Kone & Kabinet Q&A

  • I'm going with the Seymour Duncan Powerstage 700. It's stereo and the word on the street its bas A$$ with the Kemper. I've been waiting patiently (not really, its tough) for over 2 months for that and 2 Kemper Kabinets to replace my FRFR's.

  • I'm using the SD Powerstage 700 with my Kemper and love it. Stereo inputs/outputs and although you can adjust the EQ with the Kemper when playing different venues which produce tonal differences, it's much easier to do with the PS700 EQing.

  • Hello,

    I have to buy a power amp to run my kemper stage through a 2x12 vintage 30 cabinet (mono/stereo input switchable). In the future I would change v30 with kone, I am attrached to tc bam200 but I may have problems with impedence. Which power amp do you suggest for my set up? (I play long time with my vht pittbull 50 eq, so I like the punch sound)

  • Hello,

    I have to buy a power amp to run my kemper stage through a 2x12 vintage 30 cabinet (mono/stereo input switchable). In the future I would change v30 with kone, I am attrached to tc bam200 but I may have problems with impedence. Which power amp do you suggest for my set up? (I play long time with my vht pittbull 50 eq, so I like the punch sound)

    TC Bam200 can power 4, 8 and 16 ohm speakers/cabinets.

  • I've been loving my Kabinet so much that I bought a second one.


    However I just noticed today with the "monitor cabinet off" option enabled, there is a huge difference turning on and off the modeled cabinet. This wasn't the case before. The tone also doesn't seem as good as it was just days ago. With this option enabled there should be no difference with or without the cabinet model since it should be bypassed to the powered output. Is this something new with the Kabinet? Is there another setting I've changed?


    I've tried resetting my Kemper and I've updated my OS to the latest from a few days ago thinking this must be some wacky behavior. However this issue persists.

  • Yes I understand normally you could turn off the cabinet to bypass that simulated cabinet sound. However with the "monitor cabient off" enabled it should always bypass the cabinet imprint to the monitor so it doesn't make a difference whether the imprint cabinet is on or off. This makes it so you can connect your powered output to a real cabinet while having the simulated cabinet sound going to your other outputs. I was using this functionality to play through the Kemper Kabinet while recording the Kemper's spdif output to record the profiled cabinet.


    I've read on this forum where the Kemper can get in a bad state where the "monitor cabinet off" function doesn't work properly.


    [SOLVED] Monitor Cab Off - Unexpected results


    Is this my issue or is this a new function I don't understand? I have the "monitor cabinet off" enabled and when turning off the cabinet section the sound is weird like it is going through a full range speaker like Wheresthedug is saying.

  • Yes, that is the intended behaviour when using the Kone function. If you are not using the Kone function then this doesn't happen even when Monitor Cab is Off and main out Cabinet Section is off.


    Before the Kone became available it didn't matter whether the main cabinet section was on or off, as long as monitor cab off was ticked for the monitor output. However, you need to turn on Kone to use the imprints. As soon as you turn on imprint mode the Main Outputs must have a cabinet on or the monitor output will automatically switch to FR mode. This is to allow you to use a acoustic guitars etc.


    You can still get the old behaviour if you have Kone turned off in the output menu and just use a regular guitar speaker. Nothing should be any different for this use - but you can't use imprints thins way.


    I know it can be hard work getting your head round the convoluted Kemper logic sometimes as there are so many double negatives in use. I still have to stop and question myself every time I use these functions to make sure I have followed the logic they use. It is frustrating but it is worth it as the results are amazing.

  • From post 6 of this thread :


    Kemper Kone / Kemper Kabinet


    As you have read in the chapter xx, the Profiler can run linear speakers for monitor purposes, as well as classic guitar cabinets. But our company also offers a special speaker solution, that offers a maximum of sound varity: the Kemper Kone is a speaker that allows for a linear reproduction of your rigs, as well as mimicing several classic guitar speakers. It‘s your choice.


    Connect the Kemper Kone speaker to the Profilers power amp output, or amplify it by an external solid state power amp, connected to the Profilers MONITOR OUTPUT.


    The behaviour of the Kemper Kone is fully controlled by the software of your Profiler. To activate the „intelligence“, the Kemper Kone mode, navigate to the page „Kemper Kone“ in the OUTPUT section and press the soft button „Kemper Kone“.


    You will find three parameters that you should be familiar with already; hey have been mirrored to the Kemper Kone page for your convenience: Monitor Volume, Monitor Stereo and MonitorCabOff. When MonitorCabOff is not highlighted, the Kemper Kone works in the full range mode.



    Bass Boost


    The Kemper Kone is seasoned for a perfect tone, when the cabinet sits on the floor. Whenever you lift a cabinet away from the floor, into the freefield, it will loose a certain amout of bass fundament, as the mirroring of the floor attenuates. This effect can be compensated by pressing „Bass Boost“, which adds 3 dB to the low frequencies.



    Speaker Imprint Mode


    When you highlight MonitorCabOff, then you deactivate the Cabinet Modul exclusively for the Monitor Output, in order to run a classic guitar speaker on that output or the build in power amp. You have learned this in Chapter XXX. The Kemper Kone mode fulfills this demand by switching from full range mode to the speaker imprint mode and offers you the choice of XX of the finest classic speaker imprints to chose from. Enjoy the ‚amp-in-the-room‘ sound! You might be surprised how different the sound is, compared to the full range mode.



    Speaker Imprint


    Selects one of the classic guitar speaker simulations. The imprints are adjusted to equal loudness levels. They can sound quite similar to each other, especially when you play a sound with slight or no distortion.



    Directivity


    The Kemper Kone features a larger high frequency dispersion than many classic guitar speakers. That is, a real guitar speaker will sound duller than the Kemper Kone, when you position your ears away from the middle axis of the speaker. Thus you might like to adjust the colour of the Kemper Kone towards a „creamier“ sound by lowering the Directivity parameter. The nice side effect is that the on-axis sound will also loose some of the harshness that classic guitar speakers naturally have. At Directivity set to maximum, the on-axis sound is identical to the original.


    Note: Speaker Imprint and Directivity are only available in the speaker imprint mode, when MonitorCabOff is active. However, Bass Boost is available in both modes.




    Here is some more properties of the Kemper Kone:


    • The Kemper Kone comes either build-in into our Kemper Kabinet, or as a replacement speaker fitting in any 1x12, 2x12 or 4x12 cabinet for 12 inch speakers, open and closed.


    • The impedance of the Kemper Kone is 4 Ohm only, to get the most efficiency from your power amp. Since 4 Ohm is usually the lowest impedance allowed for power amps, you should take care not to come below this value by connecting two cabinets or two speakers to the same power amp output in parallel. When two Kemper Kone speakers are mounted in a 2x12 cabinet, they have to be connected in series.


    • Two or more Kemper Kabinets can be daisy-chained by the additional jack without danger, as the Kabinets are automatically put in electrical series by the build-in circutry.


    • The Kemper Kone speaker and the Kemper Kone mode in the Profiler make a perfect team. Thus refrain from running the Kemper Kone speaker with any other sound generator than the Profiler. It will sound bad! The same goes for the Kemper Kone mode run into other speaker. It will also sound bad.


    • Any solid state amp will work. Running Kemper Kone by a tube power amp will change the frequency responce and potentially sweeten the sound too much.


    • Similar to the MonitorCabOff feature the Kemper Kone mode is only available for the Monitor Output, as well as for the build-in power amp, for your personal monitoring. The other outputs are not affected by these features.


    • Due to its special cone design, the Kemper Kone speaker is not suitable for close mic‘ing. Use it for personal monitoring only.


    • You can run Kemper Kone in stereo using the „Monitor Stereo“ function (XXX im Stage immer stereo!!!), either in full range mode or speaker imprint mode. Since the intelligence lies in your Profiler, all connected Kemper Kones chassis benefit from the Kemper Kone features simultaneously.


    • You probably use Direct Profiles in your live set, such as acoustic guitar sounds or bass rigs. Direct Profiles are marked by having the Cabinet Module set to „empty“, thus featuring a full range sound. Running a full range sound through a classic guitar speaker is unpleasant. Therefore, in speaker imprint mode (MonitorCabOff active), when switching to a Direct Profile, Kemper Kone will automatically switch to full range mode for that rig. No preparation needed.


    • A signal on the Aux Input fed to the Monitor Output by using the AuxToMonitor control will be processed by the Kemper Kone intelligence as well. It will always processed in the full range mode, even when you play your rigs in speaker imprint mode (MonitorCabOff active).


    • Use two Kemper Kone equipped Cabinets as your little PA, maybe for a spontaneous party. Feed your music into the Aux Input in stereo, activate Monitor Stereo, use a stereo power amp into the cabinets. Only the guitar-speaker-like dispersion will make your cabinets appear different to a regular PA.


    • The maximum Kemper Kone setup: Play guitar along the stereo music using the speaker imprints, while the music plays full range, through the same cabinets.


    • Pure Cabinet is naturally available for Kemper Kone as well. As you would expect, it is only perceivable in the full range mode, where the Cabinet module is also fed to the Kemper Kone. In speaker imprint mode Pure Cabinet does not influence the tone.
  • The Peavy closed back cab arrived this week-end with the BAM200.

    I was luckier than Sambrox, the back panel wasn’t glued and easy to open. It required me a little time to swap the speaker.

    So i took time to paint the grill....I don’t know if it was a good idea ?! :evil::/X/ (I was informed by Kemper « at your own risks »)

    I’m not really convinced in the result, bad job, it’s pretty raw, i thought it would be better....


    But when you are at a reasonable distance, it’s OK and let clearly appears that it’s a Peavy Cab with Kemper inside ^^:evil::thumbup:




    I was not convinced, at first, about the sound, i've tilted the cab to hear better, i couldn’t hear the difference.

    After a while, i’ve seen that i was not plugged in the « Monitor » output but in the « main » jack output (i shouldn’t take the habit of XLR :sleeping::sleeping:).

    In the good output, it’s far far better !!!! ^^:D


    Everything's good now.

    I was surprised by the BAM’s gain button that i can’t push at a higher level than nine o’clock and the dB level in the Kemper is active for -12db plus my level is at -25/-30dB 8|. Very low.


    How do you adjust your levels parameters on the different devices ?

  • I was also surprised at how low the gain had to be, according to the directions in the manual for the Bam200. For kicks, I tried the Bam200 directly as a bass amp with my Fender Jazz bass and found that the gain had to be almost off in order for the led to only light occasionally. This is when I realised that the manual is written incorrectly. You can actually turn the gain up quite high, before I perceive any distortion. Try it for yourself. It makes the usable output power much greater.

    Edited once, last by sambrox: Autocorrect fail ().

  • This is when I realised that the manual is written incorrectly. You can actually turn the gain up quite high, before I perceive any distortion. Try it for yourself. It makes the usual easy output power much greater.

    I think you’re right. There’s a translation mistake (even in french). I was surprised the first time i read the manual.

    I assume that they wanted to say : « when the led start flashing in red » and come back a little to prevent this. The Red indicator is the clipping start like every FRFR device.

    I’ve just tried it with my headphone (too early to play the cab now), and it seems to work with the entire green led without any distortion....

    Thx for your comment ;)

  • I think you’re right. There’s a translation mistake (even in french). I was surprised the first time i read the manual.

    I assume that they wanted to say : « when the led start flashing in red » and come back a little to prevent this. The Red indicator is the clipping start like every FRFR device.

    I’ve just tried it with my headphone (too early to play the cab now), and it seems to work with the entire green led without any distortion....

    Thx for your comment ;)

    Just noticed there was an autocorrect fail in my post... how ironic! Perhaps that is what happened for the folks writing the Bam200 manual, too?:D