Hi. My name is Spoonman. My Kemper just arrived by mail! I wanted to say hello, and update this thread with my impressions over the next few days.
And so my journey continues...
I've had a Vox ToneLab LE (Virtual Analog floorpedal) since about 2009. Pretty happy with it, especially the interface. Sound is good, but not great. It's still my favorite, though. I've run it through headphones as well as 5" active monitors but nowadays run 2.1 Klipsch / Harmon Kardon and it sounds fine.
I previously had an Axe Fx (standard) around 2011, but I sold it about a year later. I was running it through the 5" monitors and was really impressed, it definitely beat the ToneLab. But the interface was not my favorite (needed more knobs), and it seemed to need a bunch of EQ. I probably just needed a 12" subwoofer, but I felt the ToneLab sat better with me with less fiddling. The time has come to reinvest that Axe money into an amp that should last the next decade (like the ToneLab has), so here I am. I've spent maybe dozens? of hours listening to Kemper-vs-X samples on YouTube, noting whether they were recording-direct-listening-FRFR or miking a cab. I usually prefer Kemper > Helix > Axe. The Helix is closest but still not my #1. The Axe has a very clean, tight, slightly-dark sound, but as far as I can tell I don't prefer it. I totally understand why some would, though. To me, the Kemper samples seem to carry a liveliness nothing else does.
I also have a small 5W tube amp. It has great clean sounds, but it's not my favorite. The "tube breakup" is real but IMO not a hill worth dying on. If I had to get a tube amp, I'd try the Marshall Studio 20W Plexi Head, but I am just not as interested going down that route as I am the Kemper. I absolutely love stuff like Johann Segeborn's YouTube channel, where he cranks Marshall Super Leads, but that has about as much to do with my needs as Jay Leno's garage has to do with mine.
My plan is to run the Kemper through a Samson transistor power amp to a 4x12 closed cabinet, and/or my 5" active monitors, but at first just headphones.
-- post-unboxing:
There is one weird glitch on the screen (only on the Stack screen) that I'll post below. I believe a software update may help(?): I noticed the version upon bootup was some weird beta that doesn't look current.
I am in Great Luck in that this unit came from a benevolent 1st owner. This owner loaded my Head with what looks like a ton of MB & MW profiles, surely the Michaels Britt & Wagener of great fame. I am somewhat concerned an OS update might could trash the profiles, so my first step is to back up whatever rigs are loaded and move them to off-site storage. Thanks to Music123 for not wiping the memory!
I am still waiting for my power amp, so I've only listened through reference headphones. All I can say is, the MW ADA MP-1 patch(? rig? stack? I need to learn my nouns) really makes an N4 sound good. Slightly wet, not-quite-harsh, and not-rounded-off sound out of a fully-open bridge pickup is really something. Awfully close to Pornograffiti. Sounds nothing like the tube amp I've got. Sounds nothing like the Tonelab, either. I don't know if the Axe had an ADA patch, I can't remember any.
I've let the Rig Manager settle, after downloading 15,000 Rig Exchange profiles (or just metadata of? not sure, took a while). I connected the Kemper and turned it to Browser, and let it Sync. Nothing was lost. Selected all the rigs, Exported, and I think I've got the backups, so now I'm surely good to upgrade. Rigs are only 6kB ?? That's amazing. That's like straight out of Westworld.
From what I've read, I'll need an empty USB to upgrade the OS. I'll have to do that some other day, I don't actually have one handy. Back to noodling.
I will keep you posted with my first few days with it. The sound beats my expectations (especially with the Wagener profiles loaded!). It doesn't sound at all like a modeler. I guess it doesn't sound like a tube amp either. It's like some weird Terminator alien technology that eludes human judgment. This is an amazing application of (I'm guessing) discrete signal theory to what was previously dominated by high-power analog circuitry.
I'll keep you posted. See weird glitch below