Player and powered Kabinet. Volume?

Anyone using the Profiler Player and the powered Kabinet?

I've been using a rack Kemper for several years but in an attempt to minimise the setup, I'm now using a Player and a powered Kab.

I only use the Kemper live and I play in a LOUD band. We do things old-skool - ie only the vocals in the PA. Everything else is backline. (Yes, I know. I know, but it is what it is).

Everything I read about the powered Kabinet has half the people saying it's loud enough and the other half saying it's not loud enough.

For me, it's not loud enough. Which I really struggle to understand, being a 200w Kabinet. But as soon as I turn up the volume up on the played (the Kabinet is on full volume), the player turns the volume down again to prevent me over powering the Kone.

I don't think there's a wattage meter in the Player - please prove me wrong. But apart from hearing the volume drop, I see the volume drop in Rig Manager. (It's a very aggressive drop too).

Monitor cab is off. Kone is on. Using the Monitor Out. I've played with the power amp boost (it just gets me to the point where it turns me down faster).

What else can I try? I need some inspiration here (that isn't "play quieter on stage". It's not my band. It's not going to change). I've started saving for a 2nd Kabinet but they are expensive here (New Zealand).

Please. Clever people. Any suggestions.

Thank you

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Appreciate it.

1. Looks look another powered cab is the way to go.

2. The power amp boost doesn't help at all. Yeah it makes things louder, but then the Monitor volume gets turned down more.

3. Yep, it should be ear-splitting loud. It is very loud but not loud enough. I don't really understand why not at 200w, but I reckon my old 100w solid state amp would see it off.

4. I have an amp stand. It does help. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Two things are puzzling me:

1. If I set the Monitor Volume at 0db (ie max vol) and strum lightly, the Monitor volume gets turned down to -5db (ish). BUT if I thrash the strings, the Monitor Volume only gets turned down a small amount. Not sure I understand the algorithm here! Anyone from Kemper able to shed any light please?

2. There's no volume readjustment back up. Once it's turned down, there's no recovery if things change other than to reach for the volume knob.

Cheers!

HELL-G Yep, full volume on the Kabinet.

Yoda Guitar I'm not in the position in my house to do a full volume test right now, but I tried a low power test between my two Profilers to see if both Profilers gave the same result.

I increased Monitor vol to the maximum that both Profilers would let me do, and let the algorithm turn them down. So, in theory, max output on both Profilers (same rig on both).

Instead of running the Kab at full volume I ran it at "bed room" volume. I have a "proper" sound pressure meter so no need for the phone app. I used my guitar playing an A chord instead of white noise. (Less precise, I know but close enough for an indication). Meter measuring dB was about a metre away.

I repeated the text three times switching back and forth. Both Profilers came in at about 80 dB (maybe the Rack was a dB or so louder).

So, I think this low-volume test shows that both Profilers are doing the same thing. (Which is good, and what I'd expect).

That means that either my Kabinet is faulty and doesn't do "ear splitting" volume, or I'm deaf from standing in front of loud guitar amps for 40+ years!

I'm at a gig tomorrow. I will *try* to take some dB measurements at gig volume.

Thanks for all the input so far!

I did another test. Again not overly scientific but possibly suggests something interesting.

As well as the powered Kabinet in question, I also have an unpowered Kemper Kabinet that I used to use with a Harley Benton 100w pedal board amp. https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_gpa_100.htm

This time I did two tests to compare them both with the same Profiler input.

Test 1.
Guitar --> Player--> Kabinet (on full.)

Test 2.
Guitar --> Player --> 100w pedal amp (on full) --> Unpowered Kab

With the Profiler monitor volume set low enough to be manageable, (but the same setting in both tests), I measure around 90dB a metre away from the powered Kab, but 103 dB from the unpowered Kab with the external amp.

So the unpowered Kab with a 100W external amp is considerably louder than the 200W powered Kab - with the exact same input.

Am I missing something here? Or have I just proved that there's something wrong with my powered Kabinet and it's time to contact support?

Thanks for reading!

Quote from Yoda Guitar

Not quite right, the GPA 100 delivers 190W rms at 4 Ohm. But regardless, it indicates that the power amplifier is regulating down due to temperature or something similar. If, for example, the heatsink and thermal paste are not installed properly, the PowerMosFets get quit hot and the power amplifier regulates, and this happens very quickly. I therefore recommend returning to the sender as long as the warranty is still valid.

Ahhh, yes, forgot about the speaker impedance. Thanks.

Right then, I think we know what the problem is. I'm going to gig the passive Kab and GPA100 tonight and then think about what to do next. Hopefully there's a service centre in Australia (nothing here in New Zealand), otherwise shipping to Europe (I bought it from the Kemper website) from here will be $$$$$$$$$

Anyone ever managed to get spares shipped from Kemper? I'm guessing everything is modular inside the Kab so if I could get them to send a new power amp I could get a tech to fit it locally.

Cheers!

Well, just an update. I played with the unpowered Kabinet last night, and the GPA100 amp. HUGE difference. Ear-splitting stage volume and I wasn't even close to hitting the Player's volume limit.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

Quote from HELL-G

MarkNZ The HB power amp has a different input sensitivity than the Power Kabinet. This explains why the HB produces a higher SPL in combination with the Profiler Kabinet at the same monitor volume setting.

Ahhh, okay, so that would explain the difference in volume. But that brings me back to the Power Kabinet being too quiet for me and not, indeed, faulty.

Just because I'm curious, and want to understand, I've found the input sensitivity for the GPA 100 (777mV) but I can't find the figure for the Power Kabinet. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Cheers!