Kone & Kabinet Q&A

  • Thank you for your answer Christoph, and for your amazing gear.

    Yes, I read the part of the manual (IRTFM :) )about the Kone before posting and tried both. It seems you are right, the DXR12 is brighter and that is what I am used to.

    As you mentioned, the phone recording is not really "judicable"...

    A quick question though, what is the thickness of the Kabinet please ? Mine is 18mm thick.

    The Kabinet has different thickness of 10 to 20 mm.

    But the thickness does not have an influence on the highend frequencies.


    Have you tried the Monitor Equalizer?

  • I'm going the fullrange route with my Kabinet. Owned for around a week.

    The "Sweetening" control is subtle, and seems to have an effect on the feel of the strings under your fingers as much as the sound, in the same way that adjusting the midrange control on a really good amp does.

    I like it well up on higher gain sounds.

    Edited once, last by Horspip ().

  • ckemper


    Were the Kone models designed to work perfectly with studio or merged profiles?


    I understand they work with either but I find the overall tonal character different with each.


    The Imprints were not designed towards a specific profile type, but to react as it would be a classic guitar speaker connected to the Profiler.


    Beside this point, it is known that Merged Profiles will provide a maximum authenticy when connected to a classic guitar speaker (and now Kone as well), while Studio Profiles do the connection by an approximation called "CabDriver", that extrapolates the best possible sound from the existing amp/cab combination.

  • The Imprints were not designed towards a specific profile type, but to react as it would be a classic guitar speaker connected to the Profiler.


    Beside this point, it is known that Merged Profiles will provide a maximum authenticy when connected to a classic guitar speaker (and now Kone as well), while Studio Profiles do the connection by an approximation called "CabDriver", that extrapolates the best possible sound from the existing amp/cab combination.

    Thank you. How I would expect.

  • For me it also is nasal and with blanket over the speaker. When I unselect Monitor Cab Off, it sounds more alive, but kinda fizzy. Really weird. On clean and hairy profiles it is amp in the room however.

    I get kone yesterday and should be installing tomorrow and test PS2 vs SS for kone with imprints What amp profile with what imprints sound fizzy? And what is your monitor output set to?

  • The Kabinet has different thickness of 10 to 20 mm.

    But the thickness does not have an influence on the highend frequencies.


    Have you tried the Monitor Equalizer?

    Yes, that is what I did when I had the F12-X200 in this same cab, it needed a lot of EQ. It's working also with the Kone and it does not require as much EQ tweaking. I guess it is the best option to make it brighter ? And if read the manual right, I can hook my KPA to the cab with a specific EQ, while it is also connected to the PA with the separate main output EQ ?

  • I have a Mesa v30 here. The real cab just feel and hits harder and has a tight low end. I’m not knocking the kone technology, just the kab itself didn’t work for me. Maybe I’ll throw a pair of kones in a 2x12 or bigger cab one day. With the v30 imprints using DI profiles I just couldn’t get that same sound and feel of the real cab vs. the imprint. Doesn’t mean it’s bad, it’s just not for me. FRFR mode seemed about what I’d expect one to sound like.

  • For me it also is nasal and with blanket over the speaker.


    A classic speaker is supposed to sound like that, when you compare it to the FR sound.

    Nothing weird about that. It's revealing the truth about the difference between FR and cab-in-the-room sound.


    Do you have a guitar speaker available as a comparison?

  • I have a Mesa v30 here. The real cab just feel and hits harder and has a tight low end. I’m not knocking the kone technology, just the kab itself didn’t work for me. Maybe I’ll throw a pair of kones in a 2x12 or bigger cab one day. With the v30 imprints using DI profiles I just couldn’t get that same sound and feel of the real cab vs. the imprint. Doesn’t mean it’s bad, it’s just not for me. FRFR mode seemed about what I’d expect one to sound like.

    Is it a Mesa Thiele Box?

  • Hey Kemper family. Received my 2 Kones a few days ago. I have a nice Mojotone 2x12 cab with Scumback H75 speakers in it so I pulled them out and quickly swapped the new Kones into the cab. In addition to the cab I use 2 Yamaha HS8 monitors. I’m a High Gain player. Think Sinmix, Mattfig, etc. I have noticed, and as Mr. Kemper has pointed out, that the FRFR mode is superior to the imprint mode. As we all know tone is subjective but my personal preference with these speakers is FR mode. They profiles all sound a bit high end heavy but that’s nothing a little tweaking can’t fix. My question for the other high gainers using FR mode, what sweetening level have you found to be the best for your liking? So far I’ve settled right in the middle. Some profiles a little more, some a little less. In all, pretty happy with my purchase. I better be, I just sold the HS8s :)

  • Cab type & construction matters. I'm a high-gain player and the V30 imprint sounds astonishingly accurate in my Port City 2x12. The V30 will sound shrill or ice-picky in the average, typical cabinet. The fact that no one seems to like that imprint in the Kabinet shows you just how accurate it is.

  • The fact that no one seems to like that imprint in the Kabinet shows you just how accurate it is.

    I think the V30 imprint sounds really nice when matched with the right profile and like it just fine the way it is... I'm not a high gain player though and appreciate clarity aver distortion 9 times out of 10.

    The older I get, the better I was.

  • A classic speaker is supposed to sound like that, when you compare it to the FR sound.

    Nothing weird about that. It's revealing the truth about the difference between FR and cab-in-the-room sound.


    Do you have a guitar speaker available as a comparison?

    Hi ckemper thank you for tuning in.


    I had Harley Benton cab with one V30 in it with Harley Benton GPA-400 power amp to try with Kemper. Well, didn't like it, because all profiles were almost the same. However there was amp-in-the room feel (when compared to DXR10). But my room is 16sqm, not treated acoustically so there was a little margin to play around, to hear satisfactionary level of volume and amplike behaviour.


    One thing I noticed is, then I turn up PRESENCE knob on Fryette PS-2, after some point the profiles with imprints get the blanket out.


    I admit, I was always FR player (now with DXR10), not because I wanted, but because real amp in my room, would be overkill - I think this is the situation, most of us bedroom players experience.


    Nothing weird about that. It's revealing the truth about the difference between FR and cab-in-the-room sound.


    As I said, for Fender and VOX cleanish to hairy profiles, I can hit strings harder, hit them when strings are little palmmuted, I have Kabinet behind my back and the sound is wide and I like this behaviour - probaby it is this amp-in-the room (Jen P12Q/R, Jen C12N Ceramic imprints).


    But with profiles with gain over 5.0 - when only "Kemper Kone" is selected, on many profiles there is fizz, which when tamed with High Cut around 5.5-6 KHz, works out quite good results.


    With "Kemper Kone" and "Monitor Cab Off" selected and V30 Imprint (no EQ, no High Cut) - it depends on the profile I guess. For some profiles this V30 imprint sounded boxy. Until I turned up PRESENCE on power amp. Maybe this is an effect of playing FR for long time. But I'm not sure where amp-in-the-room is. Maybe I am more concerned to listen for the structure of sound and comparing (Monitor Cab OFF selected to unselected).


    I'm not saying this is bad. This is new for me, and has also some options to play with (like only Kemper Kone and Kemper Kone + Monitor Cab Off).


    For sure cleanish profiles with proper imprints got life. Maybe it is that profiles with gain will miss amp-in-the-room feeling because of the distortion.


    When I get time, I will try compare DXR10 with Kabinet head to head.

  • I think the V30 imprint sounds really nice when matched with the right profile and like it just fine the way it is... I'm not a high gain player though and appreciate clarity aver distortion 9 times out of 10.

    What is the right profile ShadowJumper ? Is it from RigExchange or any RigPack? I would like to try myself...

  • Cab type & construction matters. I'm a high-gain player and the V30 imprint sounds astonishingly accurate in my Port City 2x12. The V30 will sound shrill or ice-picky in the average, typical cabinet. The fact that no one seems to like that imprint in the Kabinet shows you just how accurate it is.

    So you mean, that a cab can make difference ElDoca ? Have you tried other imprints (Jensen) with low gain profiles (Fender, VOX) - do they also sound good to your ears?

  • One more question, because I haven't found the answer here or in manual..


    Kemper Kone selected + Monitor Cab OFF selected = use of Imprints + amp-in-the-room feel

    Kemper Kone selected + Monitor Cab OFF unselected = Kemper Kabinet in FR mode

    Kemper Kone unselected + Monitor Cab OFF unselected = ???????

  • Kemper Kone unselected + Monitor Cab OFF unselected = ???????

    Kemper Kone unselected + Monitor Cab OFF unselected = normal FRFR mode (Use with FRFR cab like Yammy or Headrush etc.)


    IOW, there's no imprint, only the normal Kemper Cab component of a Profile or a loaded Cab Preset / IR. This is at the Monitor Output, obviously.

  • IOW, there's no imprint, only the normal Kemper Cab component of a Profile or a loaded Cab Preset / IR. This is at the Monitor Output, obviously.

    And when I engage "Kemper Kone" (Monitor Cab OFF unselected), this is Kemper's specific FR? But still with Cab Preset/IR?

  • I think the definitive answer on how good the kones will sound with high gain/metal will be when someone drops 4 of them in to a 4x12. I've only recently split my 4x12 quad in to two 2x12's so I can switch between my JCM800 and powered Kemper. I must admit the Marshall (boosted, hi gain) dropped off in balls(? for lack of a better term) as expected with only 2 speakers. I'd be keen to hear from anyone who's dropped 4 of these in to a quad, If this gets the low end, full amp in the room for metal that a single 12" seems incapable of. I've always intended to get 4 Kones, I never assumed 1 or 2 would give the full sound I'm used to.


    P.S. I can't see any option on the Oceania site for discount on multiple Kone purchases. Is multi buy discount on Kones available for Australia?