Some thoughts about the Kone after a week of experiments

  • I don't have a Kabinet, but on mounted Kone on a combo amp ( with SS power amp ).


    Here are a few ideas & hints to get a good tone out of you fresh Kone :



    If you have a good monitoring system and are used to it , you probably have some reference profiles that really sound good.


    Now if you can have theses monitors in the same room as your Kone/cab , ti's really interesting to do some kind of calibration :


    it's about adjusting Monitor output EQ ( signal sent to Kone ) vs the main output EQ.


    With a cross comparison , you should be able to find the best settings and have a similar tone on monitors and Kone.


    Direct profiles used on a Kone can be disappointing , even with pro made profiles, I thought I could use any good DI and get an instant good tone with an imprint, but that does not happen often.


    Hi gain often sounds over compressed on my CAB ( it's an open back) , with a lack of air and excessive basses, all of this is tweak-able , so I have high hope for the future when save per rig will be available.


    I had to remember that a single cab is not a stereo monitoring solution and sounds much more directive, I'm' so used to HS7 clean monitoring in stereo that a real Cab sound a bit tiring to my ears, I will have to adapt.


    It's not a big surprise but my cab is big like a twin or a bluesbreaker and these profile are the best sounding ones on it ;) I really wonder How a 4x12 Kone does sound.


    Anyway , I fount some superbly sounding profiles that really make my old cab alive, so yes it's here, the amp in the room I missed in the past very impressive especially on cleans and crunches :)

    My mars amp is still working, so I can even power it to have a "warm tolex smell" and "cooking tubes simulator" on top of the killer tone ;)




  • This from the manual chapter KEMPER Kabinet / KEMPER Kone, which explains what happens, if you switch off the cabinet module:


    ·       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” and feature a full-range sound that will be very unpleasant through a traditional guitar speaker. Therefore, in Speaker Imprint mode (Monitor Cab Off active), when switching to a Direct PROFILE, KEMPER Kone will automatically switch to full-range mode for that Rig. No preparation required!

  • Thx Burkhard, with this all these levels of abstractions I got lost.


    It's a bit counter productive for me to understand that I first have to lock a cab before trying direct profiles.


    I'll go back to it , and check more DI profiles then.

  • Thx Burkhard, with this all these levels of abstractions I got lost.


    It's a bit counter productive for me to understand that I first have to lock a cab before trying direct profiles.


    I'll go back to it , and check more DI profiles then.

    I also find this non-intuitive at all ...

  • I think many people use a real cab (or now the Kemper Kabinet) at home to get that amp in the room feel - just for pleasure or practicing.


    Using direct amp profiles will give the most authentic representation of the profiled amp when using a real cab. So people are trying the same with the Kone...

  • thanks Ibot. I understand that. My point was just that even when using DAP to with a regular cab or Kone you would still need something in the cabinet block for FOH so the logic of having something in the cabinet block and locking it when testing different DAP rigs doesn’t seem at all odd to me.

    Most bedrooms/practice rooms don't have a front of house (well certainly mine doesn't). I fully appreciate why it works this way but a large portion of users are using this like you'd use a regular amp - plug and play, so I can see why loading a cab you won't use and can't hear seems counter intuitive.


    Having said that, you'll need a cab loaded for headphones, which I'm sure we're all using now that none of us get the house to ourselves at the moment ?‍?‍?‍?

  • I reckon I do lot of jamming around with the Kone in my room , I just need my KPA & powered Kone , no need for a daw & monitors like I used to.


    It's the perfect tool for practicing , so noiseless and I'm able to play at super low volume.


    I started recording with monitoring on the Kone & my yamaha HS7 monitors , and it's really great, really inspiring to have a real amp tone while recording , for the bass parts it's also pretty cool.

    Of course you have to know your profiles and their original CAB because that's the signal that gets recorded eventually, but this is very close to what will happen in a real recording studio.


    So far I love the Kone in my super vintage cab , the learning curve is not that high if you already know your profiles.


    We'll need some kind of official rig pack with matched amps DI & respective imprints + Studio profiles made in a high end studio to take it to a plug and play solution.


    The idea is to setup a real am for profiling a studio profile , then take a DI profile with the same amp settings , then load the DI and compare the different imprints vs the real amp.

  • Happy Birthday!

    with matched amps DI & respective imprints

    DI rigs do not function with Imprints. If there is no Cabinet in the Rig, the Kone functions in Full Range Mode.


    We'll need some kind of official rig pack with ...... respective imprints + Studio profiles made in a high end studio to take it to a plug and play solution.

    I edited your quote - I like the idea of an Official Studio (or Merged) profiles with rig-specific Imprint settings. (when the OS is updated to allow rig-specific Imprint settings).

  • Thx for your interest in my request Paul, I still want some DI because studio profiles if not merged still don't have the exact pre speaker signal , if I'm right ?


    But I guess a merged studio profile should should get the best of both DAW signal + KAB in the room with imprints.


    So our exact request should be Merged studio profile only + matched DI & imprint compared to the real amp ?