NAMM 2019: Kemper Kabinet and Kemper Kone

    [speculation]

    If you model the specific speaker and cab (using an IR of course), you also need to capture the way the cab breaks up and distorts different frequencies at different volumes ..... like a real cab does.


    For those of you that have commented that when playing through a real cab, all of your profiles sound the same ...... well, my guess is that you are getting a majority of your tone from the cab so that different rigs have little effect.


    If done well (and I have no reason to believe that Kemper would do anything less that outstanding based on empirical data), the Kemper Kone functionality would behave the same way.


    My guess is that this feature is to allow a single cab to be used by someone to REALLY sound like the amp/cab combinations the Kemper is attempting to recreate, and instead of the mic'ed sound, what you end up with is the "amp in the room" reproduction .... only you can get any amp and any cab to do it with.


    For "amp in the room" people, this will be a God-send .... and should put Kemper ALONE in a new market for digital guitar amps. It is truly Unique.


    Now having said that, I am not an "amp in the room" guy. I prefer in-ears and direct into the PA. In-ears are WAY smaller and lighter than any cab I have ever owned :)


    It is also nice to have the same FRFR speaker as that used in the tops for the PA for redundancy .... just in case of a failure.

    It's interesting that Kemper Amps has indicated the Kemper Kabinet will be guitar-oriented FRFR.


    Having made the transition from unpowered to powered Kemper, I got to say, I really do prefer to practice or jam with it through a good guitar cabinet.


    What I mean is, I actually prefer the sound of my Kemper through my Mesa Boogie Thiele 1x12 compared to jamming on studio monitors, specifically because it sounds like a guitar amp. The EV speaker inside does add a bit of colouration, but you can still coax different sounds out of it and it still has those glorious Kemper tones.


    Compare that to my 4x12 through which profiles, particularly those created by a single profiler, tend to sound identical. It sounds good, but those Kemper tones get lost in there.


    That's why the Kabinet is so appealing. Having pants flapping feel without sacrificing Kemper tone.


    Since it's business as usual at the FOH, playing through monitors really helps me figure out what my tone through the PA will be. And I definitely need to be able to figure out what the audience will hear.


    Since the Kabinet deactivates the speaker imprints and activates the FRFR DSP tuning when you put the cab back on, you should be able to dial in the tones for the gig on the device as well, which is a plus. Can't do that with a regular cab for sure.


    All that said, I think that in reality, you don't *need* the Kemper Kabinet for your audience to have a good gig.


    It's more of a tool to address the shortcomings of conventional FRFR systems, which do tend to sound more hi-fi than guitar speakers.


    But it's more of a personal monitoring solution, I think.


    That's not to say you couldn't use it to play a big room, especially if you set them up in a 4x12 configuration like those NAMM pictures. ^^

    I would love to see a way to strap down a toaster or rack unit on the top of Kab, especially useful for tilt back. Also, how about some tilt back legs?

    Maybe an option for different grill cloth?

    Quote from OneEng1

    [speculation]

    You forgot your closing [/speculation] tag.


    Now we're going to have to assume that everything else you say today is speculation. :)

    Quote from OneEng1

    For "amp in the room" people, this will be a God-send

    I think this is the target audience for the speakers.


    If you're sending your output to FOH, your stage monitor isn't a factor (unless you mic the speaker, which is kinda like owning a hot rod then getting out to push). So, I suspect this will be a) to make playing more enjoyable for the amp in the room guys, and b) to deliver that kind of tone for the small gigs where FOH isn't involved.


    Any way you shake it, a great idea that I'm sure will go over well once it hits the streets.

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10

    Edited once, last by Chris Duncan ().

    Like 4
    Quote

    Funny to read so may posts from users claiming they found the perfect tone with their KPA + cab/frfr rig and could not be happier, now saying that they can't make it work and are ready to ditch their cabs since the NAMM announcement.

    Not funny at all. In fact IM VERY HAPPY with my Friedman ASM-12's but there is nothing wrong in getting another powered Kab thats actually "built" for my non-powered Kemper, right?

    If you use FRFR the benefit of a merged profile is that the cabinet is totally separated in the profile.


    For my edification only... ;) Kemper/Axe-FX III/ Quad Cortex user

    Like 1
    Quote from OneEng1

    For those of you that have commented that when playing through a real cab, all of your profiles sound the same ...... well, my guess is that you are getting a majority of your tone from the cab so that different rigs have little effect.

    Why this doesn't happen with a tube amp so drastically?


    Seriously asking..maybe filtering at 6k and 100Hz is part of the reason?


    Shouldn't be easier to emulate and more realistic using only the amp section than the whole chain? Right now I am looking forward to solve this issue..maybe kemper cone is the solution.

    Quote from Voider777

    Why this doesn't happen with a tube amp so drastically?


    Seriously asking..maybe filtering at 6k and 100Hz is part of the reason?


    Shouldn't be easier to emulate and more realistic using only the amp section than the whole chain? Right now I am looking forward to solve this issue..maybe kemper cone is the solution.

    Hello Voider777,


    I am not sure what you question is. In general, a guitar cabinet contributes almost 70-75% of the overall tone of the guitar/amp/cabinet system. That is why if you keep the cabinet fixed (constant), and connect different amp heads to it...there will not be a remarkable change in tone. This is especially so within a given "genre" of amps (e.g. high gain amps that achieve most of their distortion from preamp section). However, the reverse is not true. If you keep the amp head fixed (constant), and play it through various and sundry cabinets and speaker types, you will hear a dramatic, significant change in tone.

    What's up with BROWN corners? Wouldn't black be better? Or even a darker shade of green?


    Oh well, time to bust out the sharpie 8o


    I hope this new tech can be applied to a powered PA speaker. This way i could use my powered alto to high cut the horn and kemper kone the main driver up instead of pure cab.

    Quote from Tritium

    @G String


    Hello. Any chance you can comment, or at least end debate on if the Kemper Kone speaker is a coaxial-type, with an HF compression driver?


    Hello @G String .


    Please advise if you are unable to answer this question at the present time.


    Cheers,

    John

    Theres a Video from Session Music on youtube bout the new cab


    External Content www.youtube.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.


    were the guy stated that Kemper works together with celestion

    cause celestion have this new twin cone speaker which works great

    but it will be some kind of tuned again specially for Kemper

    when switched to Kemper Cone the output is special stetted

    to work with the specs of the Speaker AND the Cab

    hope this helps ^^

    Edited 2 times, last by digbob ().

    Like 1
    Quote from cags12

    In regards the point of making the passive Kemper Kabinet Active, does any have any comments on perhaps installing/embedding a Dayton Audio PPA800DSP 2-Way plate amp onto it? Thus making my unpowered Kemper able to use the new Kemper Kabinet, add Bluetooth, presets and extra DSP capabilities?


    [Blocked Image: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/816AqyIFgGL._SL1500_.jpg]

    That's what is in my MBritt cab. I really want to try the new speaker with it!


    Hello Digbob.


    Do you speak German? Is the text you wrote a direct quote from the video you linked to? If that is the case, and this has been translated correctly, then the text I have highlighted in bold indicates that this is indeed based upon the Celestion F12-X200 (as I have been speculating). I am unaware of any "new" Celestion speaker that uses a whizzer cone. So, this would seem to indicates it is a true coaxial speaker such as the new F12-X200.