I have both a Mission Engineering Gemini 2 cab AND a Victory 2X12 cab loaded with 2 Kemper Kones.
The Top Jimi Van Halen profiles have always blown me away with how much they sound exactly like Eddie's tone through the Genini 2 (FRFR). Just perfect and definitely not thin.
But when I play through my Kemper Kones and I have to say MANY profiles sound AMAZING through that, the Top Jimi Van Halens profiles do sound thin and uninspiring. Not the same experience at all.
The problem I'm having is when I try to import some older KIPR profiles I bought from Top Jimi it won't let me drag and drop or cut and paste them in my local library. I thought it was supposed to convert them to the new type file?
I have been messing with lower gain profiles & turning the gain up and vise versa. Also using the volume knob as it works great too. There is a lot to discover here.
In the Tone Junkie video he said if you take a low gain profile and turn up the gain you will not be getting that amps realistic gain sound. You will be getting a Kemper “fake” gain sound that may or may not sound like the real amp. BUT if you take a higher gain profile of the amp and turn the gain down, the Kemper does a good job of staying realistic to that amp.
And the point is if you like to hit a low or medium gain profile with a boost pedal, you should try taking the higher gained version of that amp profile, turn the gain down some n the Kemper and then hit it with the boost pedal. The amp with act more realistically that way.
Tone Junkie had a good tip on one f his recent videos. To take one of the profiles in the pack with higher gain but turn the gain knob down on the Kemper to a lower gain. He said that gives you the same low gain sound as selecting a lower gain version of the profile but the amp still reacts like it is driven a bit harder and sounds better. Especially if you plan to it a lower gain profile with a pedal.
My thoughts are that the 70's 80's Plexi tones sound best on the Kone.
BUT I have to also say that the Top Jimi EVH profiles sound AMAZING on the Gemini 2. It's EVH in a box for sure. But those tones through my Kemper Kones are just OK. Not the same at all.
I would say that if you are going for like a Pink Floyd tone or a real processed 80's new wave thing the Gemini 2 can't be beat. But for a more raw bluesy realistic guitar tone the Kemper Kone is the one.
I recommend just getting a 1X12 or 2X12 guitar cabinet (you can find bargain used ones everywhere if you don't already have any) and buy the Kone speakers and install them. It's really easy and comes with a clear diagram for 1, 2 or 4 speaker setups.
I have the Gemini 2 and a 2x12 cab with two Kemper Kones.
They both sound great in different ways. The Kone sounds more real like a guitar cab. If I could only have one it would be the Kone. But I’m keeping both.
Kones are only like $150 if you have a 1x12 cab laying around. I would just get that and play with it before you sell anything.
The Fulltron OCD sounds great with the Kemper. I also like the JHS Double Barrel.
One time when mine sounded nasty I figured out that my noise gate was cranked way up. It’s the knob on the left side of your Kemper. Turn that way down to see if it makes a difference. When it’s crank up way too much your sound will be terrible.
Anyone replaced their speakers in a 2x12 cabinet with Kones? I have a Mesa 2x12 with v30's but just wondering since obviously every tone I use today is v30's in the Mesa.
I put two Kones in a Victory Cab that had two V30's in it. I like it. On heavy profiles the V30 setting usually sounds great. But on a lot of the clean settings it's my least favorite and changing the Kone selection improves the sound a lot. Worth the change in my opinion.
I agree with Burkhard. I had posted earlier in this thread that it was affecting the sound but I had a different sound issue that has been fixed with upgrades and I kept noticing this odd thing after start up so I thought they were connected. The only change in sound is that it sometimes changes my Legacy Reverb setting to Spring Reverb when I turn the TYPE knob one notch and then turn it back.
But it's a very simple thing to set once after a boot up and it never happens again until the next boot up.
That’s a bummer. I’m hoping the issue is the same with a lot of users so they can isolate it and fix it easily. Guess it’s not so simple.
Mine was making similar terrible sounds with profiles that I knew I liked previously. I tried updating the OS. Going back to older OS and all of that. None of it helped long term. It made the Kemper unusable. But was very frustrating because sometimes it sounded fantastic.
Here’s what fixed mine. Every time after I boot up and I’m ready to play I need to press And hold on the reverb button. Then just turn the selection knob like I am going to change Reverb’s. Then it will show that some other random effect is in the chain with my reverb. One day it will be a distortion pedal. Another time it will be something else.
All you have to do to fix it is turn the category knob to select any effect other than reverb. Then turn it back to reverb. Now it all jumps to what it should be and takes the odd effect out of the reverb chain. Save that as your reverb selection and everything sound great again.
I just have to do that each time I boot the Kemper up and it sounds great from then on. I assume this is the same problem a lot of us are having.
Yes I talked to Kemper Support about that last week. That is a known issue they are working on.
It makes your profiles sound very thin and lifeless depending on what effect is showing in that third slot. Sometimes it says clean boost. Sometime a mouse distortion, etc. but all it takes to fix is to turn that bottom left knob (category knob) to go off of reverb and to a different category and then turn it right back to reverb and it all snaps into place correctly. Save it and all is good until the next time you boot up your Kemper.
Officially the Kemper support rep said it does not affect your profile sound. That is definitely incorrect. Depending on what effect is showing I think it makes a huge difference. If EQ is showing you might not notice it at all. If Mouse Distortion is showing it makes your profile sound terrible.
But either way. Easy to fix. You just have to fix it every time you turn the amp on.
Mine did that too. When a profile sounds that way (most but not all did) if you hold down the reverb button and the screen will show the slot being reverb - legacy reverb - Overdrive. When it shows an overdrive in the 3rd position rather than the reverb selection just turn the knob to get it off reverb the put it back and they will all show as they should and that rig will sound good.
But you have to do it for every rig individually.
I bought two Kones and put them in my Victory 2X12 cab. When I first did it and upgraded my operating system for the Kone feature I was very disappointed. In fact I shoved that cabinet into a spare room where I didn't plan to use it and just figured I'd pull the Kones out when I got the chance and sell them on Reverb.
But I just kept seeing how much Tone Junkie and others kept raving about how good they were. So a few weeks later I pulled it back in. I had done another update of OS on my Kemper and I think that did it. They sounded fantastic as soon as I plugged them in. I couldn't quit playing. So I ordered another single one that I put in a little Mesa 1X12 cab to leave over at my friends basement where we practice.
BUT, I do notice that some profiles that sound amazing in FRFR (Mission Engineering Gemini 2) aren't faves at all with my Kones. Like the Top Jimi Van Halen tones in my FRFR are unbelievable. In the Kone just meh. But some marshalls and other heavy amps sound great on the Kones. And cleaner stuff sounds great with either.
The Kone just sounds like a great REAL amp. And the FRFR sounds like a great heavily produced sound. I like them both but right now I'm crazy about the Kones.
But I update my OS when every I hook my Kemper to my desktop and did it again recently. Made everything sound thin and nasty. I got it put back to a couple of updates ago and it sounds great again. I'm going to be real reluctant to update unless really necessary now that it sounds good again.
@kphuitsing You Sir are my new best friend. I actually thought I trashed my Kemper. She's all good now. 
How long does it usually take support to respond to emails? It's been a couple of hours for me. I have a failed OS update that keeps giving me an error message that won't load from USB. I accidently flipped off a light switch when updating the OS and now it's an expensive paperweight.
Any chance of fixing that? Or is it dead.
I’ve had my sound go downhill and figured out the noise gate was turned way up. Huge difference when I turned it down.
A reset fixed it. I did the re-boot while holding the system key in (read that it fixed another problem in another thread) and it's all good now.
