Just my opinion, but if your budget permits go with the powered model. Better to have the power available if you ever need it, than to need it and not have it.
Just my opinion, but if your budget permits go with the powered model. Better to have the power available if you ever need it, than to need it and not have it.
I'd give the same advice .
Yep. I'd recommend a powered KPA.
I started with an unpowered toaster but grew tired of messing with outboard poweramps etc whenever I needed to use a guitar cab. I traded up to a power-rack and couldnt be happier. My primary use for the Kemper is through a powered speaker, but having the on board power amp has been super handy at times.
The powered KPA saved the day for us on one occasion. Mysteriously, only one monitor speaker was working at a venue and a solution wasn't being quickly found. We simply had the sound guy move the one good monitor to the singer, and I just grabbed a cab that was laying around and used that as a quick and dirty side fill guitar monitor powered directly from the KPA while still feeding FOH with the KPA main outs. Worked a treat. 
Same advice here too
Most Clubs I play have awful PA's. I need to run a cab so I went powered.
For similar reasons to RonZombie, I went powered too. Even the clubs with good PA's expect me to handle most or all of my own monitoring duty. The only downside I see to the powered one is that it is only a mono monitor speaker feed. But even when I play guitar, stereo isn't that important to me. It might be nice to stand in front of a stereo pair of powered wedges with a ping pong delay dancing back and forth over a shimmery chorus, but for most gigs (rock club shows), I get no sound-check and 10 minutes to setup on a good day. A big part of why I bought a Kemper is simplicity.
Whether it's a bass or guitar gig, I use the same head (powered rack), same cabinet (full-range fEarful 12/6/1 3-way), and a single instrument. With a gig-bag, I can do a load-in in one trip from my car.
And as others mentioned, the powered one doesn't loose any functionality over non-powered.
If money is no object then why not have the powered one? Well, a couple of reasons. Weight is an issue, it's a bit heavier and it does all add up in a flight case.
The cabinets of the amps profiled play a huge role in the sound. Playing the different profiles through the same guitar cab won't give you the full range of the Kemper - it'll all sound like your cab. If you want to move from a twin to a stack to an acoustic DI you'll want an uncoloured monitor, not a guitar cabinet.
Personally I decided to save the money and put it towards a DXR10 powered speaker for situations where I need to provide my own monitoring. I just couldn't see any situations where I'd want to use a guitar cab. If I'm going to profile these great amps it defeats the point of it!
The cabinets of the amps profiled play a huge role in the sound. Playing the different profiles through the same guitar cab won't give you the full range of the Kemper - it'll all sound like your cab. If you want to move from a twin to a stack to an acoustic DI you'll want an uncoloured monitor, not a guitar cabinet.
I agree with that to a point. I started using my powered KPA with regular guitar and bass cabinets, but quickly switched over to a full range cab for exactly that reason, to have the full head/cab experience. I actually had a really nice and expensive 2x12 Barefaced bass cab that I had to retire. But there are two reasons that an unpowered head wouldn't work for me:
1. Relying on using a powered cabinet severely limits your options, and carrying almost any external power amp will add more weight and volume than the built-in poweramp. My Greenboy FRFR is unpowered. I play more bass than guitar, and there isn't a powered cabinet on the market that could come close to the low-end performance of this cab.
2. When I play NYC, I'm usually not allowed to bring a cabinet, and the tiny floor wedges are only available for vocals. I have to use whatever backline is provided. I can bring a head though, and it needs to be powered. In the 90's, we would show up at CBGB's with half stacks in road cases. I was even bringing a biamped 2x15/2x10 bass rig at times. Today most people show up to club gigs with a only guitar in a gigbag and a pedalboard.
I imagine it must be difficult to set up your sounds when you never know what cabinet/speakers you're playing through. Perhaps not that difficult actually, but if you're hoping for a Bassman tone and you turn up to see a 1960 cab, it ain't gonna happen. Klappy you're in a kind of unusual position where you're a) playing bass and b) using backline at small clubs.
Of course there will be people in situations like yours when you specifically need a powered head, but the point remains that if you're hoping to get accurate versions of different guitar amps (ie are therefore not using a guitar cab) the virtues of the powered head are minimal, while adding weight and cost.
That is unless you're taking your own FRFR around with you, in which case it seems pretty much a wash - either the amp is in the Kemper or it's in the PA cab/monitor.
The key issue for the OP is whether he's planning on using guitar cabs or passive monitors, or a FR solution (FRFR cab, IEMs, studio monitors etc).
LOL, the whole backline thing here is a mystery to me too. It's obviously for the clubs' convenience, not the musician's. My heyday was the early 90's, when I played real venues with side-fills and dedicated monitor men. Now I'm just a bum ;).
I do gig occasionally on guitar too, so I have to provide for that situation too. I probably could have gotten away with my Barefaced cabinet if I was just using the KPA for bass, but I just couldn't dial in a good guitar sound with it.
If I had to give universal advice to someone gigging around the US at the local club/party/cafe/basement level it would be this:
Get a powered head and the FRFR cabinet of your choice. You will be able to play any gig that you show up at in the US, even if "Puppet Show" winds up being the headliner. This gives you the most versatility, and on on a good night, you will sound like yourself. On a bad night, you will at least sort-of sound like yourself.
Obviously, if you are touring with a real support staff or are using your own PA, like at a wedding, church, or party, you don't need this kind if versatility. I've never used an IEM in my life, and I just can't imagine a circumstance when I would. I'm a bottom-feeder though 
.
Ah the early 90's... when men wore plaid and everyone bought CDs... the glory years!
Fair points well made, absolutely. IEMs are magic for me - I monitor the Kemper in stereo and have all sorts of stereo fun going on in my ears which kind of makes up for the lack of screaming 12"s behind me. And moving between wildly different guitar amps/cabs is such a big part of the fun that full range monitoring is often my main advice for anyone considering it. To each his own!
OTOH, the Kemper poweramp doesn't have to be driving a guitar cab... it can be used with a passive linear cab as well.
When It comes to guitar cabs tho, my opinion is to use a linear power amp, like the kemper's or others: it makes creating specific sounds easier, because it's more faithful to the original rigs' sound.
furthermore, the kemper poweramp is way lighter than any valve amp, and much cheaper to maintain ... 
I aggree with that last statement. I've a powered toaster and really delivers the goods . A linear output is IMHO a sine qua non. What you do with the powered output is your own beer, but if you use the true outputs to the pa, you can still monitor using a passive FRFR cab using monitor/power out. That makes a great difference. Ergo, power is a lady called IV.
Watts (power) = current (I or i) x voltage (v). In simple terms then power is i x v = IV
we used this simple reminder for our physics exams as a rhym "power is a woman called ivy"
I hope that helps . Please excuse the bad syntax - riding in the train back to Munich...
Ha, nice X)
