I owned the original Helix Floor and loved it. That thing could conjure tones that made my ears genuinely happy. The amp models were solid, the effects library was extensive, and the workflow made sense once you wrapped your head around it. But there was always this nagging limitation that drove me absolutely nuts: DSP. The Helix Floor is incredibly DSP limited, and if you’re someone like me who loves pitch effects, you learned to compromise pretty quickly.
Want to use a Poly Capo for some on-the-fly drop tuning? Cool, but now half your preset’s processing budget is gone. Want to stack some modulation with that pitch shifter? Good luck. It felt like ordering a steak dinner and being told you can only have two sides, and one of them has to be the house salad. For years I worked around these constraints, simplifying presets and making sacrifices I shouldn’t have had to make on a flagship device.
So when Line 6 announced the Helix Stadium XL with its fancy new Agoura engine, more processing power, that massive 8-inch touchscreen, and all the bells and whistles they’ve been teasing for what feels like forever, I was cautiously optimistic. After spending serious time with it, playing through rehearsals, recording sessions, and preparing for my first live service, I can say it’s a significant leap forward for the Helix platform. But it’s also a first-generation product with the growing pains that come with that territory.
First Impressions and Form Factor
The first thing that surprised me when I unboxed the Stadium XL was how compact it is. I’d been staring at product photos and spec sheets for months, and somehow I’d convinced myself this thing was going to be an absolute monster. The original Helix Floor is a big boy, and when I heard the Stadium XL was packing even more features, I assumed it would be larger. But it’s not. It’s actually smaller in some dimensions, and that initially concerned me.
I own the Quad Cortex, and I’ve struggled with how close the footswitches are on that unit. If you’ve got bigger feet, or you like wearing boots on stage like I do, the QC can feel like you’re playing a game of Twister with your toes. One wrong step and you’ve accidentally engaged three effects and changed your snapshot while trying to hit the wah. I was worried the Stadium XL would suffer the same fate given its reduced form factor compared to the original Helix Floor.
But Line 6 have managed to pull off something clever here. They’ve shrunk the overall footprint without making the switches feel cramped. The spacing is sensible. I can stomp around in boots without accidentally triggering three things at once, and I don’t feel like I need to take a precision stepping course before every gig. This was a genuine relief because toe dancing is not a skill I’m interested in developing at this stage of my guitar-playing career.
The build quality feels solid too. This isn’t some flimsy plastic enclosure that’s going to crack the first time a drummer accidentally kicks it while tearing down. It’s got that reassuring heft that makes you feel like your $2,199 USD investment isn’t going to fall apart after a few months of gigging. Line 6 have historically built their floor units like tanks, and the Stadium XL continues that tradition.
That Touchscreen Though
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Or rather, the gorgeous 8-inch high-resolution touchscreen sitting right in the middle of your pedalboard where your feet live. As someone who owns the Quad Cortex, I was genuinely excited to see Line 6 finally embrace touchscreen technology. The QC proved that a touchscreen interface on a floor modeller could work, and it’s something I’ve wanted on the Helix platform for years.
And here’s the thing that genuinely surprised me: the Stadium XL screen is better than the Quad Cortex screen. I’m not exaggerating or trying to stir up tribal warfare between the Neural DSP faithful and the Line 6 loyalists. The QC touchscreen has always felt a bit laggy and unresponsive to me, like it’s thinking about whether it wants to acknowledge your input before finally registering your swipe. Sometimes you’d tap something and nothing would happen, then you’d tap again and it would register both taps. Mildly infuriating.
The Stadium XL screen feels like an expensive smartphone. It’s snappy, responsive, and a genuine pleasure to use. Swipes register instantly. Pinch-to-zoom works exactly how you’d expect. Dragging blocks around the signal chain is smooth and intuitive. Line 6 clearly didn’t cheap out on this component, and the difference is noticeable if you’ve spent any time with competing products. When I first started using it, I kept expecting the lag that I’d trained myself to anticipate on the QC, and it just wasn’t there.
The high-contrast display is readable from multiple angles, which matters when you’re standing over the unit trying to make quick adjustments between songs. And unlike some touchscreens that wash out under bright stage lighting, this one holds up well. I’ve used it under rehearsal room fluorescents and it remained perfectly visible.
That said, I do have anxiety about this screen. It’s 8 inches of glass sitting on your pedalboard. That’s a big target for a dropped microphone, a wayward beer bottle at a pub gig, or just an accidental stomp during an enthusiastic performance. What happens if you step on it? What happens if something falls on it during load-in?
I’ve seen forum discussions where people are asking the same questions. Some users have pointed out that with the original Helix, you could slap a piece of acrylic or polycarbonate over the display for protection, but on the Stadium that would defeat the purpose of having a touchscreen in the first place. You can’t armour up your screen and still poke at it with your fingers.
Line 6 hasn’t exactly been forthcoming about the durability of the glass or what happens if it does crack. I suspect it’s reasonably robust, but the thought lingers in the back of my mind every time I’m near the unit with shoes on. For now, my workaround is being careful and maybe investing in a proper road case sooner rather than later. Some users have suggested using the mobile app for fine-tuning and only touching the screen when necessary, or using the encoders and buttons for navigation when the screen might be at risk. The good news is that everything you can do on the touchscreen can also be done with the physical controls, so you’re not locked into touch-only operation.
The Agoura Engine and What It Actually Means
The marketing around Agoura has been extensive, but what does it actually mean for your tone? Line 6 is calling it Sub-component Behavioural Modelling, which sounds like corporate buzzword soup until you actually play through the amps and hear the difference.
The idea is that instead of just modelling what an amp does, they’re modelling how individual components interact with each other. The complex way a power supply interacts with the signal. The capacitance between wire runs within the chassis. How the tubes behave under different conditions. How the speaker impedance curves affect the output stage. All of this stuff that contributes to why a real amp feels alive in a way that digital recreations sometimes miss.
This isn’t entirely new territory for Line 6. They’ve been doing component-level modelling for years. But Agoura takes it deeper, recreating what they call the ultra-minute nuances of real-world tube amp design. It’s running on a completely new architecture too: 64-bit floating-point with a dedicated GPU, machine-learning accelerator, and FPGAs. That’s a lot of processing horsepower compared to the original Helix platform.
The Stadium XL shipped with 16 new guitar amp models and 6 bass amp models built on the Agoura engine. These sit alongside the entire legacy catalogue of Helix amp and effect models, so you’re not losing anything from your existing presets. But the new stuff is where the magic happens.
The Agoura Amps Are the Real Deal
Where the Agoura amps really shine is at the edge of breakup. This is where the old Helix models always felt a bit stiff to me. Getting that sweet spot where the amp is just starting to break up without going full distortion was possible, but it required a lot of tweaking and sometimes felt like you were fighting the model rather than playing through it. You’d dig in with your pick and the amp would either stay clean or suddenly jump to full saturation with not much in between.
The Agoura amps handle this way better. They feel more responsive to your playing dynamics in a way that’s hard to describe until you’ve experienced it. Roll back your guitar volume and the amp cleans up naturally. Dig in hard and it pushes into overdrive. Lighten your attack and it backs off. That touch sensitivity makes them feel more like real amps, and it’s the single biggest improvement I’ve noticed in actual playing situations.
Every Agoura amp model also has something called a Hype knob. This is Line 6’s take on the difference between accurate modelling and idealised modelling. Turn the Hype knob all the way down and you get the most faithful recreation of the original amp, warts and all. Real amps can be moody, harsh in certain frequencies, or just plain difficult to dial in. The accurate setting gives you that authentic experience.
Turn the Hype knob up and you move towards a more polished, produced, mix-ready version of that amp. The harsh frequencies get tamed. The low end tightens up. Everything sounds more refined and easier to slot into a mix. It’s like having a sound engineer’s processing chain built into the amp model itself. Each amp has its own unique Hype behaviour, meaning the specific parameters being adjusted differ depending on which model you’re using. Line 6 decides what gets tweaked for each amp, and apparently it can be quite different from model to model.
I’ve found this genuinely useful for different playing contexts. At home through headphones or studio monitors, I tend to run lower Hype settings because I want to hear the character of the amp. For live situations where I’m going direct to front of house and fighting with other instruments in the mix, cranking the Hype helps cut through without sounding brittle. It’s a clever feature that solves a real problem.
And here’s something interesting that I wasn’t expecting: even the legacy amps and effects sound better on the Stadium XL. The increased fidelity of the new hardware lifts everything. Models that I’d grown accustomed to on my old Helix Floor have a new clarity and presence that I hadn’t heard before. It’s like the old models have been given a fresh coat of sonic paint just by running on better hardware with more headroom.
Remember the high-end aliasing problem on the original Helix Floor? That was a known issue in the community that you had to work around. High frequencies could get harsh and digital-sounding, especially with certain amp models and gain settings. You’d compensate by rolling off some high end or making other compromises that shouldn’t have been necessary. That’s been fixed on the Stadium XL. The new architecture doesn’t suffer from the same issues, and it’s one of those quality of life improvements that makes you wonder how you put up with it before.
The Cab Situation
When you add an Agoura amp to your signal chain, the Stadium XL automatically pairs it with a matching cab. This is convenient for getting started quickly, but the default mic choices and positions in those auto-added cabs are questionable. I found myself immediately adjusting mic positions, mic models, and distance settings on pretty much every cab that got auto-added. The defaults seem designed to work for a wide range of situations rather than sounding optimal in any specific situation.
The cabs that come with the Stadium XL are good. The Agoura cab modelling uses the same detailed approach as the amps, capturing dynamic speaker impedance curves and how the speaker interacts with the power amp. But here’s the honest truth: despite how good they are, you’ll probably still want to use IRs to really nail the sound you’re after.
This isn’t a criticism unique to Line 6. Even on my Quad Cortex, I reach for third-party impulse responses more often than not. The stock cabs are a great starting point and perfectly usable for many situations, but IRs give you that final 10% that takes a tone from good to exactly what’s in your head. If you’ve already got a collection of IRs that you know and love, they import easily and work alongside the stock cabs without any issues.
DSP: Better, But Still a Consideration
This was the big promise, right? More DSP. And yes, there is more. The Stadium XL can handle up to 48 dynamic blocks across four stereo signal paths, which is a significant increase over what the original Helix could manage. But it’s not unlimited, and if you’re coming in expecting to stack five Poly Capos and three octavers without a care in the world, you’re going to be disappointed.
You can basically do one Poly Capo per row, and even then you need to be mindful of what else is in that row. The Agoura amps themselves are DSP heavy. If you’re building a preset around an Agoura amp with all its detailed modelling goodness and you also want pitch effects, you’ll still need to make some choices. It’s definitely better than the original Helix Floor, where adding a single pitch effect could consume a terrifying percentage of your available processing power. But don’t expect to go wild without consequences.
What concerns me is that none of the effects are Agoura models yet. Everything outside the amp section is legacy stuff ported over from the original Helix platform. It still sounds good, and you’ve got over 260 effects to choose from. But I’m a bit worried about what happens when Agoura effects do eventually arrive. If the amps are anything to go by in terms of DSP consumption, new Agoura overdrives and modulation effects are going to be processing-hungry. Will they sound better enough to justify the DSP cost? Or will they become a luxury that only makes sense in simpler presets? We’ll see how that shakes out, but it’s something I’m keeping an eye on.
I think Line 6 should consider some optimisation work around the DSP heaviness of the Agoura amps. If they’re planning Agoura cabs or effects in the future, the current DSP usage might need to come down, or those new models will be too expensive to use in practical real-world presets.
Boot Time is Brutal
I need to talk about this because it genuinely surprised me and has practical implications for gigging musicians. The Stadium XL takes about 60 seconds to boot up. That’s almost a full minute of staring at a loading screen before you can play guitar.
Now, to be fair, the Quad Cortex is worse. That thing takes close to 80 seconds to boot, so by comparison the Stadium XL feels quick. And the original Helix Floor booted in around 15-20 seconds, which was genuinely fast. Going from that to 60 seconds feels like a significant regression.
I understand why it takes longer. The Stadium XL is initialising a GPU and FPGA, loading a more complex operating system, probably running some kind of self-diagnostics, and doing considerably more than the original unit ever did. The new architecture has a lot of moving parts that need to come online before you can make noise. But understanding why doesn’t make it less annoying when you’re at a gig and need to turn the thing on.
If your unit crashes on stage with an original Helix Floor, you’d be back up and running in about 15 seconds. With the Stadium XL, you’re looking at a minute. That’s an eternity when you’re standing in front of an audience. And at home, when inspiration strikes and you just want to pick up your guitar and play, waiting a full minute for your modeller to boot kind of kills the vibe.
Line 6 needs to work on optimising this. Getting it down to 30 seconds would be acceptable. I’m not sure if they can match the original Helix Floor’s quick boot time given all the additional hardware that needs to initialise, but they should try. Other users are speculating that firmware optimisations might help, and I hope that’s on Line 6’s radar.
OLED Scribble Strips and the Burn-In Problem
The 12 OLED scribble strips on the Stadium XL are gorgeous. Each one sits above a footswitch and displays what that switch currently does. They’re high-contrast, incredibly readable, and throw a lot of light, which is fantastic for dark stage environments. You can actually see what each footswitch does without squinting or using a flashlight, even in the dimmest venues.
Unlike the scribble strips on the original Helix, these ones can be dimmed or turned completely off, which is useful if you find them distracting or want to save a bit of power. The brightness is adjustable to taste.
But here’s my concern, and it’s one I haven’t seen Line 6 address: OLED screens are prone to burn-in. If you display the same static image for extended periods, that image can become permanently etched into the display. And the Stadium XL doesn’t have a standby mode that blanks or cycles the displays to prevent this.
Think about practical use cases. I play at church. Sometimes we’re doing two back to back services, which means my device might be powered on for 4-5 hours on a Sunday morning. With the near 60 second boot time, I’m not going to turn it off between services. That would mean waiting another minute to boot up before the second service, and if something goes wrong, I’m stuck without my rig. So the unit stays on, and the same image sits on those OLED strips for hours at a time.
What happens if I’m doing that every week for 3-4 years? Over the course of hundreds of services, those static images are going to be displayed for thousands of hours. Burn-in becomes a real concern.
You can mitigate this by reducing the brightness, and the ability to turn the strips off completely is helpful. But that’s a workaround, not a solution. Line 6 needs to add a proper standby mode that dims or blanks the displays when the unit isn’t being actively used. After a configurable period of inactivity, the scribble strips should dim or cycle through different patterns to prevent any single image from being displayed too long. This is table stakes stuff in 2025 for any device with OLED displays, and I’m surprised it wasn’t included at launch.
The New Folder Structure and Preset Organisation
The new folder structure for organising presets is a significant improvement over the old Helix system. You’ve got 512 empty preset locations in the USER PRESETS folder, which should be more than enough for most players. If 512 somehow isn’t enough, you can save additional presets to your computer or back them up to the included 32GB microSD card.
Finding things is much easier with the new system. You can create your own folder hierarchy that makes sense for how you work. I’ve set up folders by band, by tuning, by guitar, and by venue type. It’s way more intuitive than the old setlist-based organisation.
Speaking of setlists, there’s an important gotcha that can bite you if you’re not paying attention. Setlists in the Stadium XL are just aliases that reference their original preset files. When you save a preset into a Setlist location, it also automatically saves the original preset file within the User Presets folder. If you make changes to a preset in one setlist, those changes propagate everywhere that preset is used.
This is actually useful once you understand it. You can have the same core preset appear in multiple setlists for different shows, and if you improve that preset, the improvement shows up everywhere. But it can also be confusing if you thought you were making a local change for one specific setlist and discover you’ve altered the preset globally. Just be aware of how it works and you’ll be fine.
The librarian in the desktop app provides access to all your Helix Stadium file assets, including Presets, Cab IRs, Favorites, and Preset Templates. You can import and export data to folders on your computer, which helps manage large libraries of sounds. The template system is particularly nice. You can create preset templates with your most-used models, preferred signal routing, custom Command Center mapping, and use them as starting points for new presets.
The Mixer Is Incredible
This is one of those features that sounds boring on paper but makes a huge difference in practice. The Stadium XL has a proper mixer section that lets you EQ individual inputs and outputs independently.
If you’re playing to front of house but also running FRFR speakers for stage monitoring, you can now EQ those outputs separately. Maybe the FOH mix sounds great but you want a bit more low-mid thump in your stage sound so you can feel the amp. Done. Maybe your headphones are a bit harsh in the high end compared to your monitors. You can EQ them independently. Each output path gets its own treatment.
This level of control is really useful for dialling in exactly what you want to hear in different contexts without having to compromise. On the old Helix, you could do some of this with parallel paths and separate output blocks, but it ate into your DSP budget and was more complicated to set up. The dedicated mixer approach on the Stadium XL is cleaner and doesn’t cost you any processing power.
Bluetooth and WiFi: The Wireless Experience
Bluetooth functionality has been amazing for my practice sessions. The Stadium XL functions as a Bluetooth audio receiver, letting you stream playback from your phone or tablet wirelessly. Connect to Spotify, YouTube, or whatever backing track app you use, and the audio plays through your unit while you jam along. No cables, no hassle, no dongles. You pair your device once and it remembers the connection for future sessions.
I’ve been using this constantly. Having backing tracks or full album mixes playing through the same monitors as my guitar, without needing to set up a separate audio system, has streamlined my practice routine significantly. The audio quality is good enough for practice purposes, and the convenience factor is huge.
The WiFi connectivity for the editor is a game changer. On the original Helix, you needed a USB cable to connect to the HX Edit software. This meant either having your computer right next to your pedalboard or running a long cable. With the Stadium XL, the connection between the unit and the Helix Stadium desktop app happens over WiFi. No more cable management nightmares. No more tripping over USB cables that stretch across the room.
The same goes for firmware updates. Everything happens over WiFi, and the speed seems decent. You can also connect via Ethernet if you prefer a more stable connection, though that requires a USB-A to Ethernet adapter. One thing to note: for now, USB connection only supports firmware updates. All the editing and librarian functions require WiFi or Ethernet. This might change in future updates, but for now, make sure your WiFi network is solid.
The WiFi connection can be a bit dicey based on what I’ve read from other users. Some folks report occasional dropouts or the unit losing its connection to the editor app. I haven’t had significant problems myself, but if you’re in an environment with a lot of WiFi interference or your router is far from where you play, you might want to consider the Ethernet option for more reliability.
The Expression Pedal Exceeded Expectations
The Stadium XL has a built-in expression pedal with toe switch, and I wasn’t sure what to expect from it. Built-in expression pedals on multi-effects units can be hit or miss. Sometimes they feel cheap or lack the travel range you’d want. Sometimes the toe switch is awkward to hit.
This one is better than I anticipated. The pedal feels smooth and responsive, with enough resistance to stay where you put it but not so much that it’s tiring to use. The travel range is good. The toe switch engages reliably when you rock forward. It integrates seamlessly with the rest of the unit, and you can assign it to control pretty much any parameter you want.
Some users on forums have pointed out that a built-in expression pedal is a potential point of failure. If it breaks, you’re dealing with a warranty claim rather than just swapping in a replacement pedal. That’s a fair concern for road warriors who put their gear through brutal touring schedules. But for most players, the convenience of having it built-in outweighs the theoretical risk. And if you really want to use an external expression pedal instead, the Stadium XL supports up to four of them.
Audio Interface and Recording
The Stadium XL functions as a USB audio interface for recording, and it works well. You get 24-bit audio at sample rates up to 96kHz, with multiple inputs and outputs available. On Windows, you’ll want to use the Line 6 ASIO driver for the best latency performance. On Mac, it works with Core Audio out of the box.
I recorded some guitars for a song the first day my Stadium arrived, and it was completely seamless. The direct monitoring capability means you can hear your processed signal from the Stadium’s hardware outputs with zero latency while simultaneously recording to your DAW. If you want to record a dry signal for later reamping, you can capture that alongside your wet signal on a separate track.
The audio quality is excellent. I’ve used plenty of dedicated audio interfaces, and the Stadium XL holds its own. The preamps have good dynamic range (Line 6 claims over 126dB on the instrument inputs), and I haven’t noticed any noise floor issues. If you’re planning to use this as your main recording interface for guitar work, it’s absolutely up to the task. You might still want a separate interface if you’re doing a lot of vocal recording or need more simultaneous inputs for full band tracking, but for guitar recording purposes, it’s got you covered.
The Bugs and Early Adopter Pain
Let’s be real: this is new hardware with new software, and there are bugs. The forums are full of early adopters comparing notes on issues they’ve encountered, and I’ve hit a few myself.
The device keeps logging me out of my Line 6 account every couple of days. I’ll power it on and get a message that login failed. You can dismiss the dialogue and everything works fine, but then you’re not connected to the cloud services until you log back in. Some users report that the QR code login method doesn’t always work, and you need to manually enter your username and password instead. It’s annoying but not breaking.
There are reports of WiFi connection issues, with the connection being a bit dicey for some users. Snapshots aren’t always behaving as expected for everyone. Some users are seeing odd behaviour with presets that gets resolved by exporting and reimporting them through the app.
I ran into a specific bug where the device had been on for several hours and Bluetooth started messing up. The audio from my phone was buffering and stuttering, almost like it had hit a memory leak or the buffer wasn’t clearing properly. Power cycling fixed it, but it’s the kind of thing that would be concerning mid-gig. These are the things you accept as an early adopter. They’re annoying but not show-stopping, and Line 6 has acknowledged that firmware updates are coming to address issues.
The Poly Capo implementation is also generating some debate. Some users find it has more artefacts during the attack compared to the sustain portion, which is the opposite tradeoff from what they might prefer. The tracking can struggle with artificial harmonics. Pitch shifting in general is one of those areas where different players have different priorities, so your mileage may vary.
I’m playing my first Sunday service at church this weekend with the Stadium XL. There’s definitely some anxiety there. What if it messes up on me mid-song? What if the Bluetooth decides to glitch during the offering music? But I’m going to have faith it won’t. In all my home testing, it’s been rock solid. Nothing has been a breaking bug that stopped the unit or made me restart it mid-session. The workaround for most issues seems to be a power cycle, which takes about 60 seconds, but you’d rather not need it.
The Tuner Gets an Upgrade
The new strobe tuner is awesome if you’re into strobe tuners. I’m probably not going to use it because I’ve never been a strobe tuner person, but I know plenty of guitarists who swear by them for their precision. If that’s you, you’ll be happy.
For the rest of us, the standard tuner is really nice on the bigger screen. It’s much easier to read than the tuner on the original Helix, simply because you’ve got more screen real estate to work with. The accuracy is excellent, and there are new options for tuning reference frequencies and display modes that weren’t available before. It’s one of those boring practical improvements that you appreciate every time you use it.
Sidechaining and Signal Routing
The ability to have multiple splits and merges across four stereo signal paths opens up routing possibilities that the original Helix couldn’t touch. If you’re someone who likes to get creative with parallel signal chains, running wet and dry paths, or doing any kind of complex routing, this is a huge improvement. You’ve got room for up to 48 processing blocks, and you can arrange them in configurations that would have been impossible before.
There’s also sidechaining support for some effects. This lets you control one effect based on the signal from a different part of your chain. Want your reverb to duck based on how hard you’re playing the dry signal? That kind of thing is now possible. It’s not going to be relevant for everyone, but for players who like to experiment with advanced routing and dynamic processing, the tools are there.
What’s Missing: Showcase and Proxy
Showcase didn’t ship with the Stadium XL, and that’s a feature I’m eagerly awaiting. Based on the marketing, Showcase is a live automation engine that can control everything from onboard preset and snapshot recall to MIDI control of external devices, playing back up to eight internal stereo audio tracks, and even automating lighting and video rigs while tempo-syncing everything.
The vision is that the Stadium XL becomes the centrepiece of your entire stage setup. Not just a guitar processor, but a performance workstation that coordinates your loopers, software, keyboards, synths, video, and lighting. You could theoretically run an entire show from the unit, with automated transitions between songs and scenes. If it works as advertised, it’s going to be a game-changer for one-man-band performers and artists who run complex multi-media shows.
But it’s not here yet. The timeline for Showcase availability hasn’t been clearly announced, and buying the Stadium XL today means buying into a promise that the feature will arrive eventually. I’m optimistic, but it’s worth noting you’re not getting the complete vision on day one.
Proxy is the other big missing piece. This is Line 6’s cloud-based cloning technology, their answer to the capture/profile features that competitors like Neural DSP, Kemper, and IK Multimedia have been doing for years. The idea is that you can capture the sonic characteristics of your real amps, effects, and cabs with remarkable precision.
What makes Proxy interesting is the cloud processing approach. You continue playing on your Stadium in real-time while the cloud processes your capture in the background. You’re not sitting there running test tones and waiting for the capture to complete like you would with other systems. Line 6 is also hinting that Proxy might be able to capture types of effects beyond the usual boosts, overdrives, and fuzzes that current capture approaches handle well.
Proxy is slated for early 2026. When it arrives, the big question will be how it compares to NAM, ToneX, and the Quad Cortex v2 capture functionality. The capture/profile space has gotten competitive, and there are strong opinions about which approaches sound best. NAM in particular has developed a devoted following for its accuracy, though it can be processor-hungry and the ecosystem lacks standardisation around input levels. ToneX has its fans too, though some find the quality inconsistent.
If Line 6 delivers on their promises, Proxy could be a differentiator. But until it ships and people can actually test it, we’re operating on marketing claims and hope. I’m cautiously optimistic, but I’ll reserve judgment until I can A/B Proxy captures against my real amps.
Model Updates: The Philosophical Question
I think Line 6 should consider adopting a Fractal approach to amp modelling. Fractal Audio has built their reputation partly on continually updating and improving their models over time. They’ll release an amp model, gather feedback, and then refine it in subsequent firmware updates as they learn more or as their modelling technology improves. The community has come to expect and appreciate this iterative approach.
Neural DSP did something similar with the Quad Cortex, versioning their models and releasing updates that improve existing content. It builds goodwill and makes owners feel like their investment is growing in value over time.
The traditional Helix approach has been different. Once a model ships, it’s done. Line 6 might add new models in firmware updates, but they don’t typically go back and revise existing ones. The philosophy seems to be that preset compatibility is paramount. If you’ve spent hours dialling in a tone based on an amp model’s current behaviour, you don’t want a firmware update to suddenly change how that model responds.
I understand the logic, but with the Agoura engine and the clearly improved modelling capabilities, maybe it’s time for Eric Klein and the team to reconsider this ethos. Continuous improvement of existing models would add a lot of value to an already expensive platform. Perhaps a versioning system could work, where you could choose to use the original version of a model for compatibility or opt into an updated version that sounds better. It’s something worth thinking about.
Stadium XL vs Quad Cortex: The Comparison You Actually Want
I own both, so this is a question I’ve been asking myself since the Stadium XL arrived. After spending meaningful time with the Stadium, I’d say they’re now genuinely on par with each other. The original Helix Floor felt a step behind the QC in some respects, but the Stadium XL has closed that gap.
Maybe the Quad Cortex makes dialling in high gain tones a little easier out of the box. The Neural DSP workflow is very hands-on and visual, which suits tweakers who like to grab virtual knobs and hear immediate results. The capture ecosystem on the QC also gives you access to a huge library of user-created amp and drive profiles that can get you to specific tones quickly.
But the Helix Stadium XL with its more configuration-based approach allows me to dial in the same rivalling high gain tones. It just takes a few more slight adjustments sometimes. The Hype control actually helps here, letting you push an amp towards a more produced sound without having to stack as many post-processing blocks.
Sound-wise? I genuinely wouldn’t say the QC or Stadium XL sounds better than the other. We’ve reached a point in amp modelling where the ToneMaster Pro, Kemper, Fractal, QC, and now the Stadium XL all sound really good. In a recorded mix or a live context, you’d be hard-pressed to tell them apart in a blind test. The differences are more about workflow, features, form factor, and personal preference than raw sound quality.
The touchscreen on the Stadium XL is more responsive than the QC. The boot time is faster on the Stadium XL (60 seconds vs 80). The Stadium XL has more footswitches and a bigger screen. The QC is more compact. The QC has captures today; the Stadium’s Proxy is coming next year. These are the kinds of practical differences that might sway you one way or the other.
If I had to pick one and sell the other, I’m honestly not sure which I’d choose. It would probably come down to whether Showcase and Proxy deliver on their promises. If Line 6 executes well on the roadmap features, the Stadium XL could pull ahead. If those features disappoint or get delayed indefinitely, the QC might remain the safer choice for someone who wants a complete package today.
The Toyota Landcruiser of Digital Amp Modellers
I love that Line 6 didn’t throw out the tactile controls when they added the touchscreen. Some manufacturers go down the touchscreen path and suddenly everything becomes a flat slab of glass with minimal physical controls. The Quad Cortex went that direction, with just a few rotary encoders and a power button supplementing the screen. It works, but some players miss having dedicated knobs and buttons.
Line 6 knows their audience. The Helix Stadium XL still has all the physical encoders and buttons you’d expect. Real knobs for quick adjustments. Real buttons for footswitch customisation. The touchscreen adds to the interface rather than replacing the tactile experience entirely. You can navigate the entire unit without touching the screen if you want to.
It’s like the Toyota Landcruiser of digital amp modellers. It’s capable, it’s reliable, it’s built to handle demanding conditions, and it doesn’t abandon the fundamentals that made people love it in the first place just to chase some minimalist aesthetic. Line 6 has pushed the Helix platform forward enough that the Stadium feels new, exciting, and capable, but it’s familiar enough that existing Helix users won’t feel lost.
The Focus View and Patch Notes
The new focus view where you can drag around the zones on the screen is quite cool. You can customise what you’re looking at while you play, prioritising the information that matters most for your current performance situation. Some players want to see the signal chain. Others want to see the preset name in giant letters. Others want quick access to parameter adjustments. Focus view lets you optimise for your workflow.
I’m looking forward to when Line 6 adds the ability to create fully custom zones, because right now you’re working with predefined options. But even with the current implementation, it’s a nice quality of life feature.
I’m also thinking about how the new patch notes feature could be useful. When I play at church, sometimes I need to remember specific chords or passages for songs I don’t play regularly. Right now I write little notes on paper and stick them to the floor near my pedalboard. Being able to have those notes appear on the device screen itself, perhaps triggered when I load a specific preset, could eliminate that workaround entirely. I haven’t fully explored this feature yet, but the potential is there.
Should Existing Helix Owners Upgrade?
This is the question I keep getting asked, and the honest answer is: it depends on what’s frustrating you about your current setup.
The original Helix Floor is still a compelling device. It sounds good. It’s battle-tested. The workflow is mature and well-documented. There’s a massive community creating presets, sharing tips, and solving problems. If you’re happy with your Helix Floor and it’s doing everything you need, there’s no urgent reason to upgrade right now. The same goes for the HX Stomp or any of the other HX-series units. They’re not suddenly obsolete because the Stadium exists.
The Stadium XL makes sense if you’ve been hitting the DSP ceiling constantly, if the touchscreen workflow appeals to you, or if features like Showcase and Proxy align with how you want to perform. But if you’re running straightforward presets, your DSP headroom is fine, and you don’t need live automation or capture functionality, then the original Helix Floor at its current price point remains excellent value. You’d be spending over $2,000 USD for improvements that might not meaningfully change your playing experience.
There’s also the early adopter tax to consider. The Stadium XL is a first-generation product on entirely new hardware. There are bugs. There are missing features. The firmware is going to evolve significantly over the next year. If you’re someone who gets frustrated by software quirks and prefers a mature, stable platform, waiting might be the smarter move.
That said, I do suspect we’re going to see the Stadium dramatically improve over the next 12 months. Line 6 has built hardware with a lot of capability that isn’t being fully utilised yet. The GPU, the machine-learning accelerator, the expanded DSP architecture, all of that headroom exists for features that haven’t shipped. When Showcase arrives with its live automation capabilities, when Proxy brings capture functionality, when we potentially see Agoura effects and further amp model expansions, the Stadium is going to look very different than it does today.
If you’re the type of player who wants to be on the cutting edge and doesn’t mind working through some early firmware rough edges, jumping in now means you’ll be ready when those features land. If you prefer to wait until the platform matures and the early bugs are squashed, checking back in late 2026 might make more sense. By then we’ll know whether Line 6 has delivered on the roadmap promises, and the used market will probably have some Stadium units from early adopters who decided it wasn’t for them.
For me, the DSP limitations on my original Helix Floor were a constant source of frustration. I wanted pitch effects and complex routing, and I kept running into walls. The Stadium XL solves that problem for me today, even with its rough edges. But I wouldn’t tell everyone to rush out and buy one. Know what’s frustrating you about your current rig, and upgrade when the new platform addresses those specific frustrations. Chasing new gear for the sake of new gear rarely ends well.
Final Thoughts
The Helix Stadium XL is a good device. At $2,199 USD, it’s a significant investment, but it’s also Line 6’s most ambitious floor modeller ever. It addresses a lot of the limitations that frustrated me about the original Helix Floor. The Agoura amps are genuinely better, especially at edge of breakup where digital modellers have historically struggled. The touchscreen is excellent and actually surpasses the competition in responsiveness. The routing capabilities have expanded dramatically. The build quality is there.
But it’s also clearly a version one product in many ways. There are bugs that need squashing. Showcase and Proxy are promises rather than features. The boot time is too long. The OLED burn-in problem needs a standby mode solution. WiFi connectivity can be inconsistent for some users. These are things that will hopefully be addressed through firmware updates and continued development.
For anyone coming from an original Helix Floor, the upgrade makes sense if DSP limitations have been holding you back, if you want the touchscreen experience, or if the upcoming Showcase and Proxy features align with your needs. The improved Agoura amp modelling alone makes a noticeable difference in how the unit feels to play.
For Quad Cortex owners, it’s more of a lateral move based on which workflow you prefer and which roadmap features matter more to you. Both devices are now competitive with each other in ways the original Helix Floor couldn’t match. Neither is definitively better; they’re just different.
I’m cautiously optimistic about where Line 6 takes this platform. The foundation is strong. The hardware is capable. The vision, if they execute on Showcase and Proxy, is genuinely exciting. Now they just need to build on it, squash the bugs, and deliver on the promises. I’ll be watching closely, and probably gigging on this thing every Sunday, hoping it doesn’t pick the worst possible moment to log me out.