It is the upgrade you asked about. It is true the current holiday price for the full version from Overloud is cheaper.

That's because they are running a special. The regular price seems to be $269 for the full version. Maybe the Cake Store special was set before Overloud set their special price. Who knows. Marketing weirdness.

It's possible Overloud is running a holiday special.

(IMO, (and I might come under fire from other users of cakewalk for saying this)) I've come to conclude "Xn Studio" is bundled worse than "Xn Essentials" and "Xn Producer" in some respects.

Not at all. You had the specification before you bought the product.
Cheers...

JimmyBoy
(IMO, (and I might come under fire from other users of cakewalk for saying this)) I've come to conclude "Xn Studio" is bundled worse than "Xn Essentials" and "Xn Producer" in some respects.

How did you arrive at that conclusion? First of all there is no Essential for X3.
 
Studio comes with:
 
Melodyne Essential
Blue Tubes FX
More instruments
More effects
ProChannel with 2 modules
AudioSnap
 
That alone is worth more than the $99 street price difference and more than the $50 upgrade price difference.

well, (here come the flames ) The value added in the bundles included in Studio aren't all that crash, (IMO of course)..

Well... it's not about flames. Studio is actually the best bundle out of the three. Essentials doesn't come with the Prochannel stuff nor any of the other goodies and Producer really only has a few (but nice) extras.  It just doesn't make a lot of sense to state Studio is poorly bundled and not qualify the statement.
 
Seriously I've been mulling over whether to comment on that assertion or not because I really didn't want to dick out on you so it's not about trying to flame or get all fanbois. It just doesn't make sense. Heck... a bunch of Producer users decided to go with Studio this time because of how well featured it is. I was considering it myself.
 
What this has to do with TH2 is beyond me though. It's a much nicer sim than GR4 Sonar was.

I didn't mind having a lesser version of TH2 in Producer because I have full versions of AmpliTube, Guitar Rig, GTR, Scuffham, and POD Farm. However, after reading all the comments from users about how much they like the full version of TH2, I'm definitely going to check it out. Like physical amps, amp sims have their own "personalities." I just got a killer power chord FX chain based around TH2 Producer, so that was additional incentive.

Oh yeah, Craig. It's a pretty immense package. Lotta stuff in there I don't think you can really get elsewhere. I've been really getting into the Brunetti models. Granted my experience with sims is pretty much limited to GR2, 4 (Sonar) and 5 but TH2 smokes. A lot easier to dial in than GR5 I think. Kind of surprised you haven't snagged it yet. I figured you'd get a guru freebie or something.