About six months ago I reviewed the Helix Stadium XL and came away cautiously optimistic. Great hardware, better amps, and a pile of missing features and first-gen bugs. Since then I’ve actually gigged the thing. Christmas shows, Sunday services most weeks, a couple of conference events, somewhere north of 30 shows all up. So this is the honest catch-up, and it starts with the time it nearly gave me a heart attack mid-song.
I owned the original Helix Floor and loved it. That thing could conjure tones that made my ears 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.
I’ve been using automatic guitar tuners for years now. The concept is simple: you place the device on a tuning peg, pluck the string, and the motorised tuner detects the pitch through vibration and rotates the peg until you’re in tune. No pedals, no cables, no staring at a screen while you turn the peg yourself. It should be the fastest way to tune a guitar, especially when you’re constantly switching between tunings.
This isn’t my first air fryer, but it’s the first one that feels like it could actually replace half my oven. The Ninja XXXL FlexDrawer is massive. It eats so much bench space that once it’s on the counter, that’s where it lives. Moving it is a two-hand job. The size does earn its keep once you start cooking with it, so I’ve mostly made peace with it sitting there.
I have been cooking with the Meater Pro XL for a while now after coming from the original Meater Block. I loved the hands‑off promise back then, but the first‑gen hardware could be flaky for me. The Pro XL got my attention because the probes were redesigned and the block was updated. After dozens of cooks, I am happy to say this is the Meater setup I wanted in the first place. It is not perfect, but it is close enough that I reach for it every weekend.