Pod HD500 versus Boss GT-10

[LouSiffer]

Going to be picking one of these up here soon. Wanted to know your guys experience. Please, only if you have experience......I don't want " I know a guy..." or " I never had either one of them, but, ....".

From what I am picking up on the net, the Pod has better amp emulation ,but, the Boss has better effects. I have tried to play with them in local music stores, but, its really hard to compare when you got 20 other bastards wailing on Avenged Sevenfold songs through a Squier strat and a Crate amp. -Lou

[Hellbat]

Maybe PM hippietim, I'm pretty sure he has used both. I think he even gave his opinion on one of the threads in here. Sorry this is kind of an "I know a guy..." post.

[LouSiffer]

Its cool Hellbat....at least you posted with direction rather than just mindless rambling.-Lou

[roccotanto]

you are correct -- the GT-10 has cooler effects, but the HD500 has superior amp modeling, and the "M" class effects are damn good. i use the HD500 and DT-50 at gigs every week and love it!

[guitarhero]

you are correct -- the GT-10 has cooler effects, but the HD500 has superior amp modeling, and the "M" class effects are damn good. i use the HD500 and DT-50 at gigs every week and love it!

I am really close to buying the BOSS GT-10 or the Line 6 HD500 myself. I have the Line 6 X3 Bean shape with pedals as an option but I want more guitar effects than a bass/guitar/vocals unit. I need to have some great distortion but I also want great chorus and delays as well.

[LouSiffer]

Think I am leaning towards the GT-10. It seems to have more flexibility and tweakability. Even if the amp modeler is not as close as the POD, I think I can still get respectable sounds out of it. I do not really care that it does or does not sound like " X " brand amp. Once I do my tweaking with effects and whatnot to color it up, it is not going to sound like that amp anyway. -Lou

[guitarhero]

I am really leaning towards the HD500. The amp mods sound seems really great and hopefully will bring out my KRK Rockit 8 monitor speakers. I will have to give it another day before I make a decision.

[BenoA]

LouSiffer.... Keep us posted. I'm a long time user of the Boss GT8 (mostly for FX only) and I'm "thinking" of upgrading but wondering if I should jump in now or wait for the next Boss offering...

[guitarzan_josh]

I guess I've had my HD500 for about 2 weeks now... and I love it. I am a Vetta combo amp user and I still think this is the greatest modeling amp period, but the HD sounds better and in a nut shell has everything you need and nothing you don't (aside from the synth effects).

Also worth mentioning that Line 6 has always done their customers well with firmware updates and upgrades. I can only see more and more "bells and whistles" down the road with the HD stuff.

[petez0r]

i bought the hd for my kid at christmas, and i gotta say i personally wasnt very impressed with it. the amp tones are very weak/thin, effects are....meh, the layout is good though and its pretty easy to use. now this was in front of my amp, recording may be a different beast, i havent hooked it up to the comp and fiddled yet.

[LouSiffer]

I got a chance to play with them side by side using an A/B box today in a sound proof room. All in all, I spent about 3-4 hours with them. I mimicked each amp through each one ( the ones they had that were the same anyway ). The guitar was an alder bodied strat with a Duncan Custom in the bridge.

I used a pair of neutral 12" JBL PA speakers as well as Mesa Dual Rec head through a Marshall 4x12 ( this combo sounded pretty damned good on its own!! ). I had the Boss Gt-8 and loved it. It was missing a few things the GT-10 picked up ( USB recording/data transfer being a big one ). I do not see Boss coming out with anything soon as it appears they shot their wad on the Roland GR-55. I am guessing anything new coming is about a year out.....the end of this year maybe. Here is what I found according to my ears:

1: Amp emulation: HD wins.....hands down.....with a caveat. It hates tube heads and 4x12s.....well, maybe just guitar speakers in general. I feel this unit is designed to be ran direct through a PA with a neutral speaker or to a PC. Anything else seems to "over-color" the sound. I would have liked to try it in a SS head with a built-in tube pre-amp to see what would happen, but, I think the natural coloring of the speakers in the 4x12 are hurting it probably more than the amp head itself. I am wondering what would happen with an amp and a 4x12 with PA type speakers installed....?

That doesn't mean the Boss sounded great through the same setup....it just didn't sound as bad. I could dial in mushy.....and I could dial in buzzy, couldn't dial in anything good. I ran the unit in the loop.....between the guitar and the head......turned it onto global emulation, ran pre-amp only, killed the speaker emulation, turned everything off and on in almost every configuration.......and nothing sounded right. The Boss seemed more flexible in this area, but, I wouldn't expect to use either unit for nothing more than an effects processor in a tube head with a "guitar" speaker of any sorts.

The Boss unit's emulation seemed bold at first, but, it was missing something. I couldn't put my finger on it. Then I figured it out. You know how a nice tube amp grabs the harmonics, the nuances, the attack, the liveliness of a guitar and a SS amp does not? Same thing here. The Boss made everything too clean. It almost sounded like the compressor and the envelope filter were dimed out. I shut them both off completely and there was no change. I am not saying the HD sounds and functions EXACTLY like a nice tube amp, but, it seems to be alot closer than the Boss.


2: Effects: Goes to the Boss. I like the interface of the Boss better. I like the display better. I like the effects better. Some effects were much better and some were only marginally better. The most common effects that I use, chorus, phaser, flanger, wah, delay, reverb, EQ and compressor were fine for me on the HD. The Boss walked away with the specialty effects like the harmonizer, the octave plus, etc. This is probably due to Roland's help. I imagine this can be improved upon by an update from Line 6. The HD300 and HD400 have a much smaller display than the HD500. Also, the Boss' effects seems to have more depth and tweakability to them.

3: Navigation: Goes to the Boss. This is probably because I had the GT-8 for a couple years. I feel like there were parts of the HD I never touched....which is okay, as I was just wanting to compare the two devices sound for sound. The HD's navigation was not bad.....I just adapted to the Boss easier......due to my previous admission of owning the GT-8.

4: Build quality: Goes to the Boss. It is built like a tank. It is heavy. It is sturdy and the bigger pedals are easier to hit than the HD's little buttons. The HD is a pig piece of equipment......but, it doesn't feel like it....or at least not as much as the Boss does.

5: Support after the sale: Line 6 is known for their editing software. Boss is not. Sure, you can get patches for the Boss, but, the editor is homebrew stuff. It works and it is funtional, but, you kind of wonder why Boss does not support their product after the sale. At least the Line 6 company appears to be more than a product making machine.

To break it down in my opinion, if you put the best of both units together you would have the perfect processor. Amp emulation to me is not that big of a deal due to the fact, that, my sound is not based on the sound of a certain amp. Even though the emulation is better on the HD500, the Boss GT-10 is a good unit on its own.

Go with the HD500 if you feel that you need it to sound as close to brand " X " amp as possible......and you like some of the nuances and warmth that a tube amp gives...... If you plan on using this in your studio/bedroom/basement...... if you want the best recorded direct to PC sound you can get.

Go with the Boss GT-10 if you like your chords and runs to sound clean.......you are using the processor to gig with.....amp emulation is not that big of a deal........if you are a Boss Gt-8 user and like the menu....or you just want high quality effects to supplement your current amp rig.

As it appears now, I am going to switch my decision to the HD500 as I like the looseness of a tube sound. The emulation is not a big deal to me ,but, I think that emulation is what helps the overall sound. As far as the effects, I can pretty much do anything on my PC once the piece is recorded to it....and there is some nice PC editing tools out there with the plugins and whatnot.

I have heard guys get some amazing sounds out of the GT-10. There is a guy that has Youtube videos running through a bunch of VH songs he has patched for that sound really good. I have heard other people getting some other great tones out of it as well. But, with the time I spent with these 2 units going A/B, the HD500 won in overall sound quality. -Lou

[Forrest]

Nice review Lou...I haven't gotten to try out the HD yet, and have never messed with any Boss modelers. But I have been using the Pod XT Live and X3 each from the day they were released. Usually I play straight through the board live, and through a solid state Peavey fullstack at home (preamp bypassed.) Playing through a nice full range PA at band practice makes a HUGE difference in sound. Honestly I'm not that picky about sound, and I'm fine with what I get through my 4x12's, but you can really hear a lot more nuance with any decent PA. Although Line6 likes to sell them as gear that can do "anything and everything" I think that's how they're truly meant to be heard.

[LouSiffer]

Many X3 users were complaining that there was not enough of a difference in the HD and X3 to accomodate for the investment. I know that Line 6 claims the HD has 10 times more processing power than even the Vetta unit......so, I do not know what they wanted/expected. -Lou

[Mazrim]

Does the HD record to PC much better than Toneport UX2 for instance?
I mean, Ive dragged some decent quality patches out of that thing (the presets are worthless) but it could always be better and some organic tube sounds wouldn't go amiss.

[LouSiffer]

I have no clue. I am only comparing the Boss and the POD. I would love to have all the processors in a room to do side by sides. If you guys want, just send me the processors or the money to buy the processors and I will compare them all and write a review.- Lou