Okay, here is what I see possibly happening.
Even though the OP has a perfectly good M-B Roadster amp and a couple of Thiel Cabs, he appears reluctant to test his KPA with it. Instead of waiting around for the UPS driver to deliver his Yammy DXR10...he could at least try the KPA with the Roadster (as power amp) and Thiel Cab. If I had such a terrible first impression experience with my new KPA using headphones, I wouldn't hesitate in immediately trying an alternative KPA set-up and implementation...especially when all the equipment is right at hand. But that is just me.
I mean, there is a possibility, however small, that FRFR will not be the OP's cup of tea. Now, I certainly hope that he does love his KPA with an FRFR setup, as I think that the full power and benefits of the Kemper are realized in a FRFR based setup. Nevertheless, the fact remains that there are some guitarists that can never successfully make the transition and paradigm shift to FRFR and the whole "amp through mic'd cab" sound. At least with the tube amp + traditional guitar cabinet setup, you have a bonafide backup plan...should the whole FRFR thing not be your cup of tea.
Cheers,
John
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That's partially true. I am reluctant to test it with the Mesa because that is my second choice in terms of how I want to use this. The main reason I bought the Kemper, was to get a variety of amps, (with high quality sound) and be able to lessen the amount of gear I'm carrying around to gigs. By the time I get home from work each night, play with my daughter, have dinner, I have limited time to do much with the Kemper during the week. So rather than rush it, I'm going to wait until I get my Yamaha (which will be tomorrow). I've got a gig tomorrow night, but I'm off all of Saturday and Sunday and will spend the majority of those 2 days with this new setup. If during those 2 days, my impression of the Kemper doesn't change, then I'll try it through my Mesa's power amp. If I end up liking that sound, then I'll keep the Kemper, return the Yamaha, sell my Mesa Roadster and just buy a rackmount poweramp (maybe a Fryette Power Station) and use it with my Thiel cabs. That again, is my second option because in that scenario, I'm not going to be taking full advantage of the true profiles the way they were meant to be. But if I get to that scenario at all, it's because I felt the profiles sounded like crap live through the Yamaha (which I'm hoping won't be the case). Plus, if I go the route of using it with a power amp and cabs, then it doesn't really lighten my load all that much, which was part of the reason I bought this.
So between now and Saturday, I'm just focusing on making sure the firmware is up to date, enabling Pure Cab, and making all the little tweaks like that which are recommended, as well as downloading a bunch of high quality, recommended profiles (the Tim Owens stuff, some of the free Amp Factory presets, the free Michael Britt 20-pack, and some of the profiles that are free on the Kemper rig exchange that have been recommended to me). So then on Saturday, all that stuff will be out of the way and I can just go straight to the high quality profiles and see how they sound. If none of them work for me, then I'll try the Mesa setup. If that doesn't work, then I'm just returning everything and sticking with my Mesa rig.
My preference would be for the Yamaha setup to blow me away. Because then I could get rid of my Mesa Roadster, my 2 thiel cabs, my G-System and a few other pedals that are no longer needed. Selling all that stuff alone will pay for my Kemper and Yamaha. And I'll have a much lighter and more portable rig. Just swapping the G-System with the Kemper controller would be a significant weight drop in itself. So believe me, I've got a ton of different reasons why I want this Kemper setup to work. I'm not worried at all about missing the "pushed air" feel from cabs, because 1x12 cabs don't push much air to begin with. So going from a 1x12 cab to a 1x10 speaker, shouldn't be TOO big of a difference. For me, it's more about volume and being able to hear my sound loud and clear on stage than it is having it push air back at me.