New Kemper Kone....Troubleshooting

  • I wanted to share my experience with my new Kemper Kone in case it may help anyone else out with their purchase.


    First thing I did was put it in a closed back cabinet with similar dimensions to the Kabinet and fire it up.

    At lower volumes it was...okay, though there seemed to be a slight unpleasant distortion in the high end.

    When I cranked it up that high end distortion became VERY evident and there was a low end rattle. So far... not so good

    Then after playing for a while I heard a slight pop and silence =O......:cursing:

    After a few expletives, I calmed down and started sniffing around, no blown speaker smell at all, this was promising,

    I then realized the back of the cab had vibrated so much it popped out the speaker cable. Nice work Kemper Kone !!


    The next day inspected the cab, the back was some sort of plastic which is now trashed, but everything else was baltic birch.

    I glued in bracing at all corners, added a layer of poly fill covered it with a t-shirt, and replaced the back with 1/2" MDF which I also braced.


    The result was a drastic improvement. it sounded and felt SOLID. However there was still some high end unpleasantness.


    What I realized is that the cab presets are still active in the cab section even when the Kone is activated in the output section.

    My preset was on a vintage 30 preset which in combination with the Kone was giving an artificial twinge to my tone.

    I found a better cab preset (C IR Creamback M 112) and I'm a happy Kemper! This thing sounds great!!!


    So if you guys are having problems with the Kone - make sure your cab is well built and SOLID (this made the biggest difference by far.)

    Then check ur cab preset in the cab section.


    This speaker sounds every bit as big as my EVM12L !

    I will be doing a head to head comparison with my Ev Thiele cab soon, just for the heck of it, I'll let you guys know how the imprint compares.


    Cheers!

  • Thanks for sharing that story, great info in it! Cool thing 8)

    Then after playing for a while I heard a slight pop and silence =O ...... :cursing:

    After a few expletives, I calmed down and started sniffing around, no blown speaker smell at all, this was promising,

    I then realized the back of the cab had vibrated so much it popped out the speaker cable. Nice work Kemper Kone !!

    That part made my day... :thumbup::D:D:D

  • None of this should come as a surprise for people having consulted the five pages dedicated to KEMPER Kone in the Main Manual. It also helps to adapt precise terminology. Not sure, what you are exactly referring to as "cabinet preset" in this context: a cabinet PROFILE, an imported impulse response, a Speaker Imprint ...

  • What I realized is that the cab presets are still active in the cab section even when the Kone is activated in the output section.

    I don't have a Kone, but my understanding is that you select Monitor Cab Off in the Output section when you're using a Kone imprint. There also is an override on page 2 of Cab parameters to choose a different imprint. However, since I don't have one to be sure ...

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

  • None of this should come as a surprise for people having consulted the five pages dedicated to KEMPER Kone in the Main Manual. It also helps to adapt precise terminology. Not sure, what you are exactly referring to as "cabinet preset" in this context: a cabinet PROFILE, an imported impulse response, a Speaker Imprint ...

    sorry Burkhard, which five pages in which of the manuals ? Is the reference manual or the basics the 'main manual' ? i can't seem to find anything in the TOC.




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    free you mind and your ass will follow …

  • ah cheers for that ... so i was looking through the manuals by using the links in the help menu of the rig manager and it turns out these are all v5 ... that's why i couldn't find aynthing Kabinet in the manuals. also did not know that the addendum is now officially the main manual :)




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

    free you mind and your ass will follow …

  • None of this should come as a surprise for people having consulted the five pages dedicated to KEMPER Kone in the Main Manual. It also helps to adapt precise terminology. Not sure, what you are exactly referring to as "cabinet preset" in this context: a cabinet PROFILE, an imported impulse response, a Speaker Imprint ...

    Well I'm not fluent in your precise terminology, so what I am referring to is when you hold down the cabinet button, release, then turn the browse knob and it says "Browse Cabinet Preset" at the top left of the screen (So let me know the proper name for that, thx) And unless I am mistaken I did not find anything referencing what I am referring to within those 5 pages. Maybe it is obvious to others that this would still be active, it was not to me.



    Hi,

    What about your comparison with the Thiel box?

    Have you tried the Kone in the Thiele box?

    I did not put the speaker in the Thiele box, but I did do an A B comparison (with a looped guitar riff) between to Kone and the Ev in the Thiele.

    It was a fairly similar sound signature, the main difference I noted was the Kone was not as tight in the low end and there was much more of it, and it was significantly brighter.

    I think with some eq adjustments it would be very easy to get the Kone to sound very close to the Ev, if that was your goal.

  • Hi,

    What about your comparison with the Thiel box?

    Have you tried the Kone in the Thiele box?

    Quick update. I put the Kone in my Thiele box.

    Love it!
    As much as I would like to avoid putting the speaker in a box that is built like a cinder block... it will stay there. Tames the highs a bit and tightens the lows compared to the closed back cab it was in. Which, it’s worth mentioning again was not a Kemper Kabinet but a 1/2” B birch cab with very similar dimensions.

    Super happy with this Speaker!
    Side note, my reverbs and delays sound significantly better compared to a typical guitar cab. I’m assuming that’s because all of the high end info that is naturally rolled of by a guitar speaker is present in the Kone :thumbup: ??