Well, one more day and I’ll be able to compare the Kemper Profiler PH and Axe FX III (on sale) directly - er, head to head, or pro vs mod, as it were.

I predict my many wonderful tube amps aren’t going anywhere, but, I’m very interested in getting some profiled amp setups that I can use for quickly recording, as well as developing some modeled amp setups for doing same. Tools in the arsenal to inspire and have fun.

Axe FX III has something special going on, imo, as far as the nicer demos I’ve heard (which for me were the Fender and Marshall centric ones, so far). But, I definitely need to profile my own amps to really see if K is Special K. Especially curious to profile and compare against my Goldfinger 45 and Helios 100.

I’ll give my OP-fied answer after some usage time has passed. BTW, I’ll be using some different analog and digital monitors, which should be plenty for home use, including the trusty Roland Cube Monitors, JBL LSR4300 series, Bryston 2.5b Cubed > ProAc SM100’s and Barefoot MM-27 rev2’s. I’m curious about running the Axe through some amp cabs as well.

Previous amp user here.... I gotta say. Since I got the kemper, I hardly use my amps ever... They now make a floorboard version. Made a video unboxing it... THe setup is even simpler now :D

I got a Kemper Stage floorboard yesterday and I love it!

Four or five years ago I gigged my Kemper Rack for about 6 months. It got to be a big hassle taking it from home (home recording) to our practice space/gigs and so most of the time I've mic'd a sidewashed tube combo. I was interested in the Kemper Stage when it came out but I didn't initially buy it for two main reasons:

1) The Kemper in past OS versions couldn't come close to duplicating my Strymon TimeLine Dual Delay. The delay timing I use is a dotted 8th 1/4 note repeat with one side at 375ms delay and the other side at 500ms. I use an expression pedal with the TimeLine to increase/decrease the delay. Two nights ago I downloaded Kemper OS 7 and for the first time I worked out a reasonably good Kemper Dual Delay which is totally good enough to gig. The Kemper Morph feature easily solved using an expression pedal with the Kemper Stage.

2) I occasionally gig a Rickenbacker and the JangleBox pedal for me is absolutely necessary. I couldn't dial up anything in the Kemper like the "Byrds JB2" pedal. Doing some research on the Kemper Stage a couple nights ago I realized one of the four Effect Buttons could toggle on/off the JangleBox (which itself would always turned on) in a Send/Return loop. Actually it turns out the Stage is capable of using two external pedals and not just one pedal as is evidently the case with the Kemper Rack.

It was easy to set up the Stage. I backed up the rigs on my Rack and Restored to the Stage. The menu system is different on the Stage, but not different enough to prevent me from having the Stage, in one night, totally gig ready for our next gig coming up.

Even though I love my pedalboard (I love pedals and changing out pedals) there are a few nitpicky reasons why I no longer wanted to deal with a pedalboard. I like the idea of the Kemper Stage, I assume it'll be as great as I think it will be.

AX8 for me. Form factor, sound, effects! Usability! On stage ease! It’s all there.