Everyone else seems to get it, whether they like the unit or not. You're the one who doesn't get the actual and verifiable USP of the Kemper.
Where did you matriculate into this discussion from anyway? I don't need to justify what I consider important to an internet Richard Cranium poster. I'll vote with my $$$, you vote with yours.
You make this sound like a much bigger deal than it is. No modeler on the market to my knowledge auto-updates itself. So anyone who cares about keeping the same sounds can simply avoid updating.
Even if you update regularly...only a fraction of the modeling updates drastically alter any sounds requiring you to redial things.
You could also approach profiles from the other point of view and consider their immutability to be a weakness where they don't get better but you need to make new profiles if there are improvements to the tech.
We are likely to see this for Kemper MK2 where many paid profile vendors will have to sell new packs to make updating all their profiles worth the time and effort it requires.
... again, "who cares", I do. I am not alone either. People like me that spend lots of time dialing in tone for a bunch of specific songs don't want the company that makes our equipment changing that tone. I get it isn't important to everyone. Not sure why you and others seem hell bent on ignoring the fact that it IS important to lots of people.
With the new MK2, people can decide on their own if they want the "upgraded profile" or the "original profile". It won't be Kemper making the decision for them.
As for the profile vendors, I think you can bet they will start making MK2 versions. If I am correct, then there are going to be WAY more MK1 users playing MK2 profiles than MK2 users. That would make the demand for MK2 profiles nearly instantaneous.... as it would also provide new revenue to Kemper instantaneously ..... which is why I am fairly sure they will offer it.
I suspect there will be a chicken and egg problem with MKII profiles. Vendors are not going to put in the effort if there is only a very small potential customer base. Customers are not going to upgrade hardware unless there are better sounding profiles available.
That's part of the big MKII miss. There is nothing else compelling about the hardware to get people to buy it.
See above. I bet there is a paid upgrade to the MK1 that allows the use of the new MK2 profiles.
A difference with Kemper imo is that the device allowed for relatively easy comparisons to source, and did very well compared to most of what we had seen previously.
The fundamental premise of the unit came to be "sucking in the soul of the amp". You get out what you put in.
On that end, I've had numerous conversations over the years with people insisting there's nothing to improve. This, before all the NULL-ing became popular.
Previously, when Townsend switched to fractal because "Kemper isn't the mesa", implying inaccuracies, and I mentioned this, Andy Sneap laughed off my comment.
I think partly because of Kempers success in profiling amps people ended up exaggerating how accurate it was/is (not necessarily intentionally). Some of this imo reflected on vendors too, especially considering the incentive of profit.
In 2026, sure, not many people would agree that MKII profiles are bang on accurate. I mean, how could they? Kemper forgot about that too.
I think that the original marketing of the Kemper, as you have stated, was quite brilliant. You profile, and compare in countless videos. Great idea, and great marketing.
I think that now as capture has become so much more ubiquitous, Kemper would be well served to pivot to a more defendable USP. Still, since accuracy has become a selling point in isolation of all other features, Kemper will do well to update the profiling tech to meet the new standards of accuracy.
I agree that the "nothing to improve" line was always weak, and for people that can actually do a null test themselves, it was completely indefensible. The new marketing line also makes the hypocrisy obvious even to those who CAN'T do a null test.
