Kone & Kabinet experiences

  • Now when there has been a lot of Kabinets & Kones sold and the imprint tech has been out there for some time already, I thought it would be interesting to hear about experiences and experiments from the users what comes to findings in actual use.


    Starting myself I was earlier using 100% FRFR and have now moved using mostly Kabinet /w imprints for monitoring both at home and band rehearsals. No gigging yet with the Kabinet, hopefully sooner than later. :)


    I have gone through my go-to profiles and noticed that not all of them 'likes' imprints that much for some reason. Some that I had considered earlier as gems with FRFR (=worked great out-of-the-box with different guitars) suddenly lost the magic through the imprints, no matter which one of them selected. But then again some profiles seem to love them and seemingly benefit from imprints beyond their original Greatness!:love:

    (I'm not mentioning any names here as I'm using 95% commercial offerings and don't wish the thread to be moved nor be personified in any way.)


    Still, have wondered could this 'imprint adaptiveness' be impacted by some profiling phase techniques or is it more about the profile type (Studio) where Kemper has sometimes challenges in the CAB separation part. Or then could the 'magic' just have been in the cabinet part of the profile in some cases. :/


    Experimentations continue, but so far I'm pretty much all convinced and grateful to Kemper for this yet another groundbreaking innovation!8):thumbup:

  • I bought a Kone and put it in a relatively inexpensive birch plywood cab I had lying around, and I've been pretty happy just using the EV imprint. I was using the Creamback since it's my favorite speaker, but it flavored the American-style profiles too much. EV seems to work pretty well. I have mine set as global imprint because when I gig I don't want jarring changes between tones when I switch profiles. Kinda that MBritt "use the same cab for every profile I make" idea. The FRFR mode has been decent with the acoustic simulator as well. Overall I'm quite happy.

    -StumblinMan

    (Gary)

  • I bought two Kones and put them in my Victory 2X12 cab. When I first did it and upgraded my operating system for the Kone feature I was very disappointed. In fact I shoved that cabinet into a spare room where I didn't plan to use it and just figured I'd pull the Kones out when I got the chance and sell them on Reverb.


    But I just kept seeing how much Tone Junkie and others kept raving about how good they were. So a few weeks later I pulled it back in. I had done another update of OS on my Kemper and I think that did it. They sounded fantastic as soon as I plugged them in. I couldn't quit playing. So I ordered another single one that I put in a little Mesa 1X12 cab to leave over at my friends basement where we practice.


    BUT, I do notice that some profiles that sound amazing in FRFR (Mission Engineering Gemini 2) aren't faves at all with my Kones. Like the Top Jimi Van Halen tones in my FRFR are unbelievable. In the Kone just meh. But some marshalls and other heavy amps sound great on the Kones. And cleaner stuff sounds great with either.


    The Kone just sounds like a great REAL amp. And the FRFR sounds like a great heavily produced sound. I like them both but right now I'm crazy about the Kones.


    But I update my OS when every I hook my Kemper to my desktop and did it again recently. Made everything sound thin and nasty. I got it put back to a couple of updates ago and it sounds great again. I'm going to be real reluctant to update unless really necessary now that it sounds good again.

  • Love my Kab, some of the time the different imprints are just flavours, not necessarily better or worse then the original. Can’t say It’s improved any of my favourite profiles though, just different or not as good, but I’m sure it will with more experimentation on some that are not my faves.


    It also reproduces profiles without imprints nicely, gives them a more aitr sound.


    I have an unpowered KPA powered by a SD170 which is great, had my first rehearsal with it recently , kept up with drummer, we are are funk, jazz and blues not metal though.
    Will definitely be looking for a stereo amp and second Kab in the future, maybe a 2 x 12 cab as well which will be more then enough for my one regular small monthly gig when it returns ( I hope)it’s all backline, P.A for vocals only so not just a personal monitor for me.

    New talent management advice to Laura Cox -


    “Laura want to break the internet? let’s shoot another video of you covering the Nightrain solo in the blue singlet, but this time we’ll crank up the air conditioning”.

  • I think the user experience is vastly improved with the Kab. Agreed though, profiles are a bit different, some favs are not as cool and other 'average' ones inexplicably shine with the Kab. I'll likely get a 2nd to build a stereo rig!

  • I'm still really enjoying mine. I've gone through and set appropriate Kone imprints for each profile, so I don't have to mess with it. The Shiva profiles sound great with the V30 imprint.

  • I think the user experience is vastly improved with the Kab. Agreed though, profiles are a bit different, some favs are not as cool and other 'average' ones inexplicably shine with the Kab. I'll likely get a 2nd to build a stereo rig!

    Stereo is great. Well worth doing. I have two Kabinets spaced apart about 4 or 5 feet and love it.

  • Kabinet was not available in the US so I picked up a Seismic 1x12V cabinet and stuck a Kone in it. Using a PS-170 to drive it and so far I'm very impressed. Seems to work well with the rigs I tend towards. Hopefully will get a chance to use at practice later this week and see how it holds up with a drummer and bass player.

  • Power Rack, I have the Kab... using the V30 imprint, tweaked a bit

    I dig it a lot, and 95% what I want.


    I have three 2x12s, regular guitar cabs, that I use most of the time.

    Eventually I'll load one with Kones, though they sound great as is too.

    I just feel having a 2x12 Kab would move the air I am used to.

    Nice to have options!

    Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp, etc... Lugosi Smile

  • I've not used mine in anger yet ( in rehearsal or gig) but so far I really like it. Is it better than an FRFR? Yeah I think so, definitely different.


    I will probably get another to run in mono via my power rack..

  • As soon as they were available in Canada I got a Kabinet and a Kone. I ended up putting the Kone into a Kabinet Klone I hade made for me locally.

    I have used the Kabinet twice at rehearsal (outside) with good success. Tough to get a perfect read on that situation because it's not our usual practice environment.

    That being said it worked really well and I have no reason to doubt it'll be great on our usual stage. Going to try stereo next practice. Not convinced it'll work well for live but it sure sounds lush at home.

  • Finally had a chance to use my Kone (in Seismic cabinet) at practice. I'm very impressed. After a few years of using FRFR systems, I'm thinking this may work out a lot better. The Jensen P12R, in particular, is just brilliant when used with '59 Twin based profiles. Much more "present" and balanced than my Atomic CLR. Not planning to get rid of the CLR at any point in the near future - it has its uses.

  • woohoo .. finally ordered my Kabinet and wil get it tomorrow. major big up to the Kemper team who managed to get my order in just this morning and ship it out just a couple hours later so it arrives tomorrow to another country where i'm currently stayin for a couple of weeks. Kemper peeps are awesome !!!


    can't wait to try it out :P




    -------------------------------------------------------

    free you mind and your ass will follow …

  • woohoo .. finally ordered my Kabinet and wil get it tomorrow. major big up to the Kemper team who managed to get my order in just this morning and ship it out just a couple hours later so it arrives tomorrow to another country where i'm currently stayin for a couple of weeks. Kemper peeps are awesome !!!


    can't wait to try it out :P

    you will love it!

    'You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead' - Stan Laurel

  • Anyone running Kabinets in stereo using Seymour Duncan PowerStage 700?


    Any feedback is appreciated.

    "Tone is in the fingers" is not a necessary response to anything that I might type on any internet forum threads. Thank you.

  • woohoo .. finally ordered my Kabinet and wil get it tomorrow. major big up to the Kemper team who managed to get my order in just this morning and ship it out just a couple hours later so it arrives tomorrow to another country where i'm currently stayin for a couple of weeks. Kemper peeps are awesome !!!


    can't wait to try it out :P

    I really wanted a Kabinet, but they were out of stock everywhere in the US. Kemper America never responded to my inquiry about lead time and Sweetwater couldn't even give me a guess as to when they'd be available. I'm happy with the Seismic cabinet sound-wise, but it is larger and heavier than the Kabinet.

  • vtgearhead yeah the situation has been similar here in EU, fact is thee things sell faster than hot buns. Why don't you just call them, not sure about the US but here they are really friendly peeps on the support line :)


    so i got the Kabinet last week as promised and when i first tried it out i had some really nasty rattling as soon as i hit a bass string. Called them up and they told me that until now they did not have a faulty Kone but some of the kabs had issues with assembly and some bolts/screws not properly tightened. They were happy to have me send it back and get a replacement (apparently despite the sold out status they keep a certain quantity in stock for replacements) but they also said i could easily open up the cab without voiding the warranty and tighten the bolts myself .. which i did. The backpanel didn't wanna come out at first so i took out the connection plate and then used the hole as a handle to pull it out. It's really tightly crammed in there so that was a bit scary. Tightened all the bolts inside a bit more (none of them was obviously loose), put it back together and the rattle was gone. 8o


    And it sounds really amazing. I was also surpised how well it sounds at low volumes, haven't really let it rip yet since i'm not used to play at super loud volumes anymore and will wait until i'm back home to pump it up and go through the Marshall bank. The sound is quite different from what i'm used to playing the toaster through headphones or my monitors but tbh for me all 3 variants sound amazing in their own way. As for the imprints (haven't tried out full range mode yet), personally i think it's a gimmick for nerds (which isn't meant as negative as it probably sounds). Maybe it's because i don't play covers and never wanted to sound like anyone in particular but myself that i've never been one for chasing grails and tbh i rarely care what particular guitar/pups/pedals/amps/cabs i play ... either it inspries me or not ... if it sounds it sounds and i never understood the extensive and sometimes heated debates i see online about which is 'the best' or 'most authentic'. At low and medium volume i (and the other two guitarists in the family) can't hear a huge difference in tone from the different imprints but only subtle frequency shifts .. and all sound good to me. Maybe that perception will evolve over time but i doubt it cause as i said .. to me .. if it sounds it sounds and i don't care much how or why, after over a year and a halfwith the kemper is still don't have any favorites and dial up a different rig almost everytime i play ^^


    the one thing i think is a bit of a design flaw is the position of the rubber feet. It's not super stable with the toaster sitting on top and i'd be afraid to topple the whole rig or rip the toaster from the base with a slight tug on the jack. I think i'm going to redrill the feet all the way to the corners for a bit more stability and probably keep the toaster in the shelf i built for it where it can't fall down. The leather handle and corner thingies are a nice touch ... but still not diggin the green but hey tastes and colors as the french say ...


    so bottom line for me ... sounds amazing, much more 'guitar amp' than over monitors and way better than the couple of standard cabs i tried in the shop or at home ... so once again .. happy Kemper.




    -------------------------------------------------------

    free you mind and your ass will follow …

    Edited 6 times, last by stickman ().

  • I have two Kones in an Avatar open 2 x12. Curious how much difference an actual Kemper cab with Kone would sound? Take the extra speaker out of the equation. Does the closed back, specialty designed cab change or "sweeten" the tone?


    Would love to try one but hate to burn almost $500. USD on the hardware (and not receive much benefit - value).

    Edited once, last by Mookytc ().