Barefoot Sound – studio loudspeakers loved by the professionals
You are curious what kind of story stands behind a company naming itself “Barefoot Sound”? This might disappoint you: Barefoot was founded by a certain Mr. Thomas Barefoot. So it's simply a last name. The company is located in the “Bridge City” Portland, Oregon, where not only the speakers are being designed, but also built. One funny thing is Barefoot tends to somehow downplay. So don't get fooled by the use of “Mini” and “Micro” – especially when it comes to sound!
Barefoot speakers, even the smallest ones, the Barefoot Footprint 1, use sealed cabinets. On the left and right side, most speakers feature symmetrical bass drivers. They are not passive drivers but active ones – each firing to opposite directions! Thereby, the effect on the housing of the speakers is being minimised, as the impulses cancel out themselves. Still, the cabinets are being built pretty solid to keep vibrations at a minimum. In conjunction with the cabinets being closed rather than ported, the result is a stunningly tight bass response. This also means Barefoot monitors offer at least a three-way-system, dedicating a driver for the crucial midrange. The very big speakers us 4.5-ways. (4.5 means some speakers of one way use lesser bandwidth in order to allow better imaging.)
The look oft the tweeter with it's thin spike is quite unique. But this is not about aesthetics: The centre phase plug extends a lot in order to disperse soundwaves and to prevent soundwaves from the opposite side of the spike to interfere. This leads to a broad dispersion of the high frequencies and an enormously big sweet spot. Because of the dual ring structure, a strong magnet and a homogenous diffraction up to 40 kHz, this driver could easily be considered one of the best on the market.
The loudspeakers get delivered enormous power by their amps. Even for the smallest Footprint02, there is 350 Watts of sheer amplification power. The biggest stack's amps provide ten times that power. Yes: 3500 (or 3.5k)! Much power does not only mean “loud” but “no sag when dealing with impulses”!
Exept for the two smaller models the active electronics are being contributed by the renowned company Hypex from the Netherlands.
We guess it's best to use a bunch of adjectives here: All Barefoot Sound studio monitors sound precise, analytic, dry and natural. They are all being build not to make your audio signals appear nice but to reveal even the slightest problems. Be it colour, phase, dynamics or timing.
Despite appearing pretty small and often able to being positioned on a meterbridge, many sound like massive main speakers. Oh, and how many small footprint speakers do you know that reproduce sound way lower than 40 Hz with both high quality and volume?
It may sound funny, studio monitors might sound too good for some situations. Barefoot's “MEME”-Technology can mimic classic nearfield peakers (you know… with those white membranes), a Hi-Fi-setup or even very small speaker systems like those you find inside laptops.
|
Speaker |
Details |
|---|---|
| Footprint 02 | small, but powerful 3-way-speakers, -3dB@42 Hz |
| Footprint 01 | small, but powerful 3-way-speakers, -3dB@36 Hz |
| MicroMain 45 | features 3-way drivers (with double mids), double-fire bass as optional extention |
| MicroMain 27 | 3.5-way vertical speaker with 5 drivers|only 24 cm wide, but acts as a main |
| MicroMain 26 | 4-way horizontal speaker|30 Hz - 45 kHz |
| MiniMain 12 | 4-way horizontal speaker|-3dB@20Hz, 14 drivers/pair and 2000 Watt of amp power |
| MasterStack 12 | 4.5-way tower speakers|total of 20 drivers, 3500 Watts |
Footprint01 and Footprint02 look quite similar. And in many ways, they are. But there are quite some differences. Footprint02's cabinet is smaller, containing 13 litres rather than 18. The frequency response of the newer 02 meets -3dB at still astonishing 42 Hz, whereas the 01 reaches 36 Hz. A pair of Footprint01 is equipped with 1300 Watt power, 02 with “only” 700.
When buying the bigger Barefoot studio monitors, you can decide whether they have handles on their sides or not. “Why the handles?”, you may ask. What would you think handles are for? They simply help lifting those massive cabinets. So there is no acoustical meaning. But to be honest, the distinct look is pretty neat, isn't it?