Allow myself to introduce myself....

    Morning all


    I'm here from the outside!


    I don't have Kemper but....well....here I am.


    I've played guitar for around 25 years and though I've had good guitars over the years, the closest I ever got to owning a decent amp was (and still is) my Fender Dual Showman (red knob). It's ok. Has a great clean sound and is loud, great for blues etc.


    Over the past two or three years, my interest in amps has been piqued again with more and more boutique amps coming to prominence alongside good old faithfuls like Mesa, Vox and Marshall. I don't gig so can't really justify buying an expensive valve amp that'll never really be put through its paces. Plus, I just don't know how I'd ever decide on one amp!


    So, I watched the A/B that Rob Chapman and Lee Anderton did and that swayed me. I'd heard of Kemper before but I just lumped it in with everything else that does an ok job of approximating good amp sounds but never quite gets you all the way there. I was being snobby I spose.


    I would like to try out a Kemper, but failing that, I'm not sure what set up to go for. Rack or Head unit? Powered or not? cab or FRFR speaker.


    I know this all boils down to opinion, but I'd like to know which would be best (in your experience) and what you use yours for?


    I guess the three main areas would be home recording, practicing at home and the odd (if ever get off my arse and try) gig.


    Any advice would be appreciated.


    Many thanks


    Phil

    you just cant go wrong with the Kemper, I just got an Xitone cab,,,passive,fantastic cab,,
    The Kemper rack is 14 pounds the cab is 40,, simply the best giging rig I have ever owned, Im 62,,
    I get new amps with my coffee every morning on the rig exchange, profile great amps when the come thru the studio,,
    I have been very happy with the powered rack, If I play out doors I bring the Morgan or mesa and run it ou of the direct out with the Xitone cab,,for more omph,,
    enjoy!!!!

    Welcome!


    If you mainly practice at home and do eventual recordings, I personally wouldn't go for the powered version.


    Do you have any good studio speakers at home? I like how my kemper sounds through my Yamaha HS5 s, quite nice at low volumes (it's always nicer to turn em up a bit, tho).


    Regarding the Rack vs Toaster thing, it totally depends on your personal liking. I went for the toaster because I found a nice one second-handed and didn't have to take that decission. I might have gone for the rack in order to mount it in my home studio and save some room, but I think the toaster looks nicer.


    A plus for the toaster is: If you finally begin gigging you can add one of these into its back whenever you need it and make it a powered version. I did that recently and I'm quite happy with the result: so versatile, now I can plug on almost any passive cab (or FRFR).


    Cheers!

    Welcome!


    I went for the unpowered, since I can't turn it up loud at home anyway. The powered one will allow you to use a real guitar cab for an "amp in the room" feeling, which is important to many people. The unpowered one will get you the "mic'ed up amp sound". You could always buy an external power amp to go with a cab later, though.


    The head version has the LEDs around the EQ knobs which will let you see the EQ settings at a glance, I think the rack versions don't have this.

    if you are not gigging better use studio monitors for a recorded sound that is neighbour friendly. Some active cabs are meant to sound good when cranked up way above bedroom levels. I haven't gigged for a long time myself so I have not bought one yet, but the very good ones are too expensive for an occasional gig. And some are pretty heavy too. A Yamaha DX10 may be a more reasonable option, though it sounds better when played loud.

    Never too old for rock'n'roll

    Welcome.


    Before settling on my purchase I did research for months. Exhaustive research, to be precise. I was also tipped over the edge by the Chappers & Captain video which came out at a time when I was looking into getting a new amp.


    If money is no object, I'd go with the powered just to have it, as I elected. That being said, a number of FRFR speaker/cab/amp manufacturers I spoke to in my search all said pretty much the same thing: the powered Kemper was a bit of a letdown for them and they much preferred their own powered solutions to the powered Kemper. I believe that stems from the fact that the power amp in the KPA is very flat and linear to try and preserve the integrity of the profile so as not to recolor the tone (which the Kemper does color in the profiling process, mind you).


    So, why did I elect the PowerHead? Well, I don't have a rack setup and the head is just more easily portable. That and I looked into many different power amps and decided in the end that I'd just rather have an all-in-one solution in the event I needed a power amp. I'm not a real techy guy so the convenience seduced me more than anything.


    Currently I use the PowerHead with a Mission Engineering Gemini 1-P, which is a passive FRFR cab. I have no complaints. Perhaps a different power amp, like the Matrix stuff that uses AB power, would give the sound a lot more depth. Perhaps it's because I don't know any better, but I absolutely love the tone I get. What I really dig about Mission's Gemini stuff is that it's FRFR but it's a coaxial design so you don't get that separation like you would on a PA speaker, like the popular DXR10's on this forum. It feels and reacts just like a traditional guitar cab, especially when you drive the speakers. Not to mention that it looks like a cab, as well. But bear in mind with the Gemini stuff you need to drive the speaker, so if you're confined to low volumes, the Atomic CLR seems to get rave reviews at low volumes. Even though it's not ideal, you can always use your studio monitors if it's just at home playing and recording.


    I elected the FRFR route because I couldn't find the sense in limiting the capacity of the $2k device I just invested in. Some guys have a long, deep, and emotional attachment to their cabs and how it fills the room. For them nothing else will suffice, and that's ok. I didn't have that, and considering the cab speakers make up about 70%-80% of your tone, why limit yourself? If you want a Fender Bassman sound, why not have that sound in full spectrum instead of recoloring it with a Marshall 4x12 using Celestian V30's? It won't sound like a Bassman, and isn't the point of having a Kemper that you can have a very close replication of a Bassman next to a very close replication of a Mesa Dual Rectifier next to a very close replication of a Vox AC30?

    Welcome Phil (I too like to live dangerously) and opted for a PowerRack with remote (after 2 years I'm still 100% happy with my decision as the remote integrates perfectly and only needs the 1cable for everything; power, data transmission etc. and the PowerRack is 3U same as non-powered, ergo more compact option than adding a 3rd party power amp later-on -- moreover, it's also very light so friendly to your back and you can click it on and off with the push of a soft button on the KPA itself should you need it ... Great option in my eyes for the little extra expenditure!)


    GOT

    For @home use id recommend studio monitors, sound much better then frfr pa monitors.
    You dont gig...go for an unpowered version...and a set of studio reference monitors.


    If you do decide to gig:


    For stagemonitoring, to me guitarcabs sound much better then frfr, despite the obvious theoratical reasons why frfr should fit the KPA better, and lots of ppl being perfectly happy with frfr.
    Probably all comes down to how important "amp in the room feel" is to the player.


    I use either the return of a Boss katana....very practical and light, clean sounds great...driven sounds doable.
    Or a tube mesa 50/50 and a 2x12 cab...sounds great.


    Offcourse you lose the diversity of profiled cabs running a set up like this.