Solved--Best headphones for the kpa for a normal price, any ideas?

  • No, i use it only with the headphone in jack of my kpa. It works fine, i can tweak rigs on an loud level and when i go to my frfr i have only a little eq work after that. I have set headphone space up to 2.5 and headphone output to -7 dB


    Cool! Good to know...


    I'd be interested in your findings should you ever use it with other soundsources apart from the KPA... higher impedance cans usually have that "more of everything" quality to them but they mostly need decent amps driving them (and unfortunately, unless you get into nosebleed price bracket, most of them color the sound).

    I'm just trying to be as truthful to my experience and personal opinion that I'm clearly presenting only as a personal opinion no more no less in an honest and truthful discussion about equipment.

  • Cool! Good to know...


    I'd be interested in your findings should you ever use it with other soundsources apart from the KPA... higher impedance cans usually have that "more of everything" quality to them but they mostly need decent amps driving them (and unfortunately, unless you get into nosebleed price bracket, most of them color the sound).


    So i checked it out with my dolby surround system wich i run with my tv , my laptop out and also my i pad. I must say it works very well

  • Hello guys,


    need some help with my kemper using headphones.
    yesterday I bought some BeyerDynamic DT880 pro 250 kohms, after reading much good things about them on the forum


    I still have a very quacky , harsh sound with more distortion on every profile.
    The sound is normally very good when i'm using the kemper with my band (monitoring, or guitarcabs)


    Is there internally a setting not right?


    please let me know guys!


    kind regards


  • Have you tried using the space parameter? More distortion is likely because the headphones are very flat, which would accentuate the gain.

  • I still have a very quacky , harsh sound with more distortion on every profile.

    I have DT880 250Ohm. I don't use them with KPA, because it sounds horrible to my ears - the same you have described.
    With KPA I prefer the sound of Koss Porta Pro.
    But when I listen to already mixed music, eg Ayreon, I prefer DT880 - man, I can hear each part of the spectrum and what is each instrument playing.
    I don't understand why is it so. I would like to know where the problem is. Maybe somebody could shed a bit of light into this for us. Thanks!

  • just made a system reset and a flash reset, I let you know if it's better or not :thumbup:
    Yes already turned up the space parameter, nothing better

  • There is definitely a problem with the Kemper headphone jack when using high gain profiles for metal. The profiles sound good through FRFR speakers or when recorded, so they are fine. 3 other Kemper users around the area and I used different headphones like ATH-M50x, Beyerdynamic, Sennheiser and they all have the same issue. The headphones are great when listening to music from other sources, or when using Kemper headphone jack with clean, bluesy or rock sounds. But with high gain profiles, they sound very harsh and quacky. Changing Space parameter, PureCab or initializing settings do not help. You can EQ and filter out treble or change cab high shift setting to mitigate a little bit, but why would somebody want to do that just for headphone jack and change characteristics of a profile. You can test this with the Lesse Lammert metal profiles that come with factory rigs. Not sure if this is a hardware or a software issue, but it needs to be fixed by respected Kemper engineers. Please help!

  • There is definitely a problem with the Kemper headphone jack when using high gain profiles for metal. The profiles sound good through FRFR speakers or when recorded, so they are fine. 3 other Kemper users around the area and I used different headphones like ATH-M50x, Beyerdynamic, Sennheiser and they all have the same issue. The headphones are great when listening to music from other sources, or when using Kemper headphone jack with clean, bluesy or rock sounds. But with high gain profiles, they sound very harsh and quacky. Changing Space parameter, PureCab or initializing settings do not help. You can EQ and filter out treble or change cab high shift setting to mitigate a little bit, but why would somebody want to do that just for headphone jack and change characteristics of a profile. You can test this with the Lesse Lammert metal profiles that come with factory rigs. Not sure if this is a hardware or a software issue, but it needs to be fixed by respected Kemper engineers. Please help!


    I have a similar experience. I normally listen to headphones through my RME card. Recently I have plugged into the headphone jack of my KPA, and everything sounded more harsh than through my RME card. Now I'm a little bit puzzled which might be the 'correct' sound of the KPA. Will have to do more experimenting.

  • There is definitely a problem with the Kemper headphone jack when using high gain profiles for metal. The profiles sound good through FRFR speakers or when recorded, so they are fine. 3 other Kemper users around the area and I used different headphones like ATH-M50x, Beyerdynamic, Sennheiser and they all have the same issue. The headphones are great when listening to music from other sources, or when using Kemper headphone jack with clean, bluesy or rock sounds. But with high gain profiles, they sound very harsh and quacky. Changing Space parameter, PureCab or initializing settings do not help. You can EQ and filter out treble or change cab high shift setting to mitigate a little bit, but why would somebody want to do that just for headphone jack and change characteristics of a profile. You can test this with the Lesse Lammert metal profiles that come with factory rigs. Not sure if this is a hardware or a software issue, but it needs to be fixed by respected Kemper engineers. Please help!

    Interesting.. I've found my ATH-M50s sounding flat with the metal profiles I've tried (M Britt Heavy pack, Reamp Zone 6506 pack) Only profiles that sound full through them are the Sinmix Triple Recto pack but I did have to put a green scream for extra ommph. Highs are quite harsh however and I needed to EQ them quite heavily via graphic EQ.

  • Was curious after reading here and I can confirm that the headphones output on the Kemper sounds different than the S/PDIF output via Focusrite Liquid Pro 56 headphones output (direct monitoring). I matched the volume as much as I could and the Kemper headphones output sounds brighter. In my case, not playing high gain profiles, I got the impression of a more "open" sound, more clarity. But I can imagine that it goes harsh with some high gain profiles.


    No idea what the cause is, can't even tell if it has been like that forever cause I pretty much never use the Kemper headphones output.

  • I have the sennheiser millennium and am very happy with them. The frequency response is pretty flat all the way down to to 20hz but dips slightly near the highs. The sound stage of these headphones is great. From what I've learned and I'm new to this, a good thing to do is to compare the frequency response once you narrow down your choices. A deviation of 15db is very noticeable to me across the spectrum, so those charts are useful.

  • Sorry to bring up an old thread, but google throws this out first and I've found the answers on here resourceful at this time, so thank you all! Here's my 2 pence for the next reader...


    I've been looking for an upgrade to my AKG 92 set (why? because they're cheap and I thought it was an injustice to the Kemper using cheap headphones). I play a lot of Van Halen, using Top Jimi VH profiles (unmodified, straight out of the hypothetical box).


    So I ordered:


    • BeyerDynamic DT770 80ohm - Both the BeyerDynamic headphones were unbelievably comfortable and are excellently built, but like Chefke desribes, distorted tones sound harsh (think Proco Rat) and almost a little 'buzzy'.
    • BeyerDynamic DT770 250ohm - Sounded like they had more clarity than the 80ohm set, and a little less muddy. I preferred the 250ohm out of the two BD's.
    • AKG K702 - I hated these, open back headphones definitely aren't for me when it comes to playing guitar - I found that hearing the pick against the string and the acoustic sound of the electric takes away from the experience
    • Sony MDR-7506 - Clinical. Not as comfortable as the above, sound very harsh with distorted profiles. Quality of parts seem sub par to the above. Excellent for mixing, not so great for enjoyment of playing guitar through the KPA.



    In comparison to all of the above, the AKG 92's sound bloody brilliant and are much more enjoyable to play/listen through - its a shame they don't have ear pads similar to the luxurious BD DT770's. But hey, I'm back to using the 92's - which I was never unhappy with in the first place, my narrow mind just assumed if I payed more for headphones, I would get more enjoyable sounds - not so! They do a fantastic job of representing the mids and sag in the brownsound so wonderfully captured by Top Jimi, something which I lost when I used the other headphones mentioned. I've never had so much fun dragging my pick through chords and digging my palm in to mute - so if you're a high gain lover, try the AKG 92's and thank me later :)