Powerhead with guitar cab vs direct vs amp

    Did a new profile from my 5153 50w and did some reampings with ola englunds di files from his mixing competition he had, possessed is the title of the track and is a song from is band feared.

    Same mic position used on reamping and making of profile.

    Original Amp
    https://soundcloud.com/thumas/5153-amp-1
    Kemper Profile
    https://soundcloud.com/thumas/5153-kemper-direct
    Kemper Powerhead
    https://soundcloud.com/thumas/5153-powerhead-guitarcab

    Just to make this clear, powerhead was used with same guitar cab as used with original head and making of profile, monitor eq was flat, also tried to play with monitor eq a little and could get it better but still a bit off for my likening.
    I must say i was hoping to get closer with powerhead, the reason i bought it was to run with my guitar cab, probably suit frfr more.

    Edited once, last by Thumas (July 11, 2013 at 7:18 PM).

    Yeah monitor cab off, i double checked it.

    I didn't make a di file from this amp, but earlier today i did take one from my mesa mk3 from direct out(slave out), (signal is taken from speaker jack, that way poweramp coloration is included) and the results were very similar to this 5153 comparison.
    I was hoping to get very close because of that power amp coloration, but got disappointed and did this comparison instead, with my first kemper i did a comparison like this but with a solid state peavey bass power amp, and if i remember correctly it was closer than this, because of that comparison i return my kemper and got powerhead instead.

    With the di version did you leave the cab enabled on the profile?

    How close was the DI sound to the mesa's DI sound? Also where did you DI from, the loop or a load box before the cab (and did that have a speaker sim built in?).

    With di from mesa i didn't make a difference if i switch cab on or off.
    No inbuilt speaker sim built in.
    Most mesa amps have this direct or slave feature (same thing different names, mesa has used both names) if you use effect send on this amp you will not get the graphic eq.

    I was not picky with comparing the di profiling, did a refine and a quick test and thought u sounded ok, without speaker you got a very ugly sound, i did however try a cab from a regular mesa profile with similar settings and it sounded good, i don't think it was off.
    I did a few comparisons with mesa but didn't store any files, i did the 5153 comparison instead. Maybe i could redo the mesa comparison and be more picky and 100% sure.

    I think this 5153 comparison is fair and accurate, i know it was not kpa's main purpose to feed a guitar cab this way and you should see it like a bonus feature.

    If anyone have done simular tests i would like to hear your opinion.