My Kemper does not sound right [resolved]

Most of you guys have seen my posts about my Kemper Stage not sounding right.

I had 3 concerns:

1 - The profiles never sounded as good as what I have heard others get from the same profiles.

2 - The profiles sounded dead. Like there was too much compression in the line somewhere.

3 - If I tweaked a profile all day long and got it perfect, it sounded terrible to me the next day.

I think I may have an answer. I use a standard stereo receiver as my computer/Kemper monitoring device. I use it with Behringer 8" passive studio monitors. It has always sounded very good and flat. And I could add an extra bass boost that would let me know how it might sound on a subwoofer type system. I also have bad hearing.

The stereo receiver was the problem. Well a major factor.

Over the years I always found with my previous gear, I would tweak a sound and it sounded bad the next day. Several Line6 products right up to the Kemper. But it really showed up more with the Kemper, due to the amp getting older and the Kemper sounding better to begin with.

There was also a 4th issue that I knew was not Kemper related: As the hours would pass I would need to continuously turn up the volume. I assumed my ears were getting adjusted to the level. Again, bad hearing. And this also led to a point in the day where no matter what, everything sounded bad. I assumed my ears were fatigued.

After struggling recently, I decided to swap out my old favorite die hard receiver with a new one I had laying around. Boom. Night and day difference.

1 - The Kemper sounds much better overall. A lot of that gritty crisp distortion I knew was missing is there! Some is still missing but now I know it is most likely from the speakers. I have played the Kemper thru other speakers I have and it is much more crisp thru them.

2 - Profiles sound much more dynamic. I would still like more because I am a weirdo, but much better.

3 - Now when I tweak profiles, I am not confused the next day when they sound terrible. They still sound good the next day.

4 - I set the amp volume at 50 and play all day. Never need to turn it up, never get fatigued.

I think my old amp was sagging. This led to a loss of upper mid distortion. And as the hours passed, it got worse and the frequency shifted slightly. Since it all happens so slowly I never noticed it changing.

I now trust the Kemper a little more as my gold standard. Which makes me very happy since I love everything about how it works and what it does. Still one of the most amazing things ever created by human kind.

Quote from deadman42

Glad you sorted it, glad it was indeed not the Kemper and indeed thanks for coming back and sharing the information with the audience here. To me it seems often that some weak elements in the further signal chain create the biggest challenges rather than the Kemper... which for me is the most solid and reliable gear I ever had. Compared to a handful of tube amps which "left me in the wrong moment" for sure.

Rock on!

Thanks! I wanted to post that I never gave up on the Kemper, even though I bought a Helix after not being happy at first. But I really love the whole Kemper ecosystem. And being a fan of Line6, I wanted a Helix anyway. I love both for what they each do.

I also wanted to make a separate post so people searching the web for these symptoms can find it easier.

I agree with your statement that the Kemper is solid. It never made sense to me that the hardware could sound different from unit to unit. It has to be just a processor and a DAC. They should all sound identical. But I was limited in my monitoring solutions. I only have one set of speakers I trust are flat, the Behringers. And I hate the sound of guitar in headphones. And I never suspected that my super flat solid state receiver could color the sound that badly. For a time I suspected that the amp had a hidden "loudness" circuit, so as I changed the volume the tone changed as well.

Since I went thru all of this pain, I wanted to post: If your Kemper sounds bad, it is your monitoring solution, not the Kemper.

And this information would apply to any unit you buy: Kemper, Helix, Fractal, etc Maybe that is a better post title?

And in my case, the amps changes to the tone were very subtle and changed over long periods of time. It was unnoticable to me and my bad hearing.

Another thing that tripped me up was the speakers. Since I was driving them harder and harder throughout the day, I thought maybe their response was changing. But I recently went over the specs and saw they are rated for 150W. I probably hit them with 5W at best. That prompted me to try a different amp. I wanted to verify they did not change at volume. And they did not.

Currently I am happy with the cheap $100 receiver I am using. It is working very well. But there will soon be a day where I start thinking about getting something as reliable as possible. Or maybe I do not. Just get a new one when it starts to sound bad. All amps will rely on the power supply caps for power. And a class D amp will rely even more on the filtering caps after its switching stages. And those big electrolytic caps are the first thing to slowly change over time. So class A/B or class D? Maybe I will cross that bridge when I get there

Quote from deadman42

All the best for your further journey with that. But watch out for your hearing mate. If it is already that impacted then please take care a lot...

To go way off topic, I have intestinal issues (leaky gut). This lets things get in your blood that are not supposed to be there. This in turn causes inflammation all throughout your body. The inflammation is directly connected to what foods I eat. Each food causes a different reaction.

The inflammation manifests the most in my ears. So I am dizzy most of the time. And if I eat certain foods, I get very dizzy. So I maintain a very strict diet.

The problem with my ears is they were never good my whole life. And now they are in a constant state of tinnitus as well from the inflammation. It is hard to tweak a tone when you have 10 different frequencies all screaming in your ears while you do it! Like you have a bunch of watch alarms going off in your head all day long.

So be gentle when I post a profile to the exchange and it sounds terrible

Quote from V8guitar

Dude, sorry to hear this, that must be tough.

I bet your sounds are still better than mine

The tough part is explaining it to Doctors for them to look at you like you are nuts. Then they order a bunch of stupid tests that dont even look for the thing you just told them was the issue.

Doc: Your blood work looks fine. Vitamins, cholesterol, etc

Me: No shit Sherlock. You need to look for stuff that is NOT supposed to be in your blood. That is the issue. If I eat carbs I start feeling like I have been poisoned, my inner ears swell up, and I start spinning.

Doc: Uhhhh... we dont have a test for that.

Me: Useless.

If it wasn't for the internet I would be dead from suicide. You can only take being dizzy for so long before walking into traffic starts sounding like a viable solution

The upside is my wife (and work) made me retire. So I sit and play with my Kemper all day long. Cant complain about that too much.