New to Kemper... A question

  • I'm looking to get a Kemper to use in a few different ways. I'd like to plug headphones straight into it and practice silently in my apartment, I'd like to run it into my computer and use it for laying down guitar tracks, and sometimes I'd likely want to hook it up to monitor speakers to play out loud or maybe even play it through a cab. Do I need to get the powered or unpowered version to do these things? Which version of the Kemper would be best for my needs?

  • Second that, just know that a "regular" unpowered cabinet is the only thing you would need the powered kemper for. So if you have a 2x12 mesa cab sitting around for instance that you want to use, the powered kemper would be needed. Otherwise the unpowered kemper would do everything you talked about

  • Hi and welcome.


    I bought the Kemper 8 month ago, rack version, unpowered. Mostly for studio work and naturally for practicing (and learning). A few days later I was a little in doubt if the powered version would have been the better choice in order to be even more flexible and quickly connect any cabs. But I definitely did the right thing and today I am so happy with my unpowered Kemper.


    If you want to play loud there so many good options: Powered monitors, powered cabs, stereo poweramps (the powered Kemper is mono only!), any type of guitar amps and cabinets and so on and so forth.... and with good profiles and the appropriate configuration all of these options can sound really good. Meanwhile I tried all of them at least to learn what happens. Still thrilled about the results :)

  • I did pretty much what deadman42 did, even the temporary 2nd thoughts about not getting the powered version. I got the remote instead of the power and that was about the same price. I do have a power amp and speakers I can use but haven't needed to even test that yet.

  • I just went out and bought the new Profiler Stage! I'm technologically inept though so I have a few questions. I just unboxed it and set it up. The interface is nice and simple. I plugged in my headphones (Sennheiser HD600) into the right monitor slot on the back. The sound I'm getting is really poor and only coming through one side of the headphones. How do I rectify this?


    Also, if I want to play a jam track and play along with it, am I going to need to buy monitors, or is there a way to do it with headphones? If I need powered monitors, which model sounds great with the Kemper. Ultimate tone quality is my goal.

  • csacwp you need to plug into the headphone jack, it’s a smaller 1/8” connection on the back of the stage.


    To play to jam tracks , you could plug your sound source into the effects return(s). Or plug into an interface and connect monitors (that is what I do).

  • Alright, I feel like a dolt. Found the headphone jack... now the sound is better. I also realized that I could turn the presence down to get a less buzzy sound through the headphones.


    Any recommendations for powered monitors and an interface? Unfortunately my desktop, while very fast, has no thunderbolt port.