Kemper vs. AX8 vs. Helix vs. BIAS Head - BLIND TEST!

Fretwired

John_A

I was waiting for the second one and it finished - Guess I didn't win the prize   All sounded very similar to me even after a few listens

Fretwired

Have to wait until tomorrow ... OK if you only like metal tones.

fretmeister

They are very close.

I can say which ones I prefer, but not which are better / worse.

Fretwired

fretmeister said:

They are very close.

I can say which ones I prefer, but not which are better / worse.

I think that's the case with the high-end modelling units .. they sound very alike and pretty good these days.

octatonic

Fretwired said:

fretmeister said:

They are very close.

I can say which ones I prefer, but not which are better / worse.

I think that's the case with the high-end modelling units .. they sound very alike and pretty good these days.

... for high gain sounds too.
The tricky bit is that on the edge distortion/compression/overdrive thing that a good tube amp does when pushed.

guitarfishbay

Who knows.  Anyway I thought we were supposed to guess so we can have egg on our faces or pretend like we've got golden ears if we get a few right.

I liked 2 and 5 the best, I guess these might be 2 real amp and 5 Kemper.  1 sounded a bit undynamic in the lows but otherwise ok (my guess is the Helix), 3 was missing loads of the lows (my guess is the Bias), and 4 was bloaty and the distortion sounded a little odd - I know it is possible to get that sound with a Fractal if you have the master too high when boosting the low end in the GEQ so who knows maybe that one is the AX8.  

I predict egg.

The way I feel about this stuff is if you've found something that works then use it. At my time of purchase it was Axe FX 2 or Kemper, and I preferred the idea of having all the amp models and then just picking IRs versus going through profiles made by others. Today who knows maybe I'd buy a Helix and a spend the difference on an extra bass guitar. I don't really want to switch at this point because I really like the tones I can get from the Axe and I know how to use it. Plus I like the feel when playing through it. I did not like the feel of the BIAS app when I played through it, no idea how the bias amp differs. If the singer can't sing no guitar tone is going to save you anyway.

guitarfishbay

Results.



I got 1/5 but I'm still happy because the two I liked best were the real amp and the AX8 (and I own an Axe FX 2).  I was surprised that to my ears the AX8 sounded closer to the real amp than the Kemper in this test (including the re-run test with different profiling methodology)

guitarfishbay

For completeness here's the comparison video (unlisted on YouTube)

guitarfishbay

So inspired by this video I got the IR (DL link in the video description) and turned off power amp modelling. It sounded pretty good on the Mark amps and 5150s but absolutely terrible on the Recto Red Modern - but I guess this makes sense because the power amp makes that tone from what I understand