Kone & Kabinet Q&A

  • Good afternoon Mr Kemper,

    Only if you are able to, can you answer this? given the current global crisis, in your humble opinion should I wait for a powered Kabinet or invest in an amp for the unpowered KPA which I can't buy anyway?

    I'm chomping at the bit to try your new kabinet but it seems they are probably at least a couple of months away (in England anyway).


    I am happy using my Headrush FR but feel I'm not getting the full capacity of my KPA.

    I was making this decision recently and decided to go down the poweramp + kabinet route. Like you I wanted to try it out ASAP and I figured that since the only mention of the powered kabinet has really been, 'we'll make one in the future', it could be months or years before it comes out!


    I also considered that the price difference between the powered and unpowered kemper in the UK was ~£350, for the same price or less I could get a poweramp, of which I ended up going for the camplifier studio since I don't gig and doesn't take up any space, but you could still get a much higher powered version and potentially still save some £'s.


    I ended up getting my kabinet from Peach guitars too in the UK. I think their next delivery is due early this week so hopefully I should have mine by the end of the week, but I imagine if they're selling so quickly (I was told that I got the last preorder on this shipment), then they'll want to get more in soon. Andertons seems to have them listed as being delivered relatively soon too.

  • I was making this decision recently and decided to go down the poweramp + kabinet route. Like you I wanted to try it out ASAP and I figured that since the only mention of the powered kabinet has really been, 'we'll make one in the future', it could be months or years before it comes out!


    I also considered that the price difference between the powered and unpowered kemper in the UK was ~£350, for the same price or less I could get a poweramp, of which I ended up going for the camplifier studio since I don't gig and doesn't take up any space, but you could still get a much higher powered version and potentially still save some £'s.


    I ended up getting my kabinet from Peach guitars too in the UK. I think their next delivery is due early this week so hopefully I should have mine by the end of the week, but I imagine if they're selling so quickly (I was told that I got the last preorder on this shipment), then they'll want to get more in soon. Andertons seems to have them listed as being delivered relatively soon too.

    Many thanks for your post.

    I normally use Andertons but they have pushed their delivery from early May to unknown.

    Ive also noticed a lot of their power amps have sold out, tells me there's a lot of interest in the Kabinet.

    I have been in touch with Tilman at Ritter as I am interested in the Camplifier 280 but that's sold out too.


    Seems I'll just have to sit tight! I hope you get to enjoy yours soon and I look forward to hearing your feedback.

    'You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead' - Stan Laurel


  • Please explain more.


    What is the role and cabling of the V30 Box, the GPA-400 and the Fryette?

    Are you using the Fryette as a power attenuator or a power amp to the Kabinet?

  • 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.


    I am glad that you like the Kone.

    I still have to strongly correct your findings.


    The two users on this forum that dismissed the V30 Imprint did not feel it sounded shrill, but found it sounding with a blanked, on the contrary.

    Did I get this wrong?


    The reason for that conclusions is not the cabinet construction, but the users history of cabinets being played in the past (PA, FR).


    A V30 in an open back 1x12 has less bass, but does not sound shrill at all.

  • Obviously he's trying all the speaker imprints in this clip, not just the V30, You can hear it switch .

    yes that’s true. He’s a member of a Kemper Facebook group. I talk to him often as he is a wealth of knowledge. He is definitely switching between all the imprints using a JCM900 profile he created. He did say he tried the 4 cones in multiple cabinets and didn’t really have that “wow” moment until he put them in this old Marshall cab. Now he loves them.

  • Please explain more.


    What is the role and cabling of the V30 Box, the GPA-400 and the Fryette?

    Are you using the Fryette as a power attenuator or a power amp to the Kabinet?

    Maybe I wasn't clear.

    Once I had GPA-400 and V30 box.

    Today I have Fryette PS-2 as power amp to the Kabinet.

  • Did some comparisons between Kabinet in FRFR mode to a powered Neo-CLR that I have. I'm using the BAM200 amp for the kabinet. The CLR sounds best to me on the floor monitor position and the switches set for tilt back. This gives a nice low end and mid details. The top end can be what I think of as too hi-Fi. Especially on the heavier profiles with more gain. Not bad at all and would work fine in 95% of the applications with a live band.


    The Kabinet didn't have the hi-Fi sound to it and just feels more natural. Hate to use the term in the room feel but that's how it sounds and reacts to me without a hi-fi top end. It didn't match the low end of the CLR and when I turned on bass boost for the Kabinet it was almost too much low end. So a tweak on the monitor eq on the KPA did the trick there. I seem to like the sweetening setting at around 3 or 4. Can someone explain what the sweetening parameter is doing?


    Thanks

    Sean

  • This is what Christoph Kemper says to the "sweetening parameter":

    "Talking about full range. Guitarists play a number of excellent fullrange speakers. Among them the Atomic CLR or the RCF NX-10. They offer a very flat frequency responce, beside the fact that the bass and treble can be emphasized to a certain degree to make the sound more pleasant.

    You can adjust this behaviour with your Kabinet or Kone by using the "Sweetening" control."

    Kemper Head - Kemper Remote - Palmer Box with Kemper Kone - TC Electronic BAM200 - Laney LFR 112

  • I seem to like the sweetening setting at around 3 or 4. Can someone explain what the sweetening parameter is doing?

    My understanding is that it boosts the high and low end, similar to what the Loudness switch on old stereo systems would do, though the Sweetness control is variable, not just a switch.

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

  • Another quick look


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  • Maybe I wasn't clear.

    Once I had GPA-400 and V30 box.

    Today I have Fryette PS-2 as power amp to the Kabinet.

    It is hard to judge your situation, because you use a tube power amp that adds its own frequency response to the game.


    As you will know, we always recommend solid state or class d power amps to be used with the Profiler, as they feature a flat frequency responce. So the impact of the power amp is out of the equation.


    Tube power amps typically add a colored frequency responce to the signal, mainly emphasized bass and presence frequencies that sweeten the signal. Combining a digital guitar amp with a tube power amp has a bit of snake oil aspects, unfortunately.


    You have no control about this frequency response. Your presence control does not have a mid detent.

  • The Kabinet didn't have the hi-Fi sound to it and just feels more natural. Hate to use the term in the room feel but that's how it sounds and reacts to me without a hi-fi top end. It didn't match the low end of the CLR and when I turned on bass boost for the Kabinet it was almost too much low end. So a tweak on the monitor eq on the KPA did the trick there. I seem to like the sweetening setting at around 3 or 4. Can someone explain what the sweetening parameter is doing?


    Thanks

    Sean


    RTFM ?

  • So do you know of an amp that you be happy to recommend? I have the unpowered KPA

    'You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead' - Stan Laurel

  • Another quick look


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    He obviously hasn't read how to try to mic the Kone, putting the mic on the "edge of the cap"... That's actually the whizzer cone. DOH!

  • from manual addendum 7.2 “

     Sweetening

    The full-range mode of the KEMPER Kone is extremely linear — for some of us, it might even be too linear. The

    high-quality monitors/PA speakers used with digital guitar amps will often emphasize the low and high frequencies —

    this makes the sound more appealing and allows for an increase in volume level without causing ear fatigue. The

    "Sweetening" parameter allows continuous control over the level of this emphasis. At full left position, there is no

    emphasis at all. At full right, the low and high frequencies will be emphasized by 6 dB, while the overall volume stays

    roughly the same”