Kemper powered Kab

  • Now if I decided to stay with kemper brand, being a Canadian I can expect to pay more for future products for no explainable reason. I know shipping is more but and I understand those extra costs but I’m not paying more because they decided to charge us more than other countries. I see a small markup on other brands but this is to much for me. I want to clarify I am not bashing kemper products though they are certainly good.

    could there be a different Canadian import tariff on the powered cab because it's got electronics in it? or it's in some funky category of goods with a higher import tariff?

  • could there be a different Canadian import tariff on the powered cab because it's got electronics in it? or it's in some funky category of goods with a higher import tariff?

    There is no tariff, they are selling this from Germany we have to pay import duty.

  • I wish this powered cab would have included the possibility to drive additional passive Kemper Cab with the same integrated amp. It's not that there would have been any indications for this option, but I was just hoping for that. :D


    I don't really know what to do, should I get rid of the passive cab + SD Powerstage 170 and buy this active cab instead? Or keep this current setup and buy active cab to have stereo setup? Anyway, I'm not a fan of this passive cab + external amp so I guess I have to think about that again.. :/

  • I have had a few people scoff at me for putting my non-powered Kemper Rack in an enclosure that looks like an amp head (see avatar pic to left). Now I have a feeling it will look perfect sitting on a Kemper Power Kab!

  • I wish this powered cab would have included the possibility to drive additional passive Kemper Cab with the same integrated amp. It's not that there would have been any indications for this option, but I was just hoping for that. :D


    I don't really know what to do, should I get rid of the passive cab + SD Powerstage 170 and buy this active cab instead? Or keep this current setup and buy active cab to have stereo setup? Anyway, I'm not a fan of this passive cab + external amp so I guess I have to think about that again.. :/

    well that’s why I was convincing a cabinet builder to provide me a custom 1x12 cab with built in power, powercon and volume pot. It wasn’t so much more expensive than the powered Kabinet. And it looks like my old Marshall cabs (although way smaller than the 4x12). Maybe there are some businesses around your town?!

  • I wish this powered cab would have included the possibility to drive additional passive Kemper Cab with the same integrated amp. It's not that there would have been any indications for this option, but I was just hoping for that. :D


    I don't really know what to do, should I get rid of the passive cab + SD Powerstage 170 and buy this active cab instead? Or keep this current setup and buy active cab to have stereo setup? Anyway, I'm not a fan of this passive cab + external amp so I guess I have to think about that again.. :/

    I guess its driven by why to you want 2 Kabs? Is it for stereo? If so you only have 2 options, 2 powred Kabs or a stereo power amp.


    If you don;t want stereo, why not swap your unpowered for powered Rack/Toaster ?


    I bought the powered rack and drive 2 Kabinets....very happy.

  • I guess its driven by why to you want 2 Kabs? Is it for stereo? If so you only have 2 options, 2 powred Kabs or a stereo power amp.


    If you don;t want stereo, why not swap your unpowered for powered Rack/Toaster ?


    I bought the powered rack and drive 2 Kabinets....very happy.

    To have stereos setup, for sure! Like said, not really surprised that this is not possible with the new powered cab, but would have been nice to have as many of us have unpowered Kempers and passible kemper cab. Probably the powered toaster would be the way to go. It's just that the unpowered toaster has nice empty compartment on the back to store my wireless receiver :)

  • I seriously have to congratulate you and your team for the ability to create such cool equipment, and then surprising us with the availability.

    Way to go team!

  • Looking forward to actually hearing this thing. I really hope that it can hold up in a gig situation with a full band and horn section. Could be a game-changer for a lot of us.

    I can't imagine 200 watts with the speaker generally pointed toward you wouldn't work on anything except the loudest of loud stages. If it doesn't.....I (genuinely) hope you're using ear protection. :)

    I've routinely used half that wattage with a solid-state power amp with a 112 and had zero trouble hearing myself. Didn't have to push the amp past 4.

    “Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

  • I can't imagine 200 watts with the speaker generally pointed toward you wouldn't work on anything except the loudest of loud stages. If it doesn't.....I (genuinely) hope you're using ear protection. :)

    I've routinely used half that wattage with a solid-state power amp with a 112 and had zero trouble hearing myself. Didn't have to push the amp past 4.

    Although the power rack is 600w, the unpowered kabinet is also rated at 200w and so far it keeps up easily with my loud band.

  • Although the power rack is 600w, the unpowered kabinet is also rated at 200w and so far it keeps up easily with my loud band.

    Yeah....the 600 watts is to give enough power for bass players. Not so much for guitarists.

    “Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

  • Thank you CK, I appreciate the clarification. I was upset by the disparity in prices for Canadians compared to every other currency listed. I really couldn’t it figure out, wasn’t making any sense. I understand that the units are mass shipped to the U.S saving on shipping so I expect to pay more when you have to send an individual unit to a customer but that was a little much LOL.

  • Thanks everybody for your interest !


    On several facebook forums questions have arised about the clean headroom and loudness of the Kemper Power Kabinet. I had to learn that there is not many good explainations out there that is comprehensive for everybody. I‘ll give it a try here on our forum. Please share, if you like it!




    The Power Kabinet equipped with the ICEpower 300AS Class D amplifier. The Kone speaker is made for a continuous power of 200 Watts. This is the amount of power that the speaker can deliver for a long time without overheating. Distorted guitar sounds are quite flat in power consumption, but clean guitars are peaky at pick attacks. So are drums in music. This is why every speaker system has a higher peak wattage, that is rarely communicated to the public by serious manufacturers, as it is easily confused with the continuous wattage, and wrongfully preferred as the true horsepower of the system.


    Peaks without distortion need much higher wattage, so everything will heat up. But the peaks are to short to accumulate too much heat. You can easily put 200 Watts into a 100 Watt lightbulb, but you should not do so longer than a few milliseconds. And then you should let it cool down for another few milliseconds before you do it again. This is exacty what your pick attack does with the speaker. The above is not only true for the Kemper Power Kabinet, but for all active and passive speakers of other companies out there.


    The Power Kabinet delivers a peak wattage of more than 600 Watts. The power amp of the Kemper Power Head and Power Rack delivers more than 1200 Watts peak, and our Kone speaker can handle it, as long as the continuous power of 200 Watts is not exceeded.


    To visualize the cruical continuous power, the Profiler contains a wattage meter that shows the power load into the Kone. So you get an impression of how little continuous wattage is needed to kill yourself.


    We will soon have a software update that features a wattage meter for the unpowered Profilers, to visualize the power for a connected Kemper Power Kabinet.


    Bass frequencies typically consume the most wattage.

    On the „Kemper Kone“ Page in the Profiler there is a „Bass Boost“ switch. This is for compensating the bass loss, when you lift the Kabinet on a stand (and this is the only purpose)!

    If you ever feel that you are pushing too much power into your Kone/Kabinet, put it back on the floor, switch off „Bass Boost“ and let the reflections of the floor do the work for your low-end. This works since 70 years of guitar amplification and will bring your system down to about half the wattage.


    If you had to apply this solution to tame it town to 200 Watts, you might start to face social problems, as your singer might have left the band for you playing too loud, and your bass player left for you producing too much bass frequencies. That is with a 1x12 only.


    And there might be the case that you exceed the peak wattage, that means exceeding the clean headroom of the power amplifier with your pick attacks. We have learned that solid state power amplifiers produce hard clipping when overdriven. Not with the Profiler. Since day one we feature a soft clipping on all outputs, much softer than any vacuum tube. The Kemper Power Kabinet is perfectly matched to this soft clipping. Driving your clean guitar into this softclipping is about unnoticable for many decibels, then it starts to sound nice, unfortunately. This might be the time when the rest of the band might quit ...


    Recently I did a test at home with the Power Cabinet, to check the sound of music tracks, when the drums hit the soft clipping under full load. I had to wear noise canceling headphones and I scared my kids.


    How about even more power? (The band has gone already)

    Combine four Kones into a 4x12 and have 800 Watts of continous power. In combination with the Power Head or Rack this forms a nice bass stack as well.


    Do 4x12 push more air than a 1x12?

    Yes, for sure! Its pure physics. As you all know, guitar speakers have a beam, that focus high and mid frequencies on the middle axis. The beam is caused by pushing high frequencies through a large 12 inch speaker diaphragm. (This is why small tweeters have been invented later, they don‘t have much beam. The Kone also has a slightly relaxed beam for high frequencies)


    A 4x12 cabinet can be seen as a 24 inch speaker in a square! This lets the beam frequencies drop by an octave and pushes deep frequencies directly to your stomach.

    There is no replacement for displacement.


    CK