Powered Kemper Kab or Monitors

Quote from troglodit616

I think that comes later with experience. It feels easier just to by another new piece of gear then actually thinking in therms of acoustics. Also probably many other guys dont have dedicated room for home studio (me included)

There are solutions like wall panels or traps that stand on the floor. Just never ever ever ever get foam.

HS7 here. Pretty well balanced for the price. I also use the cab of an Engl combo through a TC power amp now and then. In that case I use the monitor out of course, and the stereo outs or spdif out into a mixer or the Focusrite, and the Focusrite into the Yamahas. I have been waiting for the powered Kabinet for a while and will be getting it soon. I have used the Kemper outs into FOH and it is great, but the amp in the room feeling is missing unless you also feed a cab. The Kabinet with its imprints is better than an average cab, since the cab may sound very different from what comes out of the P A. If you play just at home choose a good pair of monitors which you may use to play mixes or CDs through. The powered Kabinet is mono so you would miss that. Still, bear in mind that the Kemper headphone outs are excellent and monitors will sound different, so you may have to get used to them a little.

Quote from skoczy

If you tried Kemper in the FX Loop of my Peavey 6505 and then you buy studio monitors, you will be dissapointed.

I agree with you, there is nothing better then using a tube amp's power section through the return loop into a real cabinet, it sounds the best that way imo. Its just not very practical for gigs though. I have the power head and use it with a real cabinet which I found very pleasing, but when I want to use the CAB options in the Kemper I shut down the Kemper power amp and use a pair of powered Headrush 108s.

I love my kabinet but I think it would be overkill in your closed environment.

Silly question, but if you are only playing at home in a studio like environment, why not stick with headphones? No issues with volume for the Neighbours...

I have HS7's and never use them as I use my headphones

Quote from V8guitar

I love my kabinet but I think it would be overkill in your closed environment.

Silly question, but if you are only playing at home in a studio like environment, why not stick with headphones? No issues with volume for the Neighbours...

I have HS7's and never use them as I use my headphones

Headphones. Another cable dangling around getting tangled up in the guitar. I'm tied by the head to a piece of gear. My headphones are comfortable, but I still would rather not wear them.

Quote from ejanuska

Headphones. Another cable dangling around getting tangled up in the guitar. I'm tied by the head to a piece of gear. My headphones are comfortable, but I still would rather not wear them.

Fair enough. I do use wireless headphones but I take your point

Get both. I use my monitors like a FOH, and have the Kabinet behind me to get a "live stage" experience. It works extremely well at lower volumes too.

As Alan said, and previous posts, it depends on the type of music, your needs, monitors placement, room, budget, etc.

I play with headphones most of the time, the sound is pretty amazing, Beware, the sound in studio monitors may not be even close to what you hear in your headphones for several several reasons.

I do have HS7 on top of IsoAcoustic stands+a mixer to tune the sound to my liking and to add mics or more instruments. The sound is good in stereo to play and sing along studio backing tracks. Eventually, I could use the setup for recording.

I’ve added a powered FRFR cab when I need more air moving, instead of going for a HS8 or a sub-woofer. The benefit is that you can take the cab out, if you need to.

If you can afford HS7+Kabinet, go for it.

Some advertisement from my part, maybe not applicable for the original poster:

You can your playback track fullrange to the Kabinet, while you play along with your guitar amp-in-the-room with an Imprint.

Only the Kabinet does this trick!

Quote from troglodit616

I dont have space in my apartament to set HS7 or HS8 properly - they have the bass air flow from the back so there should be significant distance between speakers and wall. Thats the biggest obstacle.

Being there, done that. Wall space and small places are not an obstacle, really. You, like me, seems to be a home user, not a pro studio musician. So, perfect monitor or cab setup and placement is not mandatory, it is relative. Studio monitors can still work fine in small places, untreated rooms, etc, etc. maybe not at their best but at the end of the day, we all are just trying to get something that sounds good to our ears at home.

In my case my monitor placement, in my family room, does not comply any of the recommended setup guides in the manual. But, I am fine with it, I did take advantage of the 30 day test option of a retailer trying some monitors and FRFR cabs available until I’ve found what works for me. In some cases I did take my Kemper to a store to try their stuff, too.

Over Analysis/over paralysis. Don’t stick to user guides and reviews, too much, try it yourself, if you have the option.

Quote from troglodit616

I gave myself couple of days to calm down a bit. I will experiment with the current setup I have which is Kemper into fx loop of 6505 112 however I have to say I still prefer sound from the cheap headphones I have . Unfortunately like somebody above mentioned I dont like to be bound to extra wires around my guitar I've never liked to use headphones to begin with.

I dont have space in my apartament to set HS7 or HS8 properly - they have the bass air flow from the back so there should be significant distance between speakers and wall. Thats the biggest obstacle.

I am slowly leaning to Kabinet I guess. I will wait few more days so I cam make my mind.

Still I have to say I am extremaly happy with KPA itself!

I wouldn’t worry about space for speakers unless you have enough space to get them 3 or 4m from all walls .

Contrary to popular belief speakers are actually much better as close to the wall as possible (ideally actually IN the wall) rather than a couple of feet away. The rear facing port isn’t an issue. Genelec also use a rear facing port and say it is fine as long as you have 5 cm air gap.

Why are speakers better near walls? SPBIR - Destructive interference. The reflections from the back wall can come back out of phase with the original signal and cancel out the original frequency almost entirely for distances of 1/4 wavelength. Unfortunately, turning up the missing frequency doesn’t help as the cancellation still happens.

The common misconception is that moving speakers a foot or two away from the wall solves this. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. In fact unless you can get the speakers a few METERS away from the wall it can actually make the problem worse as it shifts the problem frequency lower into the range that cheap acoustic treatments can’t do anything about.

Conversely, although moving speakers closer to the wall doesn’t solve the problem it does move the offending frequency higher and into a range where even cheap DIY panels can work wonders.

A simple example might help:

Wavelength = Velocity / Frequency

If we assume the speed of sound to be 343m/s and the low end of a guitar tone to be around 100hz (just for illustration). The wavelength is 3.43m.

A sound wave hitting the wall behind the speaker and reflecting back into the room will cause destructive interference at 1/4 of the wavelength for any given frequency. Therefore, if the speaker is 85cm from the wall you will have a huge dip in the response around 100hz. This will make guitars sound thin. Acoustic treatment to handle down to 100hz or below is bulky and expensive. If you are producing bass frequencies from bass guitar or drums the problem gets exponentially harder to deal with.

On the other hand with the speaker say 30cm (0.3m) from the wall the problem frequency will be centred around 285hz which is starting to get in to the range where cheap treatment can help.