I've hit the right component combination for my rig, my Kemper sounds awesome!

  • I received a Powerstage 700 Friday evening I had ordered, I took my Sweetwater sales rep's advice and stayed with the Eminence EM12 and stopped pursuing frfr solutions that I was struggling with. Switching from the TC Electronic Bam200 to the Powerstage 700 made a huge difference, not only in the sound of my rig but the touch responsiveness when playing. I wasn't expecting that much of a change, it was a purchase to allow me to move towards a stereo setup, but I'll take it nonetheless.

    I did load one of my Kones in the 112 cabinet and it sounded better than it had before but still had a fizz that seems to be present over the whole eq spectrum of the speaker. But that was my experience with all the other frfr speakers I tried, so it's just me and not the frfr speakers.

    To be honest I was getting close to selling the profiler and going back to a tube amp but today I'm very happy I kept trying different options. I've been auditioning profiles and with the eq on the Powerstage and monitor output dialed in each one is a very good representation of the amp profiled, different in tone and characteristics.

    I've never had an amp sound this good by itself, let alone with the benefit of of being a chameleon of multiple great sounding amps in one unit with more stomp boxes and effects available than I'll ever use. I imagine that I represent a very, very small category of users, I no longer do multitrack recording nor do I intend on playing live where I need to be mic'd up, so I'm not really using the Kemper as intended but as a combo amp. But as of this weekend it has become the greatest combo amp I've ever encountered and has surpassed all my expectations, it just took some work on my part to find the component combination that best suited me, and that combination is killer!

  • I think it's because Seymour Duncan is still the same incredible company that it's always been, in the US, while TC were bought by the company that owns Behringer in the Philippines in 2015. One is professional equipment, the other is mid to low level enthusiast stuff.

  • I use the SD700 at practice with two Kabinets.

    Love it!

    Glad to hear you're sorted out!

    Me too, I can't accept defeat by an inanimate object, it drives me bonkers! I was able to noodle for an hour or so earlier and never left one profile I was using, just kicked a drive and delay in and out, no parameter adjustments, that works well for me as I need to avoid menu's, they consume me if I let them.


    I think it's because Seymour Duncan is still the same incredible company that it's always been, in the US, while TC were bought by the company that owns Behringer in the Philippines in 2015. One is professional equipment, the other is mid to low level enthusiast stuff.

    The TC worked, but it doesn't sound as good as the powerstage to me. I ran sound a few years ago for a Bluegrass band and the bass player used a Bam200 hooked up to one of their cabinets with 10" speakers in it, in that situation it sounded really good, filled the small venue but it is a bass amp, the tone controls on the powerstage work much better with my guitar rig tone. I plugged my guitar directly into the powerstage and it was a usable clean tone, I don't own any pedals anymore to try this out but I think you could run an overdive and reverb in front of it in a pinch.

  • Me too, I can't accept defeat by an inanimate object, it drives me bonkers! I was able to noodle for an hour or so earlier and never left one profile I was using, just kicked a drive and delay in and out, no parameter adjustments, that works well for me as I need to avoid menu's, they consume me if I let them.


    The TC worked, but it doesn't sound as good as the powerstage to me. I ran sound a few years ago for a Bluegrass band and the bass player used a Bam200 hooked up to one of their cabinets with 10" speakers in it, in that situation it sounded really good, filled the small venue but it is a bass amp, the tone controls on the powerstage work much better with my guitar rig tone. I plugged my guitar directly into the powerstage and it was a usable clean tone, I don't own any pedals anymore to try this out but I think you could run an overdive and reverb in front of it in a pinch.

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  • I think it's because Seymour Duncan is still the same incredible company that it's always been, in the US, while TC were bought by the company that owns Behringer in the Philippines in 2015. One is professional equipment, the other is mid to low level enthusiast stuff.

    That might be true but I suspect the biggest reason is that one is a dedicated “neutral” sounding poweramp doing the job it was designed for while the other is a bass amp being forced to try and be something it wasn’t designed for.

  • Really glad you got there but I still think the learning here is:


    1) Use a transparent amp...


    2) Your sound will be tuned to your monitors. I understand why FRFR isn't for you and I agree, its not the best for Amp in the room - which is what you are after. I still think the Kones would be better but you need to set up the KPA for them. In other words, your Em12's as guitar speakers are adding plenty of colour and therefore covering up the fizz that is there. For example, I ran a 4x12 cab for 18 months when I first got my KPA, and I was miking my speakers. First time I went direct, the sound was awful. That was because my profiles were actually not great but fully masked by my cab. I had to re-dial my profiles in...


    Everything that adds colour adds unpredictability in my mind.


    I would also suggest, if you haven't already, try Di profiles.

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    I found his channel and have been watching his demos for about a year, I enjoy his videos. That's tunnel vision on my part, I can get uber focused on one detail and other information gets kicked to the recycle bin in my brain lol! Now I remember seeing videos of the powerstage 170 years ago but didn't make the connection until you posted this.

  • I had not tried Di profiles before but I have a bunch in some profile packs I bought last year, I dropped them in a rig manager folder a couple of hours ago and started going through them. I set all the eq's flat and found a few I liked then tried those against their studio profile counterpart, readjusting the eq when switching back and forth. They sounded pretty close to one another, different enough you could tell them apart when they are isolated, but if I were to sit in and jam with some friends of mine it would be hard to tell one from the other in that context. I've ran sound for them quite a few times, we just mic the vocals and keys are direct, guitars and bass - I just have them turn their amps up or down until the overall mix sounds decent, it's a very small venue.

  • I received a Powerstage 700 Friday evening I had ordered, I took my Sweetwater sales rep's advice and stayed with the Eminence EM12 and stopped pursuing frfr solutions that I was struggling with. Switching from the TC Electronic Bam200 to the Powerstage 700 made a huge difference, not only in the sound of my rig but the touch responsiveness when playing. I wasn't expecting that much of a change, it was a purchase to allow me to move towards a stereo setup, but I'll take it nonetheless.

    I did load one of my Kones in the 112 cabinet and it sounded better than it had before but still had a fizz that seems to be present over the whole eq spectrum of the speaker. But that was my experience with all the other frfr speakers I tried, so it's just me and not the frfr speakers.

    To be honest I was getting close to selling the profiler and going back to a tube amp but today I'm very happy I kept trying different options. I've been auditioning profiles and with the eq on the Powerstage and monitor output dialed in each one is a very good representation of the amp profiled, different in tone and characteristics.

    I've never had an amp sound this good by itself, let alone with the benefit of of being a chameleon of multiple great sounding amps in one unit with more stomp boxes and effects available than I'll ever use. I imagine that I represent a very, very small category of users, I no longer do multitrack recording nor do I intend on playing live where I need to be mic'd up, so I'm not really using the Kemper as intended but as a combo amp. But as of this weekend it has become the greatest combo amp I've ever encountered and has surpassed all my expectations, it just took some work on my part to find the component combination that best suited me, and that combination is killer!

    From here: https://www.parts-express.com/…egend-em12-spec-sheet.pdf


    That speaker has a pretty big bump in the eq from 2k to 4k and then a super steep cut of anything beyond that. This is what is taking the "fizz" out and is changing your perception of the sound IMO.


    Additionally, the "impact" you are hearing is because the new amplifier is WAY more powerful than the old one. In fact, it is marginally too powerful for that speaker (the speaker is rated at 200W while the amp is rated for 350W into 8 Ohm ... which is what your speaker is). Guitar speakers seem to be able to take a bit more abuse than FRFR though and the speaker impedance is only as low as 8 Ohm between 200 - 400 Hz. Everywhere else, it is quite a bit higher so it is very likely that the amp is well matched to this speaker's impedance curve.


    Glad that sorted it for you!

  • I had an engineer from Eminence that was kind enough to communicate back and forth by email before I bought the em12. 's. He recommended it as an alternative for people like me that just can't acclimate to a frfr type monitor. Valvetrain uses it in a tube amp supposedly voiced to be relatively flat to use with modelers, everything I tried had it's own character though, they all differed.

    The powerstage is a little more forgiving even though it is a more powerful amp. The TC volume was a little like a Suzuki RM 125 2 strokes throttle, it went from zero to blast with a little turn of the knob, the powerstage ramps up slowly which is nice. But some of that may be perceived volume on my part, I could actually be playing as loud or louder than before but the overall tone seems a little softer now. I've been having trouble with my ears for sometime but was able to practice a couple of hours today without any ear fatigue or pain, and the shelving a few feet away rattled quite a bit so air was moving across the room at a brisk pace👍

  • I also went from BAM200 to powerstage 700.


    My main reason was that when I wanted to push some dB's for lead the BAM could not handle it and it hit the ceiling (the volume even dropped due to it's saturation). I need to keep up with a 100W tuba amp so I need a lot of headroom ... The SD can keep up with ease !


    For "normal" loudness the BAM did fine, the SD's 700 W is a walk in the park. Also the input signal strenght is important, never knew (and still don't) have an idea how hot the input should be (the BAM did show the input signal with the colour of the LED, the SD does not I suppose)


    Raf


    PS : in a recent rig rundown from Dave Mustaine they aslo have the powerstage 700's in their racks to power some onstage cabinets (besides the in-ears)

    Kemper stage with 2 mission pedals (in a Thon line 6 FBV case) and a Zilla 212 (K-100/V30) , SD powerstage 700 poweramp

  • Oh, yes the Suzuki RM125.....I loved that bike with its crazy powerband.....that analogy made me smile!!!!

    Me too. I was generally a CR250 kind of guy though since I did way more scrambles riding than motorcross. That 125 light-switch powerband sucks on hills :). My wife says I have to live with my pictures of doing crazy things on a motorcycle. No more new bikes for me :(.


    To the OP, it seems strange that the amp sensitivity would have been as jerky as an RM125 ;).


    Glad you like your setup now.

  • Me too. I was generally a CR250 kind of guy though since I did way more scrambles riding than motorcross. That 125 light-switch powerband sucks on hills :). My wife says I have to live with my pictures of doing crazy things on a motorcycle. No more new bikes for me :(.


    To the OP, it seems strange that the amp sensitivity would have been as jerky as an RM125 ;).


    Glad you like your setup now.

    CR250 and Suz PE175 guy here.

    Can't believe I didn't break any bones... or worse!

  • CR250 and Suz PE175 guy here.

    Can't believe I didn't break any bones... or worse!

    No broken bones (that I had diagnosed anyway), but got knocked out a couple of times .... and once a guy out in the Idaho dunes thought I was dead.


    Gigging with a Kemper is WAY less dangerous ... but nearly as much fun :).