Is the Profiler Stage reliable yet?

  • Hey everyone, looking for some advice here. I bought a Stage right when they came out, and after getting two broken units I had to get a refund. I've waited years for a Kemper, and even with this bad experience I would still like to get one. The Stage is the ideal format for me, and it's the best price of all the profilers. The only thing is, I don't know if I can trust the Stage in the long run, whereas I know the Head and Rack are solid. Even with a 3 year warranty, I'm hesitant, because it's a lot of money and for that price I want to get something that will last me a very long time.


    What do you guys think? In recent months, have you heard of a lot of hardware problems with the Stage? If there are any people who have been in the Kemper game for a long time, do you know if the early Heads and Racks were unreliable for a while before they got them to be rock solid? How much of a gamble do you guys think it would be to get a Stage at this point? Best to not risk it and get a Head or Rack? Or wait another year or so to get a Stage? Any thoughts would be really appreciated. Thank you!

  • I got my Kemper Stage around September and it's been solid as well. I've had it give me an error code a 2 or 3 times but only in browser mode. I've never had any problems in performance mode and bugs reported with the Stage tend to get fixed pretty quickly once found.


    I'd say it's a good call to get a Stage. They're solid and since the recent updates, have only gotten better:thumbup:

  • Bought mine last Sunday and brought it back to lab check today at the local dealer.. :(


    Faulty footswitches (hardware issue).

    The same common issue that already described in the forum by others..


    It really sucks.. Until I've learnt all the basic stuff, got some cool profiles and started to have fun.

  • Sounds like you may have gotten old stock. That issue had been resolved many months ago.

  • That's possible... I guess it's different if you buy it on a local store or directly from Kemper (or from countries that the stock is replaced often).

    I can see how that would make a difference in a situation like this. I got my Kemper Stage from American Musical Supply, and I pre-ordered it right after I saw that some of the stuff from the early batches had been fixed.


    But with that being said, I always encourage people to support their local music shop! I hope in this situation, you still can get a solid unit and still get to keep on supporting your local shop :)


    Good luck and I'm sure your next unit will be a great one! (any Kemper unit without any problems is great imo lol)^^

  • There will always be the odd fault that slips through the net (hardware or software) and some anomalies may never get noticed. I guess it's down to how you use it. It's tough for any equipment maker to test everything and every eventuality and sometimes just bad luck if you get a duff one but i appreciate that can lessen confidence. There's certain manufacture's gear i refuse to buy now based on my own bad experiences.

    As software (in this case, the operating system) gets more complex there's a higher chance of bugs and wot not are likely (isnt there a name for this?)


    if you're the sort of player that uses minimal features and a handful of sounds in light use (home/studio player) you may have less demanding needs..

    If on the other hand you like to dive deep and run it "hard" you may encounter issues. Certainly, with any bit of gear, you want something that can live up to your demands. Beyond that you can see why the "big boys" take out 2 or 3 backups of everything. Always useful to have a backup of anything you rely on, music or otherwise.

  • I can see how that would make a difference in a situation like this. I got my Kemper Stage from American Musical Supply, and I pre-ordered it right after I saw that some of the stuff from the early batches had been fixed.


    But with that being said, I always encourage people to support their local music shop! I hope in this situation, you still can get a solid unit and still get to keep on supporting your local shop :)


    Good luck and I'm sure your next unit will be a great one! (any Kemper unit without any problems is great imo lol)^^

    Sure, I do support them.

    Meanwhile, I've received a replacement unit (last one from the display) and I'll get a new one when the next shipment arrives (hopefully in a month).

  • Sure, I do support them.

    Meanwhile, I've received a replacement unit (last one from the display) and I'll get a new one when the next shipment arrives (hopefully in a month).

    I'm glad you're getting all the stuff sorted and that you're being taken care of in that way. That's great to hear :)


    I can totally appreciate how you continued to support your local music shop. But I also know that buying from an online retailer can have its advantages too. Either way, we're all people in the same boat, just trying to get our gear to play/make music :) and what we're doing with the gear we have, and how it improves our lives, is what matters the most.


    Sorry for the tangent. I didn't wanna give the impression that I was pushing you to buy local in my last post lol. I know it depends on the situation and, I support people just getting their gear in general. So I'm super happy that you got this all worked out and that you're getting a new and working unit ^^