YouTube: Kemper Profiling Amplifier KPA Review

Nothing like walking into the line of fire knowing the possible ramifications. Kudos to you!
 
Haha... I know this video will get it's share of dislikes and I don't really care. I gave my honest review. If I'd hype everything I'd test I'd be a hypocrite. Axe-Fx is clearly better.

kemperclipping.jpg


In this picture you can see how the Kemper is unable to profile amp dynamics. First clip is the real Rectifier and second clip is the Kemper. It looks almost clipped.
 
I liked your matter of fact approach to the topic although you'll get some crap from the Kemper camp for not sending the audio direct since the mic also picks up your string noise and such so they will say it ain't a true representation of what it sounds like. Since the video was more about discussing the different features and whether the profiling is accurate that is the takeaway IMO.

Your "what the f$&k" comment about performance mode made me laugh my ass off.
 
Good review Clark! One of the things that bugs me the most is the boot up time.

THe biggest mistake made by the Kemper camp was to make direct attacks/reviews against the Axe II. Not the same beast and IMO I would only really pay $700 if I were to do it again.

Boot up of the Kemper has improved to 41 seconds on mine since the last firmware .

 
I have much respect for unbiased opinions. Clearly the Kemper is not your thing.
But to call sharing your honest opinion as bravery says more about this forum.
BTW, why are good opinions about Kempers deleted and the bad ones not?
Just a thought.......Funny world.
 
eadgbe said:
But to call sharing your honest opinion as bravery says more about this forum.
BTW, why are good opinions about Kempers deleted and the bad ones not?
Just a thought.......Funny world.
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The "act of bravery" is putting out a review of any device that is very popular that isn't glowing. Axe fans do the same thing. Speaking of forums, there isn't a day that goes by when someone at the Kemper forum doesn't post a derogatory comment about the Axe. I read the Kemper forum daily and the smarmy comments are rampant.

Fanboys will be fanboys.


I didn't think Clark's review was all that negative for what it's worth. He just prefers what he has been doing for awhile. Works for him.
 
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eadgbe said:
... But to call sharing your honest opinion as bravery says more about this forum.
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It has more to do with the comments posted at the other forum+(s). It can get pretty rabid over there... just as much as anywhere else ... ah... I guess... anyways most here know that. Thus the comments reflect that. Give it a day or so and you'll see.

eadgbe said:
BTW, why are good opinions about Kempers deleted and the bad ones not?
Just a thought.......Funny world.
Click to expand...

Good question. I can understand as to "why" to some extent and I think it has to do with keeping "wars" to a dull roar and not to let them get totally out of control. FYI- Things have been deleted here as well that were nothing short being negative towards the Kemper. You won't find any of those threads here either.
 
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I have both, in my opinion both are great.
So nice to have choices.
To me the best one is the one that makes you play more music and makes you happy.
For now I am keeping both,
V7 has made it hard for me to choose.
The Axe 2 is fully baked, the Kemper is still cooking but I can't deny how good it sound and feels as is, but I can not deny how complete and good the the Axe is.
I still have a great amp collection and a ton of guitars, I like it all.
Glad the op is happy with his choice.
Chris
 
If you guys haven't been around here for long enough to know Clark then you may think that this is some regular AxeFX fanboy speaking. I can assure you that Clark hates everything equally. ;)

Nothing against anyone on here, but if I had to pick one guy's opinion as the most unbiased out there Clark would be on an extremely short list of people I'd pick.
 
Haha thanks shasha!

Personally I don't know what to think about people liking me "not liking" the Kemper. Kemper and the Axe-Fx are different units but in the forum world people seem to think it has to be one or the other. I don't think that's how it is but if it has to be one or the other, the Axe-Fx Standard would be better than the Kemper for me.
 
good points raised. would have left references/comparisons to axe-fx out of the review though, because it did sound a bit like a fas salesperson towards the end.

kemper is not something i'd ever get - still a fan of valve amps, and the axe-fx1 (when it works).
 
Interesting review but I am having a hard time to believe that it is not a bit biased at least, specially since you mention the Axe FX in another product review. Just a couple of comments.

What you mention about the 125hz frequencies could not be easily compensated with EQ?

Then you show a couple of clips to compare how both units match the EQ, but unless I miss that part you did not to include the reference original amp tone (hehe).
 
Yeah the audio in this video is poop. I realized that while making this video so this video is simply my review and you can trust my word if you want to. I have no reason to lie here. It's not like the Axe-Fx is my main rig. I use real amps 80% of the time. Axe-Fx is just for fooling around at home. Biased... sure everyone is biased but we did give the Kemper a fair comparison in the studio although it's probably the ugliest piece of gear we've ever seen. :D
 
man i laughed out loud when you did the bootup time music... man if the power flickered at a gig, that would be brutal to sit and wait to start playing again. good honest review.
 
Clark Kent said:
Yeah the audio in this video is poop. I realized that while making this video so this video is simply my review and you can trust my word if you want to. I have no reason to lie here. It's not like the Axe-Fx is my main rig. I use real amps 80% of the time. Axe-Fx is just for fooling around at home. Biased... sure everyone is biased but we did give the Kemper a fair comparison in the studio although it's probably the ugliest piece of gear we've ever seen. :D
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I don't think that everybody who does a review is biased. I have seen reviews from the Axe and KPA that did not seem biased to me. The reason I said that is because it gave me that impression due to the way it is done and several comments on it. I am not saying it was done intentionally but it looks that way in some points. It looked that maybe you think the way you do things is the best way and maybe that conditioned your comparison/review.

Btw, could you answer my questions about if you tried to adjust the 125hz frequencies with EQ? Also could you post the reference amp clip so we can compare it with your Axe and KPA clips since you are comparing those two to the original?

I agree with you that matching the EQ is an important part if you want to match a tone and in most KPA reviews I have seen so far it seems to do that fairly well. I don't think that matching the EQ is the most important part though. Maybe if you play with lots of gain and with a reduced dynamic range that's good enough for you and maybe you are able to achieve that with an Axe FX Ultra but to me there is more than that. As a proof you have the Axe FX II that performs much better in all the other areas (like dynamic response and feel) giving a much more realistic result than what you get with the Ultra. Based on a lot or reviews, some by people like Andy Sneap the KPA seems to perform very well in capturing those as well.

dpeterson said:
man i laughed out loud when you did the bootup time music... man if the power flickered at a gig, that would be brutal to sit and wait to start playing again. good honest review.
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Same reaction here :D. That's the 1st thing that it gave me the impression of bias. He does not mention it during the review but instead in a sneaky way he includes the whole boot sequence on the review (which is slow), adds music as background to emphasize the wait and when completed he laughs and says "here you go". A bit too obvious..... :roll
 
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