HX Effects - Any tone suck?

Dan5150 · July 24

I'm in the process of putting together a small grab & go gig rig. The HX Effects seems to be the ideal candidate for a small board with a few analog drives. I've been doing the usual internet diving and getting mixed reviews on how transparent it is when set up correctly. I won't be using it 4CM, just straight into a clean amp. It seems a lot of people ran into issues 4CM or using the loops (An impedance or buffering thing I guess?)

If you're using or have used one in the past - Any comment on if it messes with the tone / feel of your rig? Any feedback on the unit in use would be helpful.

Cheers all!

Heartfeltdawn · July 24

Straight into a clean amp = no change to my ears.

Snags · July 24

I had one for a while and never noticed any significant difference between having it in the chain but all effects off, and going direct to the amp. I used it both in the front and 4CM, but I didn't use any external drives, just the internal ones so not a 100% comparable situation to your intended use.

Personally these days if I wanted grab-and-go on a small footprint and didn't need the option for 6 stomp-box switches I'd probably go with the Stomp, just because of the added flexibility with built-in amps. Although actually right now I don't do either of those things

relic245 · July 24

Mine's been on the board for about 3 years. Not many bits of kit last that long!

Variety of use cases:

Initially into the front end of a clean fender amp

Then with a tonex pedal in the loop and direct to the PA

Currently 4cm with a marshal dsl40cr. I use an external drive, initially the drive before the HX FX but now the drive is in the fx loop.

While I may not have the ears of a connoisseur, as some around here seem to, I've never noticed any tone suck or downsides.

I've tried A-B ing stuff as much as I can but to my ears it's all good.

TheBigDipper · July 24

I owned an HX FX for about 18 months. I did both 4CM and straight in. Didn't notice any tone suck in either use. From memory, I did do one thing though. I accepted I'd need to dial in a good sound without any effects on but using DSP bypass rather than trying to match true bypass with DSP bypass plus effects. You can always hear a difference between no buffer and buffered which would have driven me crazy, so I didn't try.

thecolourbox · July 24

I don't really notice any difference, no more than you might by just sitting or standing in a different position.

It seems an entirely adequate sounding piece of kit with a fair few functions as well as the sounds. Quite a big unit for a small board with external pedals, but I guess if it was smaller people would just moan about that as well.

It's decent if not amazing

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HX Effects - Any tone suck?

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