Powered Kemper Cabinet or FRFR?

What profiles are you using?

Yes, going to a traditional speaker vs a FRFR is not even close. Its not designed to work like that with traditional speaker cabinets in my opinion. There are some that use it that way, but in my experience, its best with FRFR cabs.

If you are just using the stock profiles that come with it, I urge caution there. Yes you can find some decent ones, but you need to by professionally done profiles from the likes of Michael Britt and some others.

Have a listen to the sample clip from Michael Britt's Sweet 16 pack for one called Bog Sheba. It sounds so much like my Bogner Shiva it's spooky.
I'm going FRFR because I also play acoustic and bass and I want a little stereo rig for situations (jams, etc) where there's no PA. I don't play metal or any heavy music, so having a loud stage volume isn't part of my thing.

I have a powered rack and I ran my 4x12 with it for 18 months before switching to FRFR..

My view is:

1) Profiles definitely "flatten" through conventional guitar cab, making them sound very similar
2) Profiles that sound good through a guitar cab sometimes sound awful through FRFR, because FRFR is less forgiving.
3) FRFR is different, not necessarily "better". What I mean is you can get great sounds out of a cab with the kemper but actually its easier to get more variety out of FRFR.
4) If you have a powered Kemper, no point buying a monitor with a power amp in it like the DXR. I bought a monitor ( after trying a number out) and whilst the DXR was very good, I found an unpowered that was less than half the price that sounded as good. This eased my way into FRFR without spending big bucks. Plus I control the volume with the Kemper, not the monitor...
5) I still use a 4 x12 for big venues just for backline. I go direct to FOH always now.

The kicker for me was because I could not tell if a profile was any good via guitar cab ( i.e. suitable for FOH direct), I used it in a regular way with a mike in front of my cab. Going FRFR has enabled me to sort out my profiles so I can go FOH direct without worrying. For that reason alone I would recommend it.

I bought a secondhand camper kit +Palmer cabinet and I'm really pleased although it doesn't have the spread and force of a 4 x12 hence why I still use that for larger gigs

Hope that makes sense.

Usefull comment since I 'm doubting right know...

I would expect to use guitarcabs in small venues beceause there is normally no (good) FOH and you'll need decent backline power...

I think the kicker for you is exactly what I'm afraid of...

BTW; what's a camper kit?

Quote from Da Vinci

BTW; what's a camper kit?

Something a happy Kemper keeps in his knapsack.

That´s the Camper kit:

https://www.shop.ritteramps.de…-camper-plus-diy-kit.html

Just my 10 cents..

I ran my KPA through a really nice 2 X 12 cab with V30's for 6 months before finally going for a XITONE Britt FRFR cab.

I'd expected the vast range of profiles to give me wide sonic palette however the cab stamped such a string sonic signature on all of the amp profiles that in some ways it diminished one of the key reasons for buying the thing in the first place (but in no way all of the reasons!).

Once I got the XITONE running then I finally got what I was looking for and I'll never go back. My backline means I know (almost!) exactly what's going to FOH and going direct means no arguing about micing cabs etc etc..

I use MBritt stuff mostly for live however would also point out that Mike pretty much uses the same cab/mics on his profiles so to a certain extent even these through FRFR have some similarity. That's a good thing in my opinion as there's some built-in continuity to my sound as I run through my live rigs (but not enough to detract)

I really noticed the impact of speakers/can/mics/placement on tone when I started to mess with my RZ direct profiles and Tills cablab cabs; up until this point I had no real idea about how significant an influence this is. Sinmix talks about this constantly and he's right!! It also made me realise finally that most amp designs are very similar and I would argue it's the 'feel' of the amp that changes more than the tone between designs..

The long and short for me was that FRFR was the right way and I couldn't be happier.

Si

About amp/cab influence :

and

I am in the same boat, meaning running the KPA through a 4x12 with V30 speakers.

My main point of concern for not going FRFR yet, is the live situation. I am in a band doing small to medium gigs and every stage has a 4x12 with often poor monitoring. Often I need to share one monitor with the vocals or the bass player. Also sometimes, I we need to provide the backline for the other bands taking part to the gig.

So, if I go FRFR, in the live situation I will either have poor monitoring, or if I bring my own FRFR speakers, the guitarists of the other bands won't be able to plug in their amps.

Has anyone the same experience and maybe a solution or proposal? Like doing a bunch of profiles for rehearsal with FRF and some other profiles suited for guitar cab? But this would mean to have two different sounds, which I wouldn't like....

I don't know...

When I was testing the Kemper (powered) in the shop we had the main out hooked to an active FRFR wegde (my electro voice) and the monitor out to a Victory 1x12" V30 cab. The wedge was used as reference and we tweaked the master EQ of the monitor out to match the tone of the wedge. Well, in thoose 15 minutes it seemed to work quitte good with quitte littel tweaking actually.

Didn't try it in a (high volume) band situation though... I'll guess the diffrence between FRFR and a V30 is bigger on higher volumes since it's nog liniair, am I right?

BTW, making my choose to go FRFR with a DXR 10 in small venues vs. a guitarcab is hard enough haha. No way I 'm taking providing a backline for other bands in consideration.

We had a support act twice recently. I told 'm we only have one guitaramp as backline (the other guitarplayer) since I play digital with my POD HD500x. A monitor is put away really quickly, so his amp was set up and removed right afther their set and I put my monitor back in like 2 minutes.

Yes, this may well be. I have no FRFR experience yet unfortunately. But I can say, that in my experience, the V30 on high volumes has different frequency response than at lower volume (also add the Flencher Munson effect).

But yes, the solution may be to some extent to run two lines, one guitar cab and one FRFR.

Quote from Monkey_Man

Something a happy Kemper keeps in his knapsack.

Brilliant!

The problem with FRFR is that it seemed a high entry cost - Atomic CLR's for example are £800+...so I was reluctant. I also had a bad experience going direct because my profiles I was using sounded poor through a PA...

So I bought a cheap but reasonable monitor so I could sort it out. First time I went direct into FOH was scary but I've never looked back and sound guys love it because nice consistent signal for them, no mike placement issues etc.

The question is, do you need a cab to contribute to the frontline? Any gig I would always previous mike the cab anyway, not for volume but balance. Hence using FOH was never an issue and something I wanted to aim for.

I'm lucky that no venues I play now need me to do that - in fact they prefer that I don't. Therefore I have my FRFR unpowered wedge facing the band, not the audience so even in the venues monitors are pants,

I use the 4 x12 when playing very large festivals BUT don't mike the cab. In this config, this is what merged profiles are for - something I need to do more work on..

In summary, the Kemper works really well with guitar cabs but you will not know if the profiles will sound any good direct to FOH. Suggest you get a relatively cheap but reasonable quality monitor for that purpose and that way you have ultimate flexibility guitar cab when you need or want it but a FOH sound as you would expect.

Quote from V8guitar

The problem with FRFR is that it seemed a high entry cost - Atomic CLR's for example are £800+...so I was reluctant. I also had a bad experience going direct because my profiles I was using sounded poor through a PA...

[...]

In summary, the Kemper works really well with guitar cabs but you will not know if the profiles will sound any good direct to FOH. Suggest you get a relatively cheap but reasonable quality monitor for that purpose and that way you have ultimate flexibility guitar cab when you need or want it but a FOH sound as you would expect.

Well.... a lot of people here love the Yamaha DXR 10 which is about 500 euro's. The powered Kemper adds 400 dollar to a non-powerd and you need to buy a decent cab (if you, like me comming from a combo, don't have one). So if FOH is the way to go and the DXR is powerfull enough to handle the complete frontline in small venue's it also is the cheapest solution...

Sorry DaVinci, you miss my point...if you already have a powered KPA which August already had, not much point getting a cab with a power amp.

I agree that the DXR10 is excellent and I used it as a reference point when trying unpowered.

So I'm in no way knocking DXR10's...

Quote from Da Vinci

BTW, making my choose to go FRFR with a DXR 10 in small venues vs. a guitarcab is hard enough haha. No way I 'm taking providing a backline for other bands in consideration.

We had a support act twice recently. I told 'm we only have one guitaramp as backline (the other guitarplayer) since I play digital with my POD HD500x. A monitor is put away really quickly, so his amp was set up and removed right afther their set and I put my monitor back in like 2 minutes.

That x infinity. I am all about helping someone in an absolute emergency but I'm not providing gear for other people on a regular basis. It's tough enough to provide for myself

Hi, this is my first post, so sorry for any mistake.
I am to decide between a pair of HS8 or DXR10 with Kemper for Home use.
My concern is about some posts regarding DXR10 fan noise in low volume.
As I will use at home, probably the majority fo the time I will be use um medium to low volume.

Are there anyone here that use 2 x DXR10 speakers with Kemper at home and could tell me about this "fan noise"?

Why go for a quote heavy and biv stagemonitor for home use?
I used to play my pod over a standard hifi set which was great for medium volume. A couple of studiomonitors will be great to?