Line6 Helix Stadium

[Carvin82604]

If only they didn't turn around and have it made in China.

 

[stephanfm3]

helix stadium ... that's cumbersome. i'll call it helium ...

 

[brianv4]

TBD, once the product is fully developed I will check it out. I must say, a touch screen on the floor is of no use to me. Same for a dedicated Fractal touchscreen which someone brought up on the forum. Give me an app I can run wirelessly on my tablet.

 

[AlbertA]

So in the spirit of things, I antagonized the hell out of them.

 

[rog]

I’ve often bought Line6 products over the past 20 years, the most recent being a Helix Rack. A lot of reliability issues—bugs, faulty switches, things not working properly. In short, Line6 still feels like it’s poorly built overall—a very expensive toy, in the end.

That was not my experience - I had a Helix Floor, and the thing was a tank. Also a Stomp, and a Rack. The Rack did have a board short out (I bought it used, from someone who also bought it used, no idea how it was treated before I got it), and I was able to find a Yamaha authorized repair shop, where they swapped out the board, after which I never had another problem with it. The Floor and Stomp were as solid and reliable as I could have hoped for.

TBD, once the product is fully developed I will check it out. I must say, a touch screen on the floor is of no use to me. Same for a dedicated Fractal touchscreen which someone brought up on the forum. Give me an app I can run wirelessly on my tablet.

Same here - once all the promised features are there, I'll try it out. But I'm extremely happy with my FM9T, and unless something sounded noticeably better (that includes any future Fractal releases), I'll be sticking with it for years.

Fun fact - I haven't been playing much lately, due to life stuff, and I almost sold my FM9...I actually put it on Gumtree, and got a good offer. But between the time I put it on Gumtree and got the offer, I decided to try building a new preset, because I've been really lazy about that with the FM9 (the stock presets are so good that I've kind of rolled with them, even though they were often close, but not quite what I wanted). Dove pretty deep into it over a weekend, and came up with a Lone Star preset that's so good (still not quite perfect, but I'll get it there) that, between that and playing daily again, I've decided I can't sell it. Apologised to the guy who made the offer, and took the ad down.

 

[Daveis]

My Helix buddy isn’t upgrading to Stadium. Too expensive at $1800.

 

[skolacki]

Not interested myself. Fractal Audio does what I need and I like the modeling approach. I don’t think anyone understands tube amps as deep as Cliff does and has the passion for accuracy that he has. So I’ll keep riding this train we’re on until I’m done.

 

[Possum]

I'm curious how it sounds and feels because this was the biggest issue for me with the Helix Floor. Have been using it live for many years and it seemed reliable - also accidentally dropped a full thickness ESP Eclipse body right on the display and it didn't break, but I was never satisfied with how the low and high end of mid and hi gain sounded if that makes sense? Years of tweaking didn't make me as satisfied as many of the Axe stock presets - Especially the Friedman HBE V3 one. Haven't even switched on my tube amps for half a year now...

And they never updated the dated amp models, but added new niche ones I could never make use of. Somehow just not my cup of tea...

 

[elvtnedge]

Im sure it will be a great unit but one of the reasons I changed to Fractal was I wanted a floor unit without the expression pedal. Well they now have a floor unit without the expression pedal but they ditched the scribble strips… Once again, glad I switched to Fractal.

 

[rog]

Im sure it will be a great unit but one of the reasons I changed to Fractal was I wanted a floor unit without the expression pedal. Well they now have a floor unit without the expression pedal but they ditched the scribble strips… Once again, glad I switched to Fractal.

That was a weird omission on the Stadium.

 

[Alexis]

You were lucky then. One of mine had a zipper that failed with light use.

there can be failures once in a 100.000. seems like you got really unlucky there. line6 tho are super responsive in repairing/replacing stuff.
A friend of mine had a broken expression pedal because he tripped over on stage and landed full weight on the helix. the replaced it for free after 8 6 years out of warranty. So if you would have anything happen repeatedly you could contact Frank from L6 and he'll take care.

 

[massimo.grossi]

I feel like the only person on the planet that doesn't care about touch screens or nice graphics.

Gimme some knobs, show me the values. That's really all I need. My ears do the rest.

You're not alone in this cruel world!

 

[Dixiethedog]

I still wear my Fractal t-shirt with pride. It is a "If you know, you know" type of statement t-shirts, should that make any sense.
Can you imagine how silly you would feel wearing a Line 6 t-shirt.

I am (kind of) at the lower end of things with my FM3, but I would sooner buy a good used Axe-FX3 than a new Line 6 thing.

And as for the regular Fractal video YouTube presenters who we all look up too, may they hold their heads in shame when they prostitute themselves out to tell the World that the Helix this or that is fantastic after they have told me that Fractal is best.

I don't really want to name names, but ??, ??, ?? etc etc show some dignity and decorum. Actually, I think ?? is a proper real Fractal guy. But we will see? (I removed their initials so as not to embarrass them). Hookers...

I have my popcorn at the ready as dare myself to check out YouTube to see who is saying what?

I am going to go and change my t-shirt now. I love my "Grandad is best" t-shirt, but (don't tell my grandsons!!) it isnt a Fractal Audio T-shirt. You should be getting my drift.

 

[Dixiethedog]

After a quick check on Youtube, at least MF has not (yet?) done a Helix video. LOL. But the rest of them have. It goes to show that when they are telling us that Fractal is best and I take it in, they as well be selling toilet rolls. And you know where you can stick that.
I wear my heart on my sleeve. Fractal for me. And only Fractal.

 

[Maxxxiz]

I played Line 6 for a long time until I tried Fractal. It's a different sound. And it will always be different. Just like Kemper and Neural. The choice is yours)

 

[GuitarGuy316]

Awesome news! I currently use a Fractal FM3 & FM9. I am on the pre-order list for the new Line6 product, mostly out of intrigue and curiosity, but am definitely interested in whatever Fractal may bring out in the future. I hope some details on Fractals new product will emerge before this October when the stadium ships.

What preorder list? Nice try.

 

[MayPRS]

I do think that the smaller Helix Stadium is a direct hit at the Quad Cortex with, at least in paper, much better features. If the sound is what they preach, then, at this pace, the QC is taking a bit hit I'm sure.

 

[jdasader]

I was at the L6 event in Calabasas, and I got to play through Stadium and interact with the unit for about 30 minutes (we posted a video about our experience here).

I am admittedly a huge fan of both Line 6 and Fractal, and I regularly use and create content for Helix and Axe-FX. I love both companies and what they're doing.

I was able to play four of the new Agoura amp models - the Deluxe Reverb, AC30 Top Boost, JCM800 (2203), and Bogner Ecstasy (red channel). In each case, they had dialed the amp models using an Agoura version and a regular HX version (that's the Helix modeling), and we could swap between the Agoura and HX versions of the same amp.

In every case, the Agoura model sounded significantly better than the HX. Not hugely different - like the Deluxe sounded like the deluxe in both cases, but the new modeling had a lot more depth, character, clarity, etc. I've felt this way when comparing HX amp models to Fractal models as well, so it would be very interesting to directly compare the Agoura models to the Fractal models through the same IR. Obviously that's not something we can do yet, but once these units ship I'll be very curious to try it.

I know the touch screen thing is contested, but it really is great. I have a QC, Tone Master Pro, and Headrush Prime. The screen on Stadium is better than all of them - it really is as good as an iPhone, which is impressive. You can still interact with the unit exactly like you can with a Helix, which (IMO) is best in class when it comes to use-ability. But I've spent more time on Helix than I have any other unit, so there's that. I've spent almost as much time on Axe-FX as Helix. Once you learn these things, you can do whatever you want on them easily - each company has their own sort of design language and workflow.

The newer quality of life stuff on Stadium is impressive - Focus zones, etc. I think the way Fractal does the Block Library has been superior to Line 6's Favorites - at least more functional. But the way Stadium will now let you organize favorites puts it on par, which is cool. And with Stadium/Helix, it all lives on the unit itself, rather than on your computer. I wish we could access the block library without being connected to the computer that has the blocks.

I personally LOVE capture tech, and I cannot wait to see if it'll come to Fractal. Super excited to try out the new Line 6 capture tech when it becomes available in 2026. Tone match is very good, but the market clearly wants capture tech. Whether it is 'better' or 'worse' than modeling tech - who knows (and honestly who cares). This is what the market is asking for.

Anyway - I could go on and on, ha. In conclusion - in my opinion. Axe-FX III has been the best in class digital amp/FX device. I've actually had a lot of conversions with Eric Klein about Fractal - he's a huge, huge fan of this company and has an enormous amount of respect for Fractal and for Cliff. He knows how good it is. I'll be super curious to get a Stadium here and be able to do direct comparisons between them.

While Line 6 was introducing Stadium, I couldn't help but wonder what Fractal has been working on in their next gen unit. I'm sure it will be amazing.

Hey Brian! Appreciate this insight. I've been long time advocate and user of your resources. I've often told students, and other players, that with modern tech the difference between solutions (L6, Fractal, QC, ToneX, etc...) is like 5%-10%. And frankly the audience/congregation isn't going to notice a difference between my FM9, and the other guy's QC. That said, "feel" is a real thing, and I play better when I connect with my rig. For me, Fractal has the best feel of any other solution (I've tried QC, ToneX, Helix, TMP, and even Two Notes). First of all, does this make sense (if not the next question is pointless!)? Secondly, did you notice a difference in the feel of the amps on the Stadium?

 

[sarge]

Remote management via iPad is the most agile in my opinion. I don’t want to get on the floor to adjust if I have to.

Could not agree more! I'm 54 and it could have the best graphic UI on the planet, but I have no intention of getting on the floor to edit patches. Not saying the UI stuff isn't cool, it is. But I agree, having an iPad connected to the mic stand is way more usable to me.

But to be honest, if you see me editing patches at a gig, it means something has gone horribly wrong. That stuff is typically taken care of at home and at practice. Sure the acoustics of the room change, but that is generally taken care of at the board.

 

[Dimi Guitar]

Can you imagine how silly you would feel wearing a Line 6 t-shirt.

I don't happen to wear gear company shirts, because I don't have any, but I don't see why wearing a line 6 shirt would be silly (or, to be more exact, make me feel silly).

Would we even have the modelling we do today without advancements engineers working for line 6 made? I don't know -- but my pod XT still sounds respectable to me dialed in right, the new units even better.

And as for the regular Fractal video YouTube presenters who we all look up too, may they hold their heads in shame when they prostitute themselves out to tell the World that the Helix this or that is fantastic after they have told me that Fractal is best.

I don't really want to name names, but ??, ??, ?? etc etc show some dignity and decorum. Actually, I think ?? is a proper real Fractal guy. But we will see? (I removed their initials so as not to embarrass them). Hookers...

I think calling people "hookers" as such a pejorative is questionable itself.

After a quick check on Youtube, at least MF has not (yet?) done a Helix video. LOL. But the rest of them have. It goes to show that when they are telling us that Fractal is best and I take it in, they as well be selling toilet rolls. And you know where you can stick that.
I wear my heart on my sleeve. Fractal for me. And only Fractal.

Is it possible for 1) people to change their minds for legitimate reasons or 2) to think a new product is fantastic/seems fantastic while they still believe fractal is best overall for themselves/their uses?

Or is the issue people making helix videos at all? Why shouldn't they? Plus so far it seems to be mostly reactions to what line 6 has revealed, no actual testing.

I think fractal units are better than other units in certain ways, like when it comes to how in-depth the modelling is, and I believe helix Stadium will offer certain things fractal currently does not, from what we've seen so far.

How good the modelling and capturing are (which is what I care about the most) I'd have to test out in depth to have firm conclusions about.