Here's my situation:
A few years ago after contemplating for a while I got myself a tube rig. An Engl Gigmaster, an OCD to push it and into a TAD 1x12 Cab. This is by far the best sounding equipment I ever owned. And its also for me the mountain that the Kemper (or any other digital gear for that matter) has to cross. And just to be clear I don't need THAT exact sound, but something AS good or better.
To be brutaly honest I have never been able to get the sounds out of the Kemper that I wanted and expected after listening to samples online. And everytime I thought "well it must be because I don't have this or that". So last week I decided to answer this question for myself and pulled the trigger on a powered Kabinet.
Imho that is the most "fair" way to listen to the Kemper. Its like pairing a Helix with a Powercab. These products have been designed to work together so I could expect a proper sound, at least that is my reasoning.
So yesterday it arrived and I've played a round with stock profiles for a while. It didn't sound bad of course. But it's not there, not even close.
Maybe I was foolish but I kinda hoped that it would already sound well with everything untouched. And that I then would "only" have to tweak the last 10% to get the effect combinations I want etc.
I did some experiments with the things I have (inlcuding a Helix LT). I went into the Kemper and straight out of the direct out into the input of my Engl. And it already sounds different than going directly into the amp. The same thing was true for the Helix. So maybe there already lies part of the trouble. I don't think anything is broken in my Kemper. Unfortunately I cannot properly record this to show you.
Another thing I noticed is that I can play my tube rig for hours even at higher volumes without any issue but after about an hour of the Kemper+Kabinet noodeling I felt my ears getting fatigued.
What I really miss is a body of mids that I cannot seem to add by eq. It's either there or it is not. And so far with the Kemper (and Helix and probably all other units as well) it hasn't been there.
At this point the only reason I'm still trying to get this to work is because I just can't believe that so many pro players would sacrifice that much sound for convenience. So it MUST be my fault.
So, what should I do?
EDIT in reply (sorry for the confusion):
- White Kemper Head, latest firmware
- I played the Kemper with the Power Kabinet exactly as instructed in the manual and as adviced in this forum and connected to the Monitor OUT.
- When trying to plug the Kemper between the guitar and ENGL amp, direct out is set to GIt Analog. I should also mention that the difference is not huge but noticable and becomes bigger when i turn down the volume knob on my guitar.