Kone & Kabinet Q&A

  • So I had British Audio try linking two Kabinets as I have done with a Kemper Powerhead. They have the same phase issue! Because I brought this to their attention, they are making a reverse polarity speaker cable specifically to resolve this problem. I have one of these cables and it works as intended. This indicates the Kabinets are wired incorrectly at the factory.


    I’ve now purchased a PowerStage 700 and my Kabinets are running in stereo. It’s glorious! I used the reverse polarity speaker cable with the PowerStage and guess what? The Kabinets are out of phase again! If I use the original speaker cables with the PowerStage, no phase problem.


    Just wanted to share my experience as it’s been a while since my last post.

  • So I had British Audio try linking two Kabinets as I have done with a Kemper Powerhead. They have the same phase issue! Because I brought this to their attention, they are making a reverse polarity speaker cable specifically to resolve this problem. I have one of these cables and it works as intended. This indicates the Kabinets are wired incorrectly at the factory.


    I’ve now purchased a PowerStage 700 and my Kabinets are running in stereo. It’s glorious! I used the reverse polarity speaker cable with the PowerStage and guess what? The Kabinets are out of phase again! If I use the original speaker cables with the PowerStage, no phase problem.


    Just wanted to share my experience as it’s been a while since my last post.

    That's interesting.

    I took my Kabinet to a cab maker to get it cloned. I noticed that the jack plate has a circuit board on it that handles the in/out series connection so that two Kabinets end up as 8ohm. Perhaps that circuit board has an issue? Maybe it's just some of them?

    When I get my second cloned cab I'll test as well.

  • So I had British Audio try linking two Kabinets as I have done with a Kemper Powerhead. They have the same phase issue! Because I brought this to their attention, they are making a reverse polarity speaker cable specifically to resolve this problem. I have one of these cables and it works as intended. This indicates the Kabinets are wired incorrectly at the factory.


    I’ve now purchased a PowerStage 700 and my Kabinets are running in stereo. It’s glorious! I used the reverse polarity speaker cable with the PowerStage and guess what? The Kabinets are out of phase again! If I use the original speaker cables with the PowerStage, no phase problem.


    Just wanted to share my experience as it’s been a while since my last post.

    Sounds like the "series out" socket is wired out of phase.

  • Bit of an update, the Kone I ordered arrived. Looks like I need not have bothered buying it. Lol. Yes the whizzer cone is a different size to the K12H 200TC and the Kone has a softer front foam gasket, but the tones I get out of them are as close as any two of the same speaker from a different batch. I couldn't tell which was which in a blind test. If anything I think I prefer the K12H because it seems to have less of the beamy top end. It seems to keep its tone more constant as you move off axis with less of a tonal shift. I know Kemper would say the tone imprints were designed for their speaker only and results with anything else cant be verified but I cannot hear the difference.

    Overall Id say if you have to have a 4 ohm speaker, the green paint and the stencil in the box buy the Kone.

    If 8 ohms if suitable, save a good chunk of cash and just buy the K12H-200TC. Ive kept the K12H and re sold the Kone. Interesting experiment.

  • @evh

    Interesting note on the beaming difference btw the two models. I got the impression that CK wanted to preserve the beaming characteristics of a regular guitar speaker - ie that the top end would drop off as you move off axis. Many of us play with the amp positioned relative to our ears so that we are not in the beam so much and that is the tone we prefer from our "amp in the room".

  • This thread seems more appropriate for my question:


    So sorry it this has been answered but I have read through and don't find an answer. I'm considering buying a Kemper Power Head and Kabinet. The head puts out 600w and the Kabinet is rated at 200w. I'd never hook up a 600w amp to a 200w cabinet and crank it. Not that I need 600w. But any concerns on such high power rating difference?

  • This thread seems more appropriate for my question:


    So sorry it this has been answered but I have read through and don't find an answer. I'm considering buying a Kemper Power Head and Kabinet. The head puts out 600w and the Kabinet is rated at 200w. I'd never hook up a 600w amp to a 200w cabinet and crank it. Not that I need 600w. But any concerns on such high power rating difference?

    The common consensus with a solid state power stage is to have more power than the speaker. Should the amp start to clip, it will produce (most likely) unpleasant distortion. That clipping can also be dangerous to some speakers.


    With a bigger amp, you're more likely to get the speaker distorting. You should notice this easily and it will be at significant volume.


    I say, don't worry about it.

  • This thread seems more appropriate for my question:


    So sorry it this has been answered but I have read through and don't find an answer. I'm considering buying a Kemper Power Head and Kabinet. The head puts out 600w and the Kabinet is rated at 200w. I'd never hook up a 600w amp to a 200w cabinet and crank it. Not that I need 600w. But any concerns on such high power rating difference?

    There is a previous post by Christoph Kemper that addresses your question. He explained the 200 watt speaker can handle peaks from the 600 watt power amp, and that the sheer volume produced by that amp at 200 watts with the Kabinet is much louder than anyone could safely hear.


    I have a powerhead and Kabinet, and the combination can be extremely loud, without getting anywhere near 200 watts.


    BTW - the powered Kempers have a realtime wattage meter in the Output Menu that will let you see how much power you are using, so, you can be sure you are not sending too much signal to the Kabinet.

  • At the moment(31 May 2020) only the loudspeaker is available for ordering, the cabinet requires some more patience.

    As alternative I want to mount the Kone loudspeaker in the FRFR cabinet I am actually using (ElectroVoice ELX112). This cabinet one has also a 1.5" tweet speaker.

    My question: Will this replacement work or I have to remove the 1.5 inch speaker or disconnect it?

  • Yes, indeed. Both my Kabinets, as well as the two tested by British Audio, have the same issue. I wonder if it’s just an early production batch problem or still an issue with all Kabinets to date?

    You can imagine how easily this would happen in a manufacturing setting when setting up to manufacture a new "SKU". Parallel connections are positive to positive all the way - amp to socket to speaker tags. Series connections require you to wire the positive tag of the first speaker to the negative tag of the next speaker in the chain.


    Sticking with positive to positive for the "series out" socket is an easy enough mistake to make when wiring up a prototype but you would hope that the error would be caught before they made a full manufacturing run of them.

  • At the moment(31 May 2020) only the loudspeaker is available for ordering, the cabinet requires some more patience.

    As alternative I want to mount the Kone loudspeaker in the FRFR cabinet I am actually using (ElectroVoice ELX112). This cabinet one has also a 1.5" tweet speaker.

    My question: Will this replacement work or I have to remove the 1.5 inch speaker or disconnect it?

    If you connect only the Kone speaker to the input jack then technically yes it will work but it will sound terrible. You wouldnt put a Greenback or V30 into a PA cab and expect it to sound good. It needs a guitar cab designed for guitar speakers.

  • At the moment(31 May 2020) only the loudspeaker is available for ordering, the cabinet requires some more patience.

    As alternative I want to mount the Kone loudspeaker in the FRFR cabinet I am actually using (ElectroVoice ELX112). This cabinet one has also a 1.5" tweet speaker.

    My question: Will this replacement work or I have to remove the 1.5 inch speaker or disconnect it?

    Check this cab out on amazon. Looks ok for this purpose: https://amzn.to/3ce54tD

  • If you connect only the Kone speaker to the input jack then technically yes it will work but it will sound terrible. You wouldnt put a Greenback or V30 into a PA cab and expect it to sound good. It needs a guitar cab designed for guitar speakers.

    This is true, you are fully right. Maybe I should wait or mount the speaker in a Palmer or a Harley-Benton box but not in the PA cab. Thank you.

  • I couldn't tell which was which in a blind test. If anything I think I prefer the K12H because it seems to have less of the beamy top end. It seems to keep its tone more constant as you move off axis with less of a tonal shift. I know Kemper would say the tone imprints were designed for their speaker only and results with anything else cant be verified but I cannot hear the difference.

    The Kone (in combination with the Kone Mode) is highly linear. If you prefer a more muffled sound, go for it.

    Be aware that the K12H with Kone Mode will produce a significant peak at about 5 kHz.

    At least I can clearly hear the difference when using the the imprints.