Line 6 Helix HX effects unit leaked....

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  • thomasw88thomasw88 Frets: 2316
    even by my standards that was crap will power...

    ordered one last night (no alcohol involved).

    FIrst multi FX since a fruitless adventure with the fractal FX8 ( just over a year ago.)

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  • I've got one coming this week, hopefully get it up and running for my gig on Saturday.
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  • thomasw88thomasw88 Frets: 2316
    it arrived today.  will give it a blast through tonight, tho will have to be into a line 6gx/laptop headphones jobs as I have no amp here.

    hoping this will be the one to declutter the pedalboard!
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  • thomasw88thomasw88 Frets: 2316
    had a play for a couple of hours tonight.   Compared to the FX8 its a piece of piss to dial in sounds, so much easier interface.  

    Drives sound genearlly ok,  delays are good, modulations - not so sure it'll replace my strymon mobius at the moment, but we'll see, too early to tell.
    Reverbs, and compressions are good.

    big test for me is playing it in a band environment, thats why I got rid of the FX8 as I was spending all my time fiddling with the damn thing.

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  • So The HX is going back.
    It's a real shame but the ground loop noise is a real downer. I've had it before with other units, I don't think its the HX's fault but having to have a transformer isolation box and the a di box on the pedal board is about the same size and weight as my old pedalboard and to have to factor in the wall wart as well.......


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  • Musicman20Musicman20 Frets: 2296
    I decided to stick with normal pedals and bought two Thorpyfx pedals instead.
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  • So The HX is going back.
    It's a real shame but the ground loop noise is a real downer. I've had it before with other units, I don't think its the HX's fault but having to have a transformer isolation box and the a di box on the pedal board is about the same size and weight as my old pedalboard and to have to factor in the wall wart as well.......
    The Orchid Iso boxes are pretty small if you haven’t seen them before. I’ve got a couple of them, they’re useful.



    http://orchid-electronics.co.uk/trans.htm
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  • digitalscreamdigitalscream Frets: 26461
    So The HX is going back.
    It's a real shame but the ground loop noise is a real downer. I've had it before with other units, I don't think its the HX's fault but having to have a transformer isolation box and the a di box on the pedal board is about the same size and weight as my old pedalboard and to have to factor in the wall wart as well.......
    The Orchid Iso boxes are pretty small if you haven’t seen them before. I’ve got a couple of them, they’re useful.



    http://orchid-electronics.co.uk/trans.htm
    Yep, I've got one of the singles and one of the doubles. Whether I'm gigging or recording, I always have one with me...proved useful a few times, especially with shared backlines.
    <space for hire>
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  • newi123newi123 Frets: 850
    I'm liking it so far, straight into amp so no noise issues. First gig tomorrow night.

    It does take 2 attempts to boot sometimes tho!
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  • Does make you wonder if really would have been that hard to put in a ground lift switch 
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  • CabicularCabicular Frets: 2214
    Does make you wonder if really would have been that hard to put in a ground lift switch 
    I can’t think of a multi fx that does
    probablt because in a standard guitar lead there isn’t really a ground to lift
    I suppose building galvanic isolated sockets would be too bulky 
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  • Cabicular said:
    Does make you wonder if really would have been that hard to put in a ground lift switch 
    I can’t think of a multi fx that does
    probablt because in a standard guitar lead there isn’t really a ground to lift
    I suppose building galvanic isolated sockets would be too bulky 
    When a device is designed for 4cm or even 5cm it’s weird they haven’t done it. I’m still running around with an EbTech Hum eliminator to gigs which weighs the same as a house brick and there £15 DI boxes out there with ground lifts. Don’t get it
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  • newi123newi123 Frets: 850
    edited March 2018
    So I returned mine. 

    After the joys of updating It, it still didn't boot reliably every time. Frequently had to start it 2 or 3 times to get it to load. Also some noise on occasion in use. Seemed random. Overall didn't inspire confidence as a 1 stop gig solution. Was impressed by the overall sound tho.

    Other issue I had is the buttons are surprisingly close together. Enought so to hit the wrong one whilst playing and singing - and I only have size 9s 

    So figured that if I'm only going to use it as a pedal board, i'd prob stick to a basic pedal board!
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  • It can be done. The venerable digitech gsp1101 was designed for 4 cable method and I never got any noise on the balanced or unbalanced ins and outs.
    boss gt100 has a ground lift on the send/return. Again no noise
    fractal have the hum buster system thing.not tried it.
    the fact these other companies have included these shows that they acknowledge the potential for ground loops.
    the hx was horrendously noisy with my orange amp. Unusable without workarounds which is a shame as I thought the interface and sounds were spot on.

    The difference with these other units is obviously the size.

    There’s some grounding problem somewhere imo. At least with my unit. Whenever I touched one of the foot switches there was an audible buzz even on a clean sound.
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  • Musicman20Musicman20 Frets: 2296

    Noise issue - response on TGP from Line 6:

    "Ok guys on the hiss issue:
    It’s extremely rare (roughly 0.5%, or 1 out of every 200 HX Effects units sold), but certain specific combinations of HX Effects units populated with out-of-spec parts and amplifiers and/or hookup configurations can manifest notable white noise and/or other unsavory audio artifacts. If your particular setup happens to exhibit this behavior, please contact Line 6 customer support, as we currently have a solution. We have also updated our manufacturing and testing process to ensure no future units exhibit this behavior, regardless of configuration.

    If you’ve already logged a ticket, sit tight—someone will be contacting you.

    And if you’re one of the lucky 99.5%, continue playing as normal. Or depending on your chops, maybe better than normal.

    We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused. The guys will let you know how sorry we/I am and we will make it right for you. Thank you for your patience. I know it seemed like we took a long time and that’s because we did. We wanted to make sure we replicated all the configs and were able to isolate the issue."

     

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  • KebabkidKebabkid Frets: 3301
    Fair play
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  • WazmeisterWazmeister Frets: 9448
    So how many of you have actually bought and kept the Helix HX ?

    Seems a lot of unit for the money if it suits your rig...
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  • thomasw88thomasw88 Frets: 2316
    I stil have it. I think its got potential. So far id say drives are more usable than fx8, delays and mods not as good. But the routing and usability of it seem better and its less faffy than the fx8.
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  • nick79nick79 Frets: 252
    Can you load an impulse response into it so you can go straight into a pa or recording software on pc? 
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  • nick79 said:
    Can you load an impulse response into it so you can go straight into a pa or recording software on pc? 
    Yeah it will load IR’s but doesn’t have any amp models
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