Greetings everyone, and question!

    Hey guys. First off I want to say that Ive been reading many old threads in this forum and they have some great info! I recently purchased a used kemper powerhead, but havent received it yet.


    So, to make a long story short, I am a hobby guitar player that lives in an apartment. I want to be able to noodle around with the kemper at reasonable to low volume levels, and have it sound like a good tube-like amp tone. After reading many threads, the most common answer I get is: get some studio monitors, because they will sound the best at this lower volume.


    But, they also lack that amp in the room, cab feel. So I started looking for something in between studio monitors, and a guitar cab. The best of both worlds! And what I came to was the Red Sound RS-LG12 Passive cab, and the Atomic CLR Passive cab. Ive read some stuff here about them, and they sound great, but does anybody know if either of these would sound good at low to reasonable volume levels with a kemper powerhead?

    Edited once, last by Shroud ().

    Apartment levels sums it up pretty well. IMHO, you're never going to push air at apartment sound levels, a good pair of studio monitors and headphones will be well worth your investment. And welcome!!

    welcome Shroud, and my 2 cts:


    I live in a house and play in a band, and I own a RS LG12 which is a superb FRFR cab.


    first point is that it is too big & luxurious for playing at home and when at rehearsal I plug the KPA directly in the PA and that is the best tone diffusion I can get, no need for more stuff. the LG12 is worthy for fine tuning live sounds or small venues without PA. If I had to choose again speakers I'd pick up 5' or 8' monitoring speakers to enjoy stereo. I was not ready to give up a cab speaker form factor when I switched to the KPA but now I'm totally convinced by amp to PA solutions.


    second, I am confident that none of these FRFR or GRFR will ever sound like a guitar cab. Do not expect the "directionnal" amp in the room feeling that cabs do. These are not the same products. FRFR is great for what it does i.e. delivering a +/- linear sound with a wide dispersion and freaking loud volume. It takes a while to get used to FRFR and as @Frodebro said above, once you get used to it, it feels as good or even better.


    my advise is, take time, get used to the tone of a miced amp and don't rush for gear. Sonic pleasure will come. I second @Zapman and @Frodebro recommendations, "just" get a pair of monitoring speakers

    When I lived in an apartment a half year ago, I always "dreamed" of playing the Kemper with my cabs and "really" loud 8)


    Now I live in a house where I can make some earcrushing noise and I have my cabs and a Fender PA monitor box right there in my room... but I like to play through stereo monitors 95 % of the time :rolleyes:


    What I experienced: If I want some more amp-in-the-room feeling with a real cab at moderate volume levels, I prefer the performance of a celestion seventy 80 in a 1x12 at the moment. 8| I know, this is not the best speaker on the market, but in this environment it is very versatile and sounds great to me (for what it is). I think that could be a rather cheap compromise solution that works and sounds quite good with Kemper cabs activated AND deactivated.

    thanks for the answers guys. So, a red sound passive cab, or atomic clr passive would not sound good at lower volumes? As pamplmouss said, the Red sound is too luxurious for an apartment. Okay, but what if I wanted something with a good sound at lower volumes, that also has the potential to be played quite loud later on? (I.e. if i end up getting a house at some point) i thought that maybe one of these passive cabs would fit that description. If not, OK, but I just wanted to clarify here

    As a general rule,.guitar cab woofers and PA woofers have very hard / stiff suspensions and it takes quite a bit of power to make them move properly. This results in the experience that they will only get alive at some pretty high volume ... way to much for apartment playing. In the volume range that is adequate for apartment playing, I would suggest to go for studio monitors. The bigger the woofers the more air they can move and the better bass response you get. The Yamaha HS-8 are a pretty safe bet and you'll not have to rob a bank.
    If it happens that you're alone in your apartment building and you want to go considerably up in volume (while the HS-8 get pretty loud as well), you can add a single Yamaha DXR10 for the added punch and body (as @skoczy already pointed out). But I highly recommend to start with 8" woofer studio monitors. Their cone suspension is way softer and makes it a lot easier for them to actually move even at lower (or mid) volumes.