Well I sold my HD500 last week. Sold it and a 64 Tremolux to fund some more gear. My observation of the HD500 is that it is great if you want everything in one box. It's nice to have tap trem, delay, and other modulation. The amp models were killer and they sounded great through my tube amps and pretty good direct/phones. It played well with some of my pedals, but not my Les Lius which is why I ended up selling the HD500. Before the Les Lius, I used the HD500's /13 model through my AC30 with a few delays in the HD500. With the Les Lius, I was able to get the same sound, and then use some of my delays I had sitting around. So, I had fun and I have no complaints about the HD500. Very excellent piece of gear. I almost sold my amps to buy two DT25's to run with it, but am glad I did not now.
Thinking about picking an HD500 up for my home away from home. Sounds like you and others have been happy with it.
I've not played the new BOSS GT100, but to be honest the clips I've heard so far haven't wowed me. I still think the HD500 is the best value for money out there among the amp sims. I love mine (although I don't love the HD Edit crash, but Line6 have said they're going to fix that soon), it's just awesome fun.
I think the HD series are a very decent, cost effective modeller/fx unit's though they don't 'wow me' soundwise (just IMHO). I've had a HD300 then a HD500 which I sold last year and I just got another HD500 in a trade which I was quite happy about (I will be keeping this one). I think it's a great unit for the money and does an absolute swathe of things well. As a midi controller it's great...or an FX unit or a digital preamp...also great...espec for the price, I don't personally think there is anything that can touch it. It sounds quite decent but can also sound quite crappy at times...so it takes some work to get it dialed in...and then it needs frequent tweaking to keep it sounding good as you make subtle rig changes. For what it is, I think it's killer. Combined with a DT amp...I can't see how that wouldn't be a great setup.
I returned mine just before the 30 days were up. I liked several things about it, but several other things annoyed me too much for me to keep it. Since I need a MIDI controller for my 11R, I have thought about picking one up used. Has anyone had success using it to control their 11R, or is that a new thread?
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=877456 http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=891146 http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=782935 Interesting discussion on latency resulting from combining the units + monitoring. http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=877421 Now to see if anyone has done this for the GSP1101.
I use it this way. If you just use the HD as a midi controller for the 11R the latency is negligible, if you're using it in the loop for added effects, then there's probably added latency, but I don't use it this way. -cp
I have come to really like my HD 500. I play it through a PE60 and a set of Yamaha HS 80 M monitors. Sounds really good. This is the HD 500 and the PE 60 are going to be my Campground set up this year. I will use the laptop for editing and keep it simple. I pretty much live a a permanet camp site fom May till October every year. I have been doing this for 16 years and it is a blast. I have great neighbors and they enjoy my guitar journey with me. I have an Eleven Rack, but that and the yahama monitors will stay at home. I am waiting the new goodies that were announced at NAMM! Russ
