Kemper stage vs Head speed

I have both, boot up seems to be the same

IMHO, this is not the main point to decide whether the stage or the Head is good for you (i've seen in another thread that the amount of RIGs in the device has an incidence on the boot up;) )

The most important will be the way you gonna use the device.

Is that for recording / playing cool at home or for playing live/with a band ?

I thought they were built with the same processor? The Stage has an extra stereo fx loop that might come in useful, but the classic profilers have better access for programming on the unit. You can copy stomps, stack and effects as a block.

you'll need a powered kemper or an external poweramp if you're going to use it with the kemper kabinet

Quote from Vannix

I'm going to use it both in studio/home and live, I also want to get the kabinet to chill and play with the amp in the room feeling! I think the Toaster Head would be the best choice for me, but given that the stage is 7 years younger, and my friend toaster is really slow too boot up, I was trying to understand if the newer kemper is faster and has some additional power backed in (looking forward to additional efx updates, as I want to go full kemper with the remote)

In my opinion, you should choose the Stage.

I was coming from a Helix Lt which is half-price. I didn't want to waste more to obtain a remote for my needs, so the Stage was the best solution....

As said Karlic, the processor is the same, if your friend is close or over 1000 Rigs, this can be the reason why it takes time to start up.

For programming directly on the device, the Head is better but now, with Rig manager, you can do this way far, far quicker...

I think, it's better to take the Stage and add a Kemper Kabinet + poweramp (approximatly the remote's price )

The stage is blazing fast to me. It takes about 20 seconds to start up, which is typical for a processor of this caliber (Helix and Fractal FM3 also take this long to start). Patch changes are instant, which is very unusual for processors. In fact, one of the reasons why I sold my Fractal FM3 was because of the lag when changing scenes which are supposed to be fast. I don't think you'd be disappointed with the Stage.

If the stage would have been out before I bough my KPA rack, I would have gotten the stage .... but not because it is better, but because it is considerably less expensive.

Now that I have the rack and the foot controller, my rig setup is actually less messy than a KPA stage would be (I know, it seems pretty counter intuitive but hear me out).

With my KPA rack, I have outfitted it with a patch panel on the back of the case. My rig setup is as follows:

1) Set KPA case on top of X32 rack case face down (I have a big read arrow to tell me the right direction to do this)

2) pop off back case cover

3) Plug in 2x 3ft XLR cables from KPA to X32 rack inputs 6,7

4) Plug in power from X32 Rack power strip to KPA

5) Plug in ethercon from KPA to foot controller

Now, the only cable that I have near my microphone (other than the microphone cable) is my ethercon cable going to my foot controller. This provides a VERY clean stage setup.

Now, you can do the exact same thing with the KPA stage, but you will have many more cables around you to worry about taping down and picking back up.

Still, as small as my rig is, the stage is smaller still ;). I won't sell my rack though. Just too good of a gig rig when all is said and done. For practice, the stage would be perfect since I could have less to carry.

The Stage has an updated AD/DA converter, which results in improved flexibility with spdif connections (Stage can be master or slave, whereas Head/Rack have to be master). Otherwise, processor- and speed-wise, I’ve noticed no difference between any of the units, and I’ve had all three. The Stage does seem slightly faster to boot, but that might be due to the fact that I have less profiles than ever stored in the unit. Switching between profiles in Performance mode is instantaneous on all units, though the LEDs and screen on the Remote update a split second behind the audio, which can be deceiving at first.