I suppose tone is a personal thing. Re the accoustic sounds, I meant for playing clean sounds, in my opinion they sound best through the POD. I used to the think the POD was the best for distortion untill I played Digitech. Give one a go and see what you think. I still stand over the Rectifier on the Digitech GNX series, the sound just seems "fuller". My favourite lead sound still comes from a stand alone stomp box using the Ibanez Screamer setting on the DM4 (it's still a Line 6 product but again, the sound has a fuller quality to it). Anyway, there are plenty of albums oiut there created using POD harware, the sound can probably be tweaked just right but I havent been able to nail the sound I want yet with that hardware. The sound I use now for heavy partds is the Rectifier with some EQ fed through a Martial MG100DFX then straight out into the mixer. The sound is fuller again after running through the amp rather than straight to pc... probably just suits me because I am a true technophobe!