pro argument on the MFC side (besides robustness, which we dont know anything from the helix foot controller yet)? From my (!) opinion, MFC-101 is miles behind here :-( That much that I lost any interest in buying the MFC 101 now (and I still need a foot controller for my Axe FX II/XL). Sorry, no rant, but thats how it is. Might be that for the one type of guitarists the MFC is suffcient, when putting stickerlabels on it and using the same layout over and over again for all songs. But there are many other folks who create complex different presets, where the support of invidual displays or colors is really a strong argument for a device, supporting to control my sound better in a live situation and have transparency over my current presets and scenes.
For the MFC, the argument "we focus on tone" does not work, from my opinion it is a "we needed to create a simple floorboard as we need to have people anything on their floor to control their Axe FX". I hope FA would consider the increasing amount of new controllers with display support to rethink their strategy and create a new of their MFC-101 with more features. I'll avoid buying the current MFC, but they have my money guaranteed if there would be a MFC version with some of the features of e.g. the Helix (combined with the robustness of the current MFC). Dont get me wrong, I dig FA and the AxeFX, but I would really hope for an updated midi interface where they are getting behind (my 2 cents). Come one, we have 21st century.