Powered Kemper poweramp compared to Seymour Duncan Powerstage (Powered KPA vs Player KPP)

    The Profiler Model referred to in this thread is ...
    ☑️ Profiler Head/Rack

    Hi,

    I wonder what your experiences are with this.

    I compared two sets with the exact same rig setup to be played on a real cab:
    - Kemper Player with Seymour Duncan Powerstage 200
    - Powered Kemper Rack with internal poweramp.

    I made sure that both have the pure cabinet settings set to 6 and EQ to 0.0 (or at noon on the powerstage).
    Of course there is a difference in tone but that difference was waaay bigger than I expected.
    I found out the Kemper poweramp gave way better results and sounded much more like a real amp.
    At the other hand I expected the powerstage to act the same way but for some reason I could not even get close.
    Especially in the high-mids and low-highs and highs the Kemper was superior

    So in other words: even though I can have the exact same profile on the Player I could never get close to the sound of the same rig on a powered Kemper when playing over a cab.
    I'm at the point that I'd say 'Please Kemper give us a Kemper Power Amp for use on a pedalboard' just like the powerstage.

    Is there anyone out there that did a similar comparison and what are your thoughts about this?

    Personally I had the opposite impression. 😁

    But maybe it depends on the cabinet and the speakers used.
    I did my tests using 1x12 speakers with Kemper Kone and with the excellent and underrated Celestion F12-X200. Studio profiles, no imprints.

    That is a surprise given that SS amps are aiming to be as transparent as possible. Its also a surprise as ( not sure if its true) both are powered by B+O amps...

    It also shouldn't matter what it goes through ( everything else should be equal) but I suspect some monitoring systems will highlight bigger changes than others.

    So you are asking Kemper for a pedal power amp when they already do a power head, a power rack and and powerkab? I understand why but I think its unlikely as it would only be for users who want to use a stage or player but run through a regular cab which is porbably not the top use case, especially as cabs are becoming less important live. I take mine but invariably rely on the in house monitors - most venues expect digital direct guitar amps in my experience.

    The power amps are versions of ICE units as some people on here have built powered Kabs prior to the development of the powerKab....Im sure someone can correct me...

    Quote from V8guitar

    That is a surprise given that SS amps are aiming to be as transparent as possible. Its also a surprise as ( not sure if its true) both are powered by B+O amps...

    It also shouldn't matter what it goes through ( everything else should be equal) but I suspect some monitoring systems will highlight bigger changes than others.

    So you are asking Kemper for a pedal power amp when they already do a power head, a power rack and and powerkab? I understand why but I think its unlikely as it would only be for users who want to use a stage or player but run through a regular cab which is porbably not the top use case, especially as cabs are becoming less important live. I take mine but invariably rely on the in house monitors - most venues expect digital direct guitar amps in my experience.

    The power amps are versions of ICE units as some people on here have built powered Kabs prior to the development of the powerKab....Im sure someone can correct me...

    Yup... both powered Kemper head/rack and the Seymour Duncan SD use ICEpower amp modules.

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    I did some more comparison and this time the results are better but still not the same.
    The main reason I can think of is that the PowerRack has an EQ on each output (also monitor output).
    The Player doens't have a EQ on the monitor out.
    But this time it was way better