Kemper powered or Kemper or Stage with powerstage170?

  • Kemper powered or Kemper or Stage with powerstage170?


    I am on the fence of selling my powered CLR

    And getting a Gemini passive 1/12…


    I am almost a year into the Kemper … and have been thinking powered may be a better option For live…


    curious if anyone thinks one way powered is better than another?

  • I went with the Stage when I bought mine for the simple reason that the Kemper and the foot controller are all in one unit. To me that is less things to carry and setup. There is no cable between a foot controller and the Kemper unit to mess with. It just simplified everything for a gigging rig for me. It also has the latest hardware improvements in it.

  • I have the Powered Head and a remote on the floor. I use real cabinets. It works for me and live setup is still a breeze. I like to be able to make adjustments without bending over, like a real amp. Now...I also have the SD170 power unit that I use with a Helix, but have tried it on the Kemper, shutting off the Kemper power section of course. To me it sounded the same.

  • These days I'm mostly just jamming with friends at houses, jam rooms, etc. My preference is the powered head with a passive Kemper Kab, since it looks and works just like an amp and I don't need to care about whatever PA is in place.

    If I got to do it over with what's now available I'd get a Stage and a powered Kab (or 2), I think.

  • I’d go powered head/rack myself.


    Some of the stages (if you could call them that) I’ve been on wouldn’t really tolerate something the size of the Stage. You could get it on there….but you’d also need to be statuesque the whole time.

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

  • I think this is more of a question of your own preferences. Do you use the Kemper mostly just for amp tones, and use a pedal board for your drive & effects? Don't need to do much switching on the Kemper itself? Keep the head and CLR you have because there probably won't be much of a sound difference compared to the Gemini.


    If you (like me) use lots of Kemper effects and switch rigs a lot, go with a stage but keep your powered CLR. There's probably not much difference between the power amp of the CLR and the PS170 anyways (I have a PS170 and it's just plain clean power). You'll have everything you need for footswitching, and just one cable to send to your CLR.