Im curious: with all the professionals of stature, all of us semi-pro and amateur home recorders, and all of the axe fx iii/fm3 owners; what does the competition really offer at this point?
Kemper is an amazing product, but its now very outdated and still priced high; and Helix, I mean it has its market, but I mean, with Cygnus, I think were looking at a decade of Axe 3 domination
I read in one article that went so far as to say if you own an Axe Fx 3, you literally will never need or want for another amplifier again, and I think they are right
Different workflows. I have owned a fair number of the modeling units over the years. Axe-Fx Standard and 2 for close to 10 years altogether, tried the Yamaha THR100HD briefly, currently own a Helix Floor and FM3 with a Quad Cortex coming soon.
All of these are really good sounding units. How they sound and feel is IMO not much of a differentiator. If you can't get satisfying tones out of any of them the problem is you, not the gear.
The Yamaha was super easy to use but had a pile of quirks. It has basically only 4 amp models but I could use those to cover nearly every tone I ever wanted and it was as easy to operate as a regular amp. Obviously limited on the fx side, no USB recording and some other stupid design decisions. I really want them to make a "mark 2" version because it's so close to being a truly great digital amp.
I like the Helix best as an fx unit because its models operate like stompboxes. There's not a dizzying array of parameters, you don't need to combine multiple blocks to build the full pedal like you would for example if using the Horizon Precision Drive or King of Tone models on the FM3. It's also very fast to operate from the front panel. The stock cab sims are a bit crap, the IR selection system is awful but the user interface in general is far more pleasant than the FM3. Very fast to operate, assign footswitches etc. I use it mostly hooked up in 4CM to my tube amps. Switching, routing, fx all done by the Helix. Not because there's anything wrong with the amp modeling, I just like it better for this use.
I preordered the Quad Cortex last year because the Helix is is just too large to put on a desk and the HX Stomp is too limited in both DSP and control. I wanted the QC as a desktop and travel unit and also so I can make captures of my tube amps to take with me. I will return it if I don't like how it sounds, if the touchscreen isn't as responsive as I would like or if the feature set is not as full featured as I would need. Realistically I expect it needs 1-2 years more software development to be great.
While I was waiting for the QC to be released, I found a used FM3 in my country and decided to give it a try knowing I can sell it for what I paid for. FM3-Edit is by far the best computer editor on any modeler but I have a lot of complaints about the hardware UI on the FM3. I have posted a
a list in the wishlist forum already. Clunky is the only way I can describe it, but it's still a big improvement over the awful hw UI on the Axe-Fx 2. The footswitching on the FM3 is not great (even with all its programmability) but at least it's a more compact unit, even if it's a bit on the heavy side. It has its limitations on DSP, possible block combinations etc but most are not a problem for my uses. I have had a lot of fun playing with all the advanced features the Fractal system offers. It's second to none in tweakability and features.
I don't care about having hundreds of amp models or thousands of IRs when my needs can be satisfied with something like my Bogner that does a Fender clean and various shades of Marshall overdrive. I question if I need all the stuff in the modelers in the first place and if I should just stick to real amps and a couple of pedals. Then I remember the mess of cables, power supply, having to setup switching for all that...just more convenient to use my Helix instead.
Unless Cliff pulls some "eureka!" moment for the Axe-Fx IV (whenever that might be released), to me the big improvements the Fractal system needs are all in usability and convenience on the hardware UI itself. There's a lot of low hanging fruit they could improve on the current generation as it is. They already sound and feel stellar to play and have very few gaps in terms of features.
The modelers do keep me from buying a whole pile of amps when I get bored though!