Are All XL+ Units Equal?

They are all equal. Some are just more equal than others. If you plug into yours and say "where's the beef?" then the lunch question has been answered. However, the question regarding the secret sauce is still open. Just something to chew on.
 
All equal as far as tone? I'd be more concerned with consistent build quality! It's been proven that some units can fail so that points to possible inequalities in build. For tone, I'd say every unit can be made to absolutely phenomenal and they can all be made to sound the same! That doesn't mean each unit isn't unique, it simply shows how versatile the unit is and it's vast array of overwhelmingly endless tonal shaping options!
 
Do all Axe XL+ units sound exactly the same? Is there ever one that stands out in the crowd?
The one I'm playing always seems to sound the best. So that is proof that they vary. Or I'm a narcissist. Or both.

This post is funny, but I swear that I have copied a preset to a different number, toggled back and forth between them and I swear that one sounds different.
Placebo: It's a helluva drug.
 
I just discovered that I own the best XL+ there is ... something about special handwired, crystal lattices which are harmonized with sonic outputs - reluctantly willing to part with it for $80,000. Foot controller is separate.
 
To answer the original question at hand; no, they are not equal.

Mine is clearly superior. For one mine is a Mark II (I know you're asking about XL+ but I'll fancy you anyway) from 2014 which means that the internals have had three years to break in providing that nice warm broken in tone that is commonly referred to as 'mojo'.

Secondly, I still have the plastic over the screen which further enhances the mojo in my tone.

And finally, it is said that @FractalAudio and the rest of the FAS team had their best lunch of year the day my unit was produced. Furthermore they were all further delighted when they arrived home to find that their significant others had prepared their favorite home cooked meal; which came served with a tasty dessert afterward (;););)).

You're welcome. :cool:
 
Oh you are a brave man, cactus tone. You knew you had it coming, yet it still came! Fwiw I think that this is a perfectly valid question in the philosophical realm, because there are production differences and even if digital bits seem like they make perfect copies, a change in say the clock will make the bits move at different speeds (don't ever let anyone convince you that digital is different to analog- its the same physics just with different information encoding and signal specifications). There's also a great question on subjectivity: if you think that there's a difference and I don't, who is correct?

However in practical terms you probably don't need to worry, if only because so few of us (are lucky enough) own one, and maybe some folks might own an older model too, or maybe some real serious artists keep a backup because their life depends on it. But nobody except FAS are really in that privileged position of auditioning that many. And really, there are so many parameters that change the sound intentionally that it would be hard to correct for those differences. The most you could really worry about is clock jitter, but I'm sure that spec is peanuts.

Most digital system failures I've seen are related to bad circuit design, where say the production variance of one output (say a reset line) means that the input of the next stage doesn't consistently interpret it as high or low. This will emerge as update failures for example. You should look at the statistics of the tech support forums really to get a sense of whether this kind of system unreliability is a feature of FAS products. It doesn't seem terribly high.
 
No, some of them have that extra "mojo". Maybe you have one, maybe you don't. It depends on who built it and what they had for lunch that day. If they had a steak-and-cheese there's a good chance it has some extra mojo. If they had a salad, then probably not.

Yup. I definitely must have the special mojo edition, cause it sounds like it has extra mojo sauce!
 
I don't know about the rest of you guys, but mine seems to sound better with age. I'm not sure if it's just the electrons getting stretched and broken in, or perhaps the cones in the cab blocks becoming more pliable with time. All I know is my Axe-Fx sounds way better now than it did when I bought it a few years ago.
 
The analog components take some time to sound and feel constant.
For the first 10to20 minutes, the unit is reacting different to my fingers.
I have 4 different boss cs3 and they all react and feel different. The most of my friends think they sound and feel the same... I guess with the input and output circuits in the axe it is pretty similar.

The most people don't hear or feel the difference between different firmwares...and they really are different every time.

Just my 2 cents
 
I don't know about the rest of you guys, but mine seems to sound better with age. I'm not sure if it's just the electrons getting stretched and broken in, or perhaps the cones in the cab blocks becoming more pliable with time. All I know is my Axe-Fx sounds way better now than it did when I bought it a few years ago.
Haha, yep, firmware updates'll do that
 
Back
Top Bottom