Kemper into cabinet ?

    Hello everyone !

    So I've be playing with my kemper powerhead through my headphones and It works really well. Now I want to try to run it through a guitar cabinet. I'm not familiar with this piece of equipment at all though. From what I understood I need to buy a "passive cabinet" otherwise it won't work with the powered kemper version. However, when I browse the internet for a cab I never seem to see anywhere the term "passive cabinet" mentioned anywhere so I would appreciate it if you guys could point me in the right direction. Also if you have recommandations for a cab that works particularly well with the Kemper I'm very much interested. I'd preferably like a 1x10 sized one since I'm mostly a bedroom player, and am particularly keen on clean/low-gain/JohnMayerish kind of sounds. My budget is roughly 500 bucks.

    Thank you lots for reading me and looking forward to an answers.

    Esposito Franck

    Many of the most popular active cab models also come in a passive version such as Matrix and Mission etc.

    You can still use a peered cabinet if you want by connecting it to the main ours or monitor out rather than the speaker out it’s just a n expensive way to do it as you will have a KPA with n amp in it that isn’t getting used.

    Thanks you very much to the both of you for such quick answers ! I'll definitely buy a cab then. I'm leaning towards fenders or Two-Rock. Any preference for you ? Again I'm into low-gain/clean sounds like Mayer, Tom Misch but enjoy the occasional SRV blues overdrive.

    What I would do is take a profile you really like then change the cab in the Kemper to get an idea of what works for you then investigate something similar in the physical world.

    For me I absolutely detest 4x12 cabinets so that narrows it down. My favourite cab (but I would caveat this by sayitI really haven’t played that many different cabs) is a Mesa Boogie Thiele ported 1x12 loaded with a single 200w EVM12L speaker. I have used a pair of those for over 20years before getting my Kemper.

    I would also seriously consider getting a a passive FRFR cab instead of a traditional guitar cab. The guitar cab will sound just like a real amp in the ion but only one real amp as the speaker is such a huge part of the tone. With a FRFR cab you will get the full effect of a profile incuthe effect of the cab included in the original profile. That’s a much better solution in my mind but some others feel totally differently so you will need to decide exactly what you want from your rig then narrow it down to a shortlist of potential cabs.

    Right so the the poweramp out is mono. The pre-out are still stereo tho, as in the toaster? I use the non powered toaster into the active gemini stereo cab, it then goes to stereo, i guess not the case with the powered kemper unless you use a stereo power amp.

    Ash

    Have a beer and don't sneer. -CJ. Two non powered Kempers -Two mission stereo FRFR Cabs - Ditto X4 -TC electronic Mimiq.

    Thanks to all of you for your responses !

    I unfortunately can't try out different cabs or FRFR with the Kemper given I don't have a car and can't just walk around all the way to guitar centers carrying my heavy toaster. Therefore I'm going to have to order it online. I need to place the "safest bet" so preferably not something too expensive. I can' really afford something beyond 400 bucks.

    For me the difference between FRFR and normal guitar cabinet is still quite blurry. I understand it's a matter of taste so maybe you can point me to the right choice according to my sound preferences. I play 60% low gain stuff (Johnmayerish blues, funky and jazzy stuff) the other 30% being as high a gain as SRV or Gilmour would do and then 10% of high gain like AC/DC or even Metallica kind of sounds. If I was thinking of buying a normal amp I would go straight to fender but is it the same for fender cabs, with a kemper powerhead ? If so I'm considering the fender super champ given all its positive reviews and my budget.

    One of my other main concerns still is noise disturbance, as i live in a rather small apartment with two flatmates and neighbors nearby. I understood that the kemper has a capacity of 600W, so I don't want to accidentally crank everything up and ruin my hearing, or the Kemper's mechanics, while waking up the whole neighborhood. What cab size and watt capacity do you think I should consider? I was thinking of a 1x12 so it does not completely exclude playing live someday in the future but all the 1x12s il like are 80 watts. Isn't it way too much ?
    As Ashtweth mentioned, I'd like to hear the kemper profiles come alive even at bedroom volume.


    PS: I may have said a lot of self-evident or nonsense stuff but you have to know I'm still quite the newby in the sound department. Thank you for your patience

    OK first thing to be clear about is cab wattage. You can never have too much but you can have too little. It’s a matter of capacity to take what the Kemper “can” put out not what the Kemper “needs” to supply the cab. If the cab doesn’t have a high enough rating it is possible to blow the speaker. Clearly a 600w amp is capable of delivering WAY more power than an 80w 1x12 can handle. However, just because the Kemper “can” supply 600w with the volumes turned up to max doesn’t mean you “need” to turn everything up. It sounds like you want to run things pretty quietly so you won’t be sending anything like the full 600w capacity to the speaker. As long as you are careful you should be fine however in an ideal world always go for a higher power rating where possible. Therefore, an 80w speaker is definitely NOT too much/loud for your needs.

    As for FRFR v traditional guitar speaker. I would describe it like this. If you have a specific speaker that you know you like and you KNOW you would use the same speaker with any amp (say a Fender cab with a Marshall Plexi, soldano, Mesa Boogie, Bogner, Fender Deluxe or Bassman or Twin all with the same cab) then you will be happy with a traditional guitar cab. The fact that you are using a Kemper instead of the real amps will make no significant difference. You will pretty much get the sound of the amp in the room as if you were using the real amp with YOUR speaker.

    However, as the speaker/cab is significantly more than 50% of most amp tones you are unlikely to get the full benefit of the Kemper’s ability to sound like a Fender and a Marshall and a Mesa and a...........

    If you want to get the full flexibility you need to go FRFR or Studio monitors. This solution will also tend to sound better at low volume. HOWEVER, it will sound like a recorded version of the chosen amp/speaker/mic signal chain rather than having the thump of a traditional amp on stage. Some people find this disconcerting.

    For me personally the flexibility of a monitors/FRFR style setup trumps the “amp in the room” feeling of a traditional cabinet.

    As I suggested in a previous post, try to audition the amp profiles you like with different cabinets in the Kemper (ie cab profiles or virtual speaker cabs) rather than dragging your Kemper ground lots of shops to try different cabs. You can do this in the first instance using studio monitors, hi-fi speakers or headphones.

    If you find that you really like the sound of the various amps you might use profiles of through the same speaker profile (ie Marshall Plexi and Fender Tweed Bassman through a Fender Deluxe 1x12) then a traditional cab
    Might be a viable solution for you. You just need to decide WHICH traditional cab.

    However, if you find that the only way to get the sort of Fender cleans you like AND Marshall crunch is to use one profile with a Fender 1x12 and the other with a Marshall 4x12 then you are not going to be happy with a traditional guitar cab.

    Remember that not only does the actual speaker type make a difference to the sound but so too does the number of speakers, cab shape and size and whether it is an open or closed back design. You can’t get a single traditional guitar cab to cover all those bases.