software

What do you think of the older Line 6 amps? I have no idea about these, what's good...Spider, Flextone II? What's are the differences?

I'm playing a Flextone IIXL. I like it fine, and it suits my needs, which include an amp I can play at my house at low volumes, good versatility, good effects package and patch storage, simplicity, and easy recording capabilities.

I think of the older generation of Line 6'x the IIXL is probably the better - definitely better than a Spider. I cannot speak on the Vettas and Flex III as I have no experience with those, but they are fairly newer. If you want real vintage modeling, you'll go looking for the AX212 (I think that's what it's called), and it has a ton of flexibility also. Good luck finding one.

I like my Flex IIXL. It's great for jamming at home, and when I played gigs I found volume 5 kept me audible on stage (with cab models off.. with them on anything more than 2x12 it gets a bit hairy at volume). However, if you try and play them very loudly (nearer max volume) with a high gain sound, they get quite harsh and unbalanced sounding.

The spider is the lower range amp, it has less models/effects/cab models (if any at all)

My friend has the original spider series 2x12, and I don't like it all that much tbh.

I've had damned good results running my PODxt through a poweramp (both solid state and tube) and into a nice cabinet.