Is the II really worth it?

I had an Ultra and ended up buying the II and selling the Ultra.

In my case it was apples and oranges. I had the coin and gear is just a tool / toy for me; not religion. No angst about going to the II.

It's been fun on the II. The firmware is *fairly* far along. 6.01 hits a sweet spot for me. And, fingers crossed, AxeEdit 304 is close :)

If you are using the Axe for fun / hobby and have the coin, I would go for the II.

Richard
 
I like both the Standard and the II, but the II is staying. I'm done worrying about having so much I DON'T use "going to waste". Instead I'm now taking all the time in the world to slowly and surely learn every bit that I can about this amazing machine. And to be quite honest, Tone Match and creation of personal IR's is great but simple tweaking of a stock patch and internal IR's that come with the unit are just about perfect for me at this point.
I am prepping to get my foot controller programmed with the II, then it's off to the races.
I also really like the USB/Midi audion integration (for the simple home recording that I do) as well. More FX are coming out (the new drives sound amazing IMHO) and there is always room for improvement (which Cliff proves time and time again).
6.01 sounds SO GOOD through my nearfields I'm second guessing the power amp (Matrix) + guitar cab setup altogether.
I really think the II might be at a place now where even mid-level FRFR (I'm thinking the EV112P Live) will be incredible and better than using power amp / cab; I will have to test in a head to head scenario.
 
Gasp100 said:
I like both the Standard and the II, but the II is staying. I'm done worrying about having so much I DON'T use "going to waste". Instead I'm now taking all the time in the world to slowly and surely learn every bit that I can about this amazing machine. And to be quite honest, Tone Match and creation of personal IR's is great but simple tweaking of a stock patch and internal IR's that come with the unit are just about perfect for me at this point.
I am prepping to get my foot controller programmed with the II, then it's off to the races.
I also really like the USB/Midi audion integration (for the simple home recording that I do) as well. More FX are coming out (the new drives sound amazing IMHO) and there is always room for improvement (which Cliff proves time and time again).
6.01 sounds SO GOOD through my nearfields I'm second guessing the power amp (Matrix) + guitar cab setup altogether.
I really think the II might be at a place now where even mid-level FRFR (I'm thinking the EV112P Live) will be incredible and better than using power amp / cab; I will have to test in a head to head scenario.
Click to expand...

Interesting to hear you say this, I have a buddy that spins gear about as fast as you and every time I see that you have something up for sale I figure... well he hasn't found it yet :lol . As to FR why not wait for the Atomic or Matrix offering, seems to me if your really like the sound that your near fields are giving you why not go for something that is a flat as you can get?
 
Gasp100 said:
I like both the Standard and the II, but the II is staying. I'm done worrying about having so much I DON'T use "going to waste". Instead I'm now taking all the time in the world to slowly and surely learn every bit that I can about this amazing machine. And to be quite honest, Tone Match and creation of personal IR's is great but simple tweaking of a stock patch and internal IR's that come with the unit are just about perfect for me at this point.
I am prepping to get my foot controller programmed with the II, then it's off to the races.
I also really like the USB/Midi audion integration (for the simple home recording that I do) as well. More FX are coming out (the new drives sound amazing IMHO) and there is always room for improvement (which Cliff proves time and time again).
6.01 sounds SO GOOD through my nearfields I'm second guessing the power amp (Matrix) + guitar cab setup altogether.
I really think the II might be at a place now where even mid-level FRFR (I'm thinking the EV112P Live) will be incredible and better than using power amp / cab; I will have to test in a head to head scenario.
Click to expand...
I've come to the same conclusion for the most part, I mean the tone matching thing is really cool, but if nothing else had been done but the newest amp modeling improvements I'd be just as happy with the box.

I meant to put this in my post, but one of the big differences is that everything is just easier and faster to get where I want to go....but more importantly I almost always get there with just the modeling now.
 
I like the cab sounds and the IR creation option in the II more. I don't know if that's because the II samples more taps of the IR or not, but I do hear a difference. The biggest difference to me, was how the amps behaved when played into a poweramp and real cab. The II is definitely more "alive" in that aspect. Direct to the PA or FRFR, I enjoy both of them, but the II is definitely an improvement on the Ultra.

However, I stuck to my standard because, other than the lack of funds, I am perfectly fine with my standard, and I haven't even begun to explore the unit and it's possibilities!
 
I haven't upgraded to the II because I don't find that it has any features I truly need. I'm sure it sounds a bit better but I'm happy with my Standard as is. The Axe-Fx II still has an awkward hardware user interface and I don't really need the USB stuff or IR creation or tone matching and from what I've read the audio interface aspect of it seems kinda crappy with driver issues and limited feature set.

I really hope that for the inevitable Axe-Fx 3 they truly make it both a good audio interface and amp/fx box similar to the 11 Rack.
 
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