Can anyone recommend a 1U sized power amp to use with a Kemper?

  • Yep Matrix stuff is good. Solidstate class A/B power amp,
    The new kid is the Koch ATR-4502, Tried it and liked it. Hybrid class A power amp.
    The future will hopefully brings the Fryette LXII. Full tube poweramp.


    So for everyone's taste solutions will hit the market shortly or in the comming months.

  • For cheaper options:
    Used Marshall 8008
    Used Rocktron Velocity 120
    Rocktron Velocity 100


    Mid price:
    Rocktron Velocity 300
    Marshall 20/20
    Carvin do some 1u models


    High end:
    Matrix GT800FX
    Matrix GT1000FX


    Obviously, there's a lot more choice if you include 2u power amps.

  • I recommend NOT going for guitar power amps. They color the sound way to much and the Kemper doesn't need this. It rather the other way round: get a power amp that is as linear as possible.
    For a cheap solution you could use any entry level PA power amp. I'm currently using a Behringer EPQ900 which is 1u and delivers more power and punch you would ever need.

  • mesa boogie 20-20...........but yes, they color the sound, especially the tube power amp......but they do it in such a good way!! why avoiding a bettering of the sound we use?

    "...why being satisfied with an amp, as great as it can be, while you can have them all?" michael mellner


    "Rock in Ecclesia" - new album on iTunes or Google music

  • Yeah, the equation coloring = bettering doesn't work for a digital reproduction, which already takes into account all the non-linearities of the reference amp. It would be like amplifying a singer's voice or a keyboard with a guitar amp. Not that you can't get interesting results at times, but what you get won't be even close to the original sound, which is the goal in these applications.


    If one feels the need to warm up a profile, the original sound (or the real cab used) is to blame IMO.


    :)

  • the bettering equation is not an absolute one, of course. I use both combinations, tube amp and pa. so it was JUST a personal sharing of my experience.


    It can be of use or cannot. for me it was an incredible result. I just heard it the first time on a mesa fifty/fifty and blew me out.
    what was just said doesn't mean in no way that I needed a bettering of my sound since............I had no sound prior to do this first test. so it is wrong to say that my sound was in the lack of something that eventually I got with a power amp.


    A friend of mine invited me to a rehearsing room hooked the kpa to the mesa power amp and to a 4x12 marshall 1960.....the mesa was turned all the way up as volume, ideally generating something around 40 watts of tube power. the result, as said, was no less spectacular than the guitar sounds of the champs (Vai, Satriani, and so on).


    after this experience I bought my kpa and since I owned a triaxis/290 combination I sold the triaxis but kept the mesa power amp. after I used the mesa 290 with the kpa I had the same feeling as the first time I used it in my friend's room.


    overall, although this is a personal taste, i mean the choice of the power amp, I have to say that the 'bettering' that the mesa brought to my sound was not in enphasizing any frequency in respect to another. it gave this incredible headroom and sense of life to the sound I use in the kpa.


    so, at the end, I would say to not avoiding the testing with a tube power amp just because it is said to color the sound too much..........it is the ears that have to be trusted.

    "...why being satisfied with an amp, as great as it can be, while you can have them all?" michael mellner


    "Rock in Ecclesia" - new album on iTunes or Google music

  • Didn't want to knock your opinion ;)

    +1 of course! :D


    Each musician may like whatever sound or tone, personal taste can't be discussed IMO. A non-linear amp (or an amp driven into its non-linear region) can give a pleasant result to the ear, but technically speaking the only way to "improve" a faithful reproduction of a real rig is - by definition - to return it untouched, since in real world something is always changed by use of any electric audio device


    What I mean is that adding colour = bettering is not a generally true statement IMO, if the perfection is hearing the profile as it sounded to the author. Anyone may certainly find that a certain profile sound better to their ears through a non-linear amp though.
    For example I happen to like darker sound than the majority of players I know. I usually use the neck PU, and am often "criticized" because I sound too dark in the mix. But, if I take a bright profile and lower the Presence I can't say I'm "improving" it, just that I like it more that way :)


    Peace :thumbup:

  • @ ingolf and Gianfranco: thanks for your replies...........me neither didn't want to argue with tastes.
    it is a personal thing as you both said.
    i do agree with you though on one thing: the fact that the sound must be as pristine as i can be, to get the best of it.
    in particular the sounds coming from amps like the bassman and similar when the clean tone has to be kept with all its features.
    so I can dig the fact that this scenario must have the most 'natural' and 'neutral' power amp possible.


    my case is a rock one, though: i like dark sounds, something like Vai in Alien Love secrets album. and basically I use just one sounds getting all the other by using the volume and the dynamics of my hands. this said, needing a distortion tone with the mentioned features I found it with the kemper and just got a step further with the use of a tube power amp.


    michael


    p.s.: you might not be the one with darkest tones, Gianfranco. mine are so dark my tech on stage always complains with me for that :)

    "...why being satisfied with an amp, as great as it can be, while you can have them all?" michael mellner


    "Rock in Ecclesia" - new album on iTunes or Google music

  • I have the velocity 300 and it sounds great driving the cab with the cab sim turned off i found i have to max the power amp volume and trim the kemper monitor lever to drive the speakers properly but it sounds great you can also dial in the amount of color with the reactance and definition knobs

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  • mesa boogie 20-20...........but yes, they color the sound, especially the tube power amp......but they do it in such a good way!! why avoiding a bettering of the sound we use?

    Mesa 20/20 also here! I havent yet found any FRFR solution I like, didnt like Matrix GT800FX and neither Yamaha DXR-10.
    In a few days trying Atomic Active Wedge and if it is not sounding good I definitely go to guitar poweramps -and Mesa 20/20 is the ONE.