They're both really capable, powerful, and nice sounding devices. They both have Pros and Cons, so there is no "This is the winner" there is only "This one is better for you if these things matter to you". He feels the need to Defend the helix because he's saying "Lots of people just assume the FM3 is on a whole other level because of the cost, but it's perfectly capable itself and since people sometimes forget that I want to re-state it".
Helix Pros:
- Much cheaper.
- Simpler UI
- Simpler controls (less advanced parameters, less option paralysis or tweaking rabbit holes, simpler parallel options, simpler modifiers setup)
- Helix shapshots make it really easy to use different settings on the same models. You can make all your knobs and switch settings snapshot specific, and have them be different on each snapshot. That's great for making a single preset with clean/crunch/lead/high gain/etc modes on a single amp.
- Some of their models offer the whole amp in one model (their Friedman BE-100 model has the HBE switch built in instead of being separate models. Same with their Revv Generator models. This is good given the way their snapshots control settings.
- Stable update pace where you don't need to rethink presets very often.
- Can make much more complex patches: i.e., the ability to split and merge multiple parallel signals, route back to earlier parts of the grid, feed output from one black back into another block, etc.
- Amps and model have a lot more tweakability: way more advanced parameters, much more specific things you can tweak if you're interested
- Block Channels: Allow you to swap between 4 sets of settings or 4 entirely different amp or effect types in every block.
- More amp models
- Faster update pace (well, on the FXIII at least, on the FM3 that's still to be determined)
- Much more configurable controls (footswitch layouts, expression pedal default values, a whole lot more are very flexible, can work however you want)
