in my experience, whatever you get, the most important factor is matching and setting it up to work with the system at hand -- whether thru front of an amp (via a preamp), straight to a power amp, to a monitor/PA, etc. AND optimizing volume, s/n ratio, and tone considering instrument and line levels along the way.
the new TRS and XLR outs on the POD X3 are good features. anyone can comment on how they sound?
why is it that the PODxt has balanced outs but XTL doesn't??