It's all about the cabinet?

  • I have a powered toaster. I've used it with a pair of DXR10s and while it sounds good, to me, it doesn't sound great. I switched to using the Kemper with an oversized 1x12 Creamback closed-back cabinet. This setup sounds incredible - far more like I expect an amp to sound. However, pretty much every profile sounds like some flavor of a Marshall. That's cool....but for a majority of our band's classic rock songs, a blackface sound would probably be more appropriate. Over the weekend, I bought my friend's 2x12 Avatar open-back cabinet with a G12 and a G12H. With this new cabinet, my profiles now sound mostly like a Fender. I'm sure some of you will say "duh" but I'm astounded about how much of the tone is really the cabinet and not the amp. It's not that I'm saying profiles don't matter but they don't seem to matter as much as the cabinet.


    Of course, I'm sure this is where Kemper is going with the Kone and Kabinet.


    Anyway, not a complaint...mostly an observation.

  • I’m not exactly sure what the Kone will change tone wise that changing the cabinet in the kemper already does? It’s just altered eq curves right? I’m confused about the excitement.

    It is pure amp in the room (Kone/Cabinet) vs mic'ed cabinet (conventional Kemper cabs).

  • More exploring last night with Rig Manager. (I have a ton of profiles). Some of the Marshall profiles do sound like Marshalls. For example, Michael Britt's Marshalls. However, I haven't tried them at gig volume so it's hard to tell for sure.


    For a powered Kemper, I'm feeling more a more like saying "profiles don't matter".


    What's more important is how it sounds. At our last city monthly jam, everyone was blown away by the sound of my Kemper and this cabinet. It sounded amazing.

  • I’m not exactly sure what the Kone will change tone wise that changing the cabinet in the kemper already does? It’s just altered eq curves right? I’m confused about the excitement.

    It will change quite a lot. All cabs right now all include a microphone in the response profile. That's always been the complaint of modelers. You don't get an amp-in-the-room sound unless you defeat the cab sim and run a guitar cabinet. Which is fine, but that one speaker is all you get...and speakers make a HUGE difference in how an amp is going to sound.

    It most certainly isn't just an altered EQ curve. If that were true, there's no point in the new speaker (kone).

    The kabinet's imprints remove the microphone from the equation completely AND give you access to nearly 20 imprints of specific speakers.

    Very different than the Cab section through an FRFR.

    “Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

  • I'm feeling more a more like saying "profiles don't matter".

    So many opinions, so apparently different ears! More and more I get the impression: give a damm to all those guys telling you what is good, what is bad and what you need.
    And on the other hand: I am kinda of the same. I tested hundreds of profiles and I am telling you, most sound horrible to me (at least, when not tweaking).