Did I Hurt My Kemper...OR Active CLR

    I have a kemper power head and an active Atomic CLR wedge.


    I would turn off the power section on the Kemper so that I could run it without damaging the active CLR wedge, and I was using the monitor out jack to connect the kemper to the CLR wedge for several months without a issue. Then I bought a pair of DT770 headphones and plugged them into the headphone jack, and played with those for one night. Then the following evening, I unplugged my headphones and tried to play through my active CLR wedge again, but no sound would come out????? I have no idea what happened. I read that I needed to do a System Intit by turning the kemper off and then turning it back on while holding down the system button. I did this and sound began coming out of my active CLR speaker again, however I forgot to turn the power section off of the kemper power head....I realized this very quickly, within a matter of 10-30 seconds, and I turned off my active CLR, and quickly went to the output menu and turned off the power amp on page 7/7 in the menu.....I am not sure if damaged anything or how likey there is to be damage considering this occurred for only a matter of seconds, plus I wasn't playing the guitar loud.


    Do you think I damaged my kemper power head or my active CLR wedge at all? How would I even know if I caused any damage? Sound is coming out of my kemper and active CLR wedge, but how would I know if the sound has been altered or damaged in any way?

    Quote from hendrix.stratman

    I have a kemper power head and an active Atomic CLR wedge.


    I would turn off the power section on the Kemper so that I could run it without damaging the active CLR wedge, and I was using the monitor out jack to connect the kemper to the CLR wedge for several months without a issue. Then I bought a pair of DT770 headphones and plugged them into the headphone jack, and played with those for one night. Then the following evening, I unplugged my headphones and tried to play through my active CLR wedge again, but no sound would come out????? I have no idea what happened. I read that I needed to do a System Intit by turning the kemper off and then turning it back on while holding down the system button. I did this and sound began coming out of my active CLR speaker again, however I forgot to turn the power section off of the kemper power head....I realized this very quickly, within a matter of 10-30 seconds, and I turned off my active CLR, and quickly went to the output menu and turned off the power amp on page 7/7 in the menu.....I am not sure if damaged anything or how likey there is to be damage considering this occurred for only a matter of seconds, plus I wasn't playing the guitar loud.


    Do you think I damaged my kemper power head or my active CLR wedge at all? How would I even know if I caused any damage? Sound is coming out of my kemper and active CLR wedge, but how would I know if the sound has been altered or damaged in any way?


    Well, there would be no way to damage your Atomic CLR, unless you accidentally physically connected your powered KPA's "SPEAKER OUTPUT" jack to the input of your CLR. From what I understand from your post, it appears your were using a line level XLR output (similar to "Monitor Output" Jack) on your KPA...which should not have caused in issue with the input to your CLR.


    However, yes, if you accidentally connected the SPEAKER OUT of your powered KPA to the input of your CLR, and you turned on the built-in power amp, you could DEFINITELY fry your CLR's input section.


    It goes without saying (and is carefully explained in the Kemprer's Manual) that you should ONLY connect the Speaker Out of your powered KPA to the input of either a passive FRFR monitor, or a traditional passive guitar cabinet.

    the only things that were connected was my powered kemper head using the "Monitor Output" jack with a short instrument cable (not a speaker cable...please let me know if this is the correct type of cable to use like this) to the input of my active CLR wedge. I did the System reset by holding the "system" button while turning on my kemper. After it booted up, I played for about 30 seconds and then realized that the power section would have be turned on due to the system reset, so I quickly went to the output menu and turned it off. I just wanted to make sure that in that brief period of time (30 sec to a min) that I didnt damage either my kemper or my active CLR.


    Based on your responses, I am concluding that both my kemper power head and active CLR should be perfectly fine and that nothing i did would causing it problems. Correct me if I am wrong

    Quote from hendrix.stratman

    the only things that were connected was my powered kemper head using the "Monitor Output" jack with a short instrument cable (not a speaker cable...please let me know if this is the correct type of cable to use like this) to the input of my active CLR wedge. I did the System reset by holding the "system" button while turning on my kemper. After it booted up, I played for about 30 seconds and then realized that the power section would have be turned on due to the system reset, so I quickly went to the output menu and turned it off. I just wanted to make sure that in that brief period of time (30 sec to a min) that I didnt damage either my kemper or my active CLR.


    Based on your responses, I am concluding that both my kemper power head and active CLR should be perfectly fine and that nothing i did would causing it problems. Correct me if I am wrong


    Hendrix,


    Yes, you did just fine, as Paul previously noted.


    The important rule to keep in mind, is that you must always use a true speaker cable when you are connecting to the Amp/Speaker Output of a power amplifier, due to the high voltage and power that will be running through the cable to the speaker cabinet. Also, you never connect the amp/speaker output of an amplifier to the input of another active (amplified) device. In other words, you should never plug a speaker level signal into a source expecting anything less than a speaker level signal.


    In your case, you have advised that you connected your active (powered) CLR to your Kemper's Monitor Out, which is absolutely fine and correct. Furthermore, since this is a line level signal on the KPA's Monitor Out, you are fine using a standard instrument (guitar) cable. Moreover, since it is a line level signal, you in fact want to use a standard instrument/guitar cable, due to it's built-in RF shielding.


    So, all is well.


    :thumbup:

    Edited once, last by Tritium ().

    Is there any better way of connecting my power head to my atomic wedge to get better and more truer sounds/tones or is the way I have it connected the best way?


    I read somewhere that someone suggested doing this, " Then, I tried it with both left/right outs to the two inputs of the Atomic and it REALLY shined because I didn't have to crank it up as much (thus no issue with the ice pick)."


    Is this a different way to hook up the keeper to the atomic power wedge that would make it sound even better?