You are welcome.
I wonder which is better, it, or the new Ax-Fx floor system that is coming out.
It's an interesting mystery. What we know is that they are both duel processor systems. The AX8 is a dumbed down version of the Axe FX2 with less effects and limited to one amp and one cabinet. One processor is dedicated amp modelling just like Axe FX2, and the other is to everything else where the Axe FX2 has two dedicated to everything else. So, pretty much you can expect the same amp algorithm quality as its big brother. Helix's algorithms are new, but the development path they followed seems very similar to the effort that Hughes and Kettner put into the zenTera fifteen years ago which was model the virtual circuit board, measure the amps at key points in the signal chain, and use a sonic artist to shape the sound at those key points. H&K called that "Dynamic Sector Modeling." That process yielded some good models for H&K which were clearly superior to its competition, the Vetta, which had a similar DSP architecture, and I think it has yielded something good for Line 6. You can tell by the fact that demos that we've heard so far have very little in way of effects usage which were often used to cover up deficiencies in models in the past. But, I suspect that Axe FX's quantum level modelling still beats it for the educated ears.
The thing that I think will make most difference though is the quality of the cab IR's. The difference between Fractal's Ultra Res IR's(up to 8000 samples, 170 ms) and the High Res IR's(2048 samples, 40ms) that Line 6 is using for cabs is profound. It's like the difference between DVD level(480p), and Blu-Ray level(1080p). Nuances come out which make the amp models sound more dimensional and organic. I think that's probably where the AX8 will shine.
As far as the user interface on the unit, I think Line 6 has nailed this one with the color display, the controls, and the strips, but AX8 was probably designed more with patch creation on the computer in mind. One of the things that I didn't see was the Line 6 equivalent to Axe FX's "scenes" which I know are on the AX8. Scenes just change the block settings and/or flip between a block's two sides inside of a patch without loading anything into memory, so the transitions are more seamless between parts. Depending on how fast the transitions are between patches and how many blocks on the AX8 are double sided, the fact that scenes are not implemented on Helix might be moot.
