Kemper Amps Forum

Quoted from "ckemper"

I am trying to find out about the philosophy of FRFR.

FRFR is a very misleading term in any case. It suggests to many people that these speakers have different characters and purposes than other regular and linear speakers.
Nobody really knows where this word comes from. It is absolutely not used or even known in the entire audio world exept in the digital amp world.

I think it was created to separate guitar cabs from the rest of the speakers. The latter was called FRFR. By that definition stereos are FRFR too, right?

I like the terms "analytic" and "emotional". FRFRs tend to be analytic then, like studio monitors.

Monitors are used to define the final sound of a recording. The recording will contain guitars too. The recording will later be consumed through many "emotional" stereos, so the guitar sound will "converted to emotional" too, and still should sound right.

Is it a correct advice not to play the Profiler through your stereo, even if you are used to its sound?
It should sound good anyway. At least as good as listening to your favorite record.
If the profiler is put on a record and listened through the same stereo you should have similar results.

You are right, Mr. Kemper, but don't forget that most of the people buying the KPA don't want it to sound like their stereo does, but instead like their original guitar amp / cab setup or studio setup does, OR the profiled amp/cab would in real life.
The problem is that guitar tones will always sound the best through guitar speakers, which are a lot different when compared to FRFR or stereo speakers, and this is why - for the ears - even the best FRFR falls short against a guitar cab if you are used to listening to guitar cabs, what you will most likely be used to when playing guitar. The most traditional setup is still the amp/cab combination, and even a cheap and little practicing amp (I'll bring up my Roland Cube 30, a fantastic little piece of gear) will sound "more alive" in a sense than any great stereo or FRFR, just because of the guitar speaker in it.
I've tried the KPA through a PA + guitar cab setup not so long ago, but I wasn't impressed with the tones that way, I still think that with the KPA, FRFR is a better choice, but to be perfectly honest, you will never get close to sounding like a real amp through a real cab in a real room - of course, it's always mentioned that the KPA produces mic'd amp tones, but I think that a fair amount of players are not used to hearing the mic'd PA system tone back, but hearing their amp at point blank range.