Buying a Kemper -- Mission Gemini powered or unpowered?

  • Hey all!


    I am going to pull the trigger on buying a Kemper, and after researching a lot I will probably get a Mission Engineering Gemini 1 since it seems to be top of the line (and who wants to use a Kemper on anything other than the BEST lol).


    What I can't figure out is what route to go:


    1) UNPOWERED Kemper with a Gemini active speaker


    2) POWERED Kemper with a Gemini passive speaker


    Maybe I missed the forum posts, but I couldn't really get a pro/con analysis of each option.


    I am sort of leaning towards the POWERED Kemper with Gemini passive, since I will save just a little bit of money this way.


    What do you guys think?


    Thank you in advance.

  • Just before we got ours, I did a search on this and the majority of the people recommended the powered one.


    I could not justify the price difference so got the unpowered toaster (in pristine white I might add ;) )


    Works perfectly for us with powered monitors / powered PA speakers.


    I think a lot depends on your use case. Unless you want to use real guitar cabs you will be fine with the unpowered units. (For cabs, having to haul an extra power amp is probably too much of a hassle.)

  • I decided on the Gemini 2 with the main reason being its a stereo cabinet. And man does it sounds great. But it was almost as expensive as my unpowered Kemper so that’s a big consideration. But I would not hesitate to purchase another Mission Engineering product. I really didn’t answer your question though but this was the main reason I chose the unpowered one. Plus I can add a Camplifier later if I want to.

  • Will you use Gemini for monitoring on stage? It is expensive as you can very well plug yourself directly on the console and let the tech take care of the monitoring or use a cheaper cabinet for your personal monitor. It looks like you treat the kemper as an amp head... and then wants the tech to put a mike in front of the Gemini... It can work of course but it is costly and wont make a big difference for the audience. But of course it depends of the style of music you make...

  • Only disadvantage of the powered Kemper is cost and if you want stereo output.


    The advantage is you can run any speaker cab, powered or unpowered without a separate amp ( transportation and cost).


    I went powered because of that versatility (I sometimes use a different backline at a gig), all in one unit. I'm really not fussed about stereo.


    You can't go wrong with either though!!

  • If price is your main deciding factor, I'd factor in how much the Kemper will be before deciding on your FRFR setup


    Getting a passive Gemini 1 and a crown xls power amp will cost you $850 via Reverb and eBay atm. Getting a powered used Gemini 1 will cost around $1100. If you can find a great deal on a powered Kemper (Under $1800) use the difference to just pick up a passive Gemini and call it a day. If you find a great deal on an unpowered Kemper (under $1600) pick up that power amp and passive and you'll still be in business.


    There's a plethora of options you can choose regarding solid state power amps but try to find one that matches the speaker output as close as possible (also never have the power amp output be less than the speaker output).


    When it comes to pro/cons of passive vs active:


    pros for passive:
    -price
    -more headroom


    cons for passive:
    -requires separate power amp
    -harder to find used
    -spec checking to match amp output to speaker output
    -needing to transport two things vs one thing




    pros for active:
    -no additional gear needed
    -plug and play
    -empower knob (gemini feature)
    -bluetooth (gemini feature optional)


    cons for active:
    -more expensive
    -not as high of headroom compared to passive




    When I mention headroom I'm NOT speaking on loudness because both of these units can get quite loud based on the reviews and vids I've watched. I'm literally speaking on how much you need to crank the master knob before sitting at a good gigging volume without any distortion. I don't believe that any of these options drastically suffer from high volume distortion anyways so I guess that isn't a major worry factor here as well, but I figured I'd mention it at least.


    Hope this helps @blandified :thumbup:

  • That’s exactly how I see it. There is nothing that I can’t do with a powered version that I could with unpowered. Powered saved my ass o Saturday when I had no option but to use a traditional cab. The only downside is cost.

    COST is the downside of everything... your car, your house... your guitar equipement too