Profiler Power Head - 600-watt Profiling Head Review

Longtime Kemper Owner

I've had my Kemper for years now. It is easily my favorite amp, and I have a nice collection of tube amps including some OG vintage stuff. The Kemper power head sounds great through a cab in the room and it has plenty of volume to play in a proper band setting. And it is so nice to go SPDIF directly into my DAW interface so levels are always perfect and there are no attenuation… read more issues with analog cables. 90% of the guitar tracks I've recorded over the past five years have been done on the Kemper because it sounds amazing in a mix, and it is so easy to get back to the exact tone I was using even if it's been months since I originally tracked a part.

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Game Changer

As always, thanks to my Sweetwater sales rep Bob Mondok for getting this out in the mail so quickly.I'm only on day number two of playing with this technological gem, and I'm pretty convinced that I'm going to profile all of my other amps and then sell them off.There's a bit of a learning curve, but I can't complain cause there was with learning guitar as well. So far I've been… read more utilizing the Rig Manager application to comb through 19,000 free online rigs and picking out my favorites....oh yeah, and bass rigs as well!I ran the output to an Egnater 12" cabinet and it checks all the boxes for sonic bliss...low end, high end, everything!It covers everything from glassy clean to dark and brutal.Hands down the best gear purchase I have made in decades!!

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I am a believer! Kemper reinvented the wheel.

Recently purchased the Kemper Profiler Power Head, and picked up in person to beat the Christmas shipping rush. The owners manual only scratches the surface of the capabilities of this unit. The factory profiles are decent, and will get you familiar with the logistics of operation, but the Kemper really shines, and will completely blow your mind on how accurately the Kemper will… read more clone the tones of vintage and modern amplifiers, cabinets/speakers, and effects-- when you upgrade, and use professional grade profiles. Search for Michael Britt, ToneJunkie, ReAmpZone, and Live Ready Sound to name the best of the best. The Kemper will hold 1000 profiles without slowing down the start up process. The Kemper can be transported in a bag, small enough to be used as a carry on for airline travel. No more renting subpar gear. The Kemper plugs right into the FOH board, and you can get your tone at ANY volume level. Worth its weight in gold, this unit completely changes the game-- I was skeptical at first, but I couldn't be happier!

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An Epic Amp

Having played guitar for more than 30 years, it felt a little odd to buy an amp profiler. Part of me was torn that I didn't put that money towards another sweet tube amp. But after a long hiatus playing little if any guitar, I wanted to jump back in and get something that could expand my horizons. And wow, the Kemper Powered profiler did that and much more. It has completely blown… read more me away. I have played quite a variety of amps in my time--even a dimed 100-watt Marshall stack. But even so, I have been able to try out a much wider variety of amps in the Kemper. Who knew I would love the Two Rock TS1? Or a cranked Dumble? The Kemper can really help to dial in tones and find that sound you are looking for -- or a bunch of different tones you are looking for. After playing it for the last three months, I look at my real amps and wonder why I have them at all now. It is a struggle to get the real amps to sound as good as the profiles on the Kemper. I can't recommend this highly enough. The Kemper is so versatile and easy to use I can see why they have become the go to standard for modeling amps. If you buy one of these I highly recommend purchasing profiles from Michael Britt, and those making top-end profiles. You won't regret it. And do yourself a favor and get the Kemper Kabinet as well. The Powered Profiler paired with the Kabinet is a home run.

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Kemper Profiler Power Head

After years (since 2007) of owning and hawking tube amplifiers over solid state, and later modeling amps, I took the next logical step, and purchased a Kemper Profiler Amp. :-D What I actually bought was the Kemper Power Head and a 1x12 Kemper Kabinet so that I could get the "amp in the room" experience. I don't have any recording or p.a. equipment, so I don't have any FRFR speakers… read more that I could hear the amp through. And I don't gig anywhere (currently) to go "direct out." I could have purchased a regular Kemper head or Stage, but I would have had to get a third party power amp to power the Kabinet. But I decided to keep all the technology in the Kemper family, so the head with a power amp built in, running the passive speaker in the Kabinet, is what made sense. With regards to the amp, the profiles, built in effects, and speaker imprints sound great. Fender, Marshall, Vox, Mesa Boogie, etc. profiles all sound and feel like they should. Keep in mind I am using the Kabinet and speaker imprints from the amp to get the amp in the room experience. When you download the Rig Manager software app from the Kemper website, you can control the amp from your desktop/laptop via USB cable. My amp shipped with over 200 profiles and rigs. A rig is a profile that has effects added to it, rather than just the sound of the amp itself. You can turn them off or on, remove them, or replace them with other onboard effects. In the Rig Manager community, there are over 16,000 free profiles/rigs that you can try out and save if you want to keep them. Saving them to your amp is intuitive and easy. For years, when I would sit down to play one of my tube amps, I was always very serious about getting the right tones, playing the right things, etc. While I greatly enjoyed all that playing, the Kemper actually reminded me that playing was also extremely fun and joyful. I haven't had this much fun playing in years. I'm not much of a metal fan or player, but I can't help to chug along with some of the highest gain profiles that come with the amp. Note: If you get the Power Head (or any Kemper) one of the first things you'll want to do is find out which Operating System is installed, and upgrade if necessary. There is a System button on the face of the amp. Pressing that will bring up the System section on the screen. Use the page buttons to scroll to the end to see which version you have. There is info on the Kemper website about updating. If your version is below a certain level, you'll need a USB thumb drive to get it up to a certain version number. Once you have that, you can either use the USB drive again to load the most recent version, or you can install Rig Manager on your PC/Mac, connect to the Kemper via USB cable, and Rig Manager will take care of it for you. If you are using the Kabinet, you'll need the latest OS version to get access to the speaker imprints.

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