Anyone compare? Kemper Kone vs F12-200X

  • Just curious if anyone has compared both Kemper Kone & Celestion F12-200X.

    Or maybe just your opinion of the F12-200X.

    I already own the Kemper Kone. I’m running it off a Laney IRT-X powered speaker and haven’t been able to turn it up yet.

    So there are a few variables with my final opinion. So far it sounds decent. Then of course we really need the option to save imprints

    to individual rigs,etc. But I’m sure thats all in the works.

  • I have a set of both (actually a F12-X200) is set to arrive tomorrow). This will give me 2 to enter in an Avatar open back 2 X 12. Think the Celestions may blow the walls out of this small room. :S I was about to give up on them but fired one up last night. Notice it really came to life with some volume and profile tweaks.


    I was pretty high on the Kones upon first receiving them but they were swapped out as the honeymoon seemed to fade quick. Was a tad disappointed in my imprint tone but to be fair have not spent a whole lot of time with the Kones. Can be like that with gear though run real hot then cold. Know I have a certain piece of hardware in the house so can always come back to it - them etc. .


    Will give them a work out this weekend and will attempt to answer any questions. I am an at home player so feedback could be limited but again will be glad to try. Speaking of the weekend it should be busy Kemper wise. Do not have plans due to pandemic situation so will be rotating regular guitar speakers, Kones, and the F12's while noodling away. Got my hands on a Countryman 85 along with a SM57 so will attempt some profiling as well. So far my results with that have ok but thinking can be a lot better.


    Looking forward to it.


    Cheers...


    Dave

    Edited 3 times, last by Mookytc ().

  • Bummer....my packages were in town Friday but never moved from the local facility. FedEx is reliable in this area and ground delivers Saturday. Packages (one is the F12-X200) still sit :(:(:( and most likely will not be delivered until Tuesday.


    Oh well...plenty to keep busy with but was hoping for some kind of speaker shootout. More to come at some point :thumbup:.

    Edited once, last by Mookytc ().

  • Bummer....my packages were in town Friday but never moved from the local facility. FedEx is reliable in this area and ground delivers Saturday. Packages (one is the FX-1200) still sit :(:(:( and most likely will not be delivered until Tuesday.


    Oh well...plenty to keep busy with but was hoping for some kind of speaker shootout. More to come at some point :thumbup:.

    Hey Mookytc. How did this turn out? I’m also not to keen on my Kones and am looking to replace them. How did the FX-1200 hold up?

  • Well won't be the most detailed comparison but have spent the last few days with the Kones (2 into an open back Avatar 2 x 12). I absolutely love the tone that I have been hearing. Getting the use of out of them that I had in mind when purchased. I can leave a profile cab on taking advantage of a mic'd cab. Have had good luck with using IR's from my collection as well in various situations. They can pushed volume wise but they are easy for me to control getting a nice balance in my at home playing room (between volume and good tone). Very little profile tweaking is needed to get things right as well.


    One thing that escapes me is the imprint feature. For every profile that sounds good one on the imprints 3 or 4 will not sound good (meaning better with the included cab or IR's of my choice). For me that is not a big deal as there are no issue being happy with the way I am using the Kones as mentioned in the first paragraph. Thinking the first few days I had the Kones they were good but when I came back to them did not have them set properly in the output section ( I will jump from studio monitors, other cabs depending on mood - situation and may have forgot to enable the Kone button). Thinking the Kones will be my preferred playing method going forward.


    The FX-1200 sound a bit more neutral or flat to me and its seems I have to tweak the profile a bit more to get happier with what I am hearing. I often feel the sound is ok but not totally satisfied with the results. The speaker does seem to have the ability to get pushed with some good volume but again for me the Kones just seem to work real well with Profiler.

  • Well won't be the most detailed comparison but have spent the last few days with the Kones (2 into an open back Avatar 2 x 12). I absolutely love the tone that I have been hearing. Getting the use of out of them that I had in mind when purchased. I can leave a profile cab on taking advantage of a mic'd cab. Have had good luck with using IR's from my collection as well in various situations. They can pushed volume wise but they are easy for me to control getting a nice balance in my at home playing room (between volume and good tone). Very little profile tweaking is needed to get things right as well.


    One thing that escapes me is the imprint feature. For every profile that sounds good one on the imprints 3 or 4 will not sound good (meaning better with the included cab or IR's of my choice). For me that is not a big deal as there are no issue being happy with the way I am using the Kones as mentioned in the first paragraph. Thinking the first few days I had the Kones they were good but when I came back to them did not have them set properly in the output section ( I will jump from studio monitors, other cabs depending on mood - situation and may have forgot to enable the Kone button). Thinking the Kones will be my preferred playing method going forward.


    The FX-1200 sound a bit more neutral or flat to me and its seems I have to tweak the profile a bit more to get happier with what I am hearing. I often feel the sound is ok but not totally satisfied with the results. The speaker does seem to have the ability to get pushed with some good volume but again for me the Kones just seem to work real well with Profiler.

    thanks for your review buddy. I found the same thing with the imprints. 3-4 not so good profiles for every 1 good profile with imprints enabled. I’m happiest when running the Kones as “frfr”, which is the Kone enabled but with the cab sim turned off. “Monitor cab off “ selected. Then I usually run the “sweetening” around 5.0. I play high gain in D standard tuning for what it’s worth and the Kones appear to handle the low end well. I have 2 Kones installed in a custom closed back Mojotone 2x12. One thing I’ll note is the sound is nowhere near as good as it is through my Yamaha hs8 monitors but it is good nonetheless.

  • thanks for your review buddy. I found the same thing with the imprints. 3-4 not so good profiles for every 1 good profile with imprints enabled. I’m happiest when running the Kones as “frfr”, which is the Kone enabled but with the cab sim turned off. “Monitor cab off “ selected. Then I usually run the “sweetening” around 5.0. I play high gain in D standard tuning for what it’s worth and the Kones appear to handle the low end well. I have 2 Kones installed in a custom closed back Mojotone 2x12. One thing I’ll note is the sound is nowhere near as good as it is through my Yamaha hs8 monitors but it is good nonetheless.

    Nice...I wonder if the FX-1200's would work for you although they seem very "boomy" in regards to bass (though that could have something to do with the cab and choice of guitar). You could be fighting to tame that the whole time. Glad you are happy with your Kone set up.

  • One thing that escapes me is the imprint feature. For every profile that sounds good one on the imprints 3 or 4 will not sound good (meaning better with the included cab or IR's of my choice).

    this shouldn’t be a surprise as the speaker affects the tone of any rig and some amps sond better with one speaker than another. A Vox profile tends to sound good with the Celestion Blue imprint as that is the typical Vox sound we are all accustomed to hearing. Now play the same profile through a V30 and it not sound as good. A good test is to compare the imprint of the same speaker as was used in the original rig (normally detailed in the inspector meta tags).


    now that you can save different imprints for each rig it should be possible to get the Kone to sound great with every rig.

  • this shouldn’t be a surprise as the speaker affects the tone of any rig and some amps sond better with one speaker than another. A Vox profile tends to sound good with the Celestion Blue imprint as that is the typical Vox sound we are all accustomed to hearing. Now play the same profile through a V30 and it not sound as good. A good test is to compare the imprint of the same speaker as was used in the original rig (normally detailed in the inspector meta tags).


    now that you can save different imprints for each rig it should be possible to get the Kone to sound great with every rig.

    True regarding speakers and I tend to do that. My words may have been confusing and referred to some profiles do not sound good to me any imprint (not just matching to its real world counterpart). It seems imprints are the reason for the Kones I am have great success using cabs associated with various profiles. Happy about that and if an imprint sounds good or better it is a bonus.

  • I have both, the Kemper Power Kone and the Celestion F12-200X in a 112 cab. Really no comparison. The Kone can sound very realistic like a real guitar amp/speaker in a room. The F12-200X is a little weird and sounds edgy compared to the Kone. This might be due to its integrated tweeter. Not a fan. Sold two of them already. Love the Power Kone.