hartke vs barefaced, have i switched sides!?

[Ant]

played an all day festival yesterday in cardiff, the venue had a supplied Hartke 410XL so i thought i'd give it a try with my setup and compare it to my barefaced Super15.


in my head hartke cabs were never the sound for me, i had an aluminium coned 15 yeaaaars back and just couldnt get anything i liked out of it,
and recently the barefaced has just been killing all opposition with regards to a nice fat bassy but clear stage sound so i thought i was totally GAS free when it came to cabs.

my only problem with the Super15 is that with my setup (i DI to FOH using a palmer speaker sim DI) i find my DI sound more pleasing than the sound from the cab, but this hasnt massively bothered me as the barefaced is just a stage monitor and i know FOH is getting the palmer sound.

so i thought i'd try the hartke 410xl against the barefaced and see what the score was, plugged all my normal gear into my power amp and then into the hartke (hartke was jack only input which was a bit of a bummer) and the SOUND!!!! i was just surrounced by super punchy bass, it just seemed so much tighter and closer to what i was looking for, but with all the same clarity, to my ears it just sounded BETTER.

when moving around the stage, the barefaced wins with its ability to be heard no matter where im standing, whereas the hartke seemed to tail off as i moved away from in front of it.

got me wondering whether i should move on the s15 and get myself a couple of hartke 410s, but the super15 is just so portable! might see if i can find a retro 610 and see if its just the more coloured sound i was after all along.

[Merton]

There's a Six10 in the classifieds at the moment......

[Sparky Mark]

I gigged hartke xl cabs for 15 years and loved that powerful delivery but got tired of the weight. The hydrive 410s are great light weight cabs and are cheap second hand. Don't see many for sale on here though.

[ambient]

I guess a cab with 10s will sound clearer than one with 15s.

[Dad3353]

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1428970072' post='2746643']
I guess a cab with 10s will sound clearer than one with 15s.
[/quote]

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[chris_b]

You're noticing the big sounding 15's against the punchy tighter 10's and Barefaced tone against Hartke tone. These cabs are chalk and cheese.

The BF Retro 210's would be a better comparison to the Hartke, and (IMO) the BF would easily be the outright winner.

Edited April 14, 2015 by chris_b

[largo]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1428970576' post='2746648']
The BF Retro 210's would be a better comparison to the Hartke, and (IMO) the BF would easily be the outright winner.
[/quote]

On what? .... not if it's shiniest looking cones

[chris_b]

OK, I'll give you that.

Except for the shiny cone and cabs starting with an H categories . . . . . .

[Ant]

yeah ive been seriously eyeing up the retro six10, just dont have the time to be without the mega beast super15, so cant exactly sell it and pick up the retro610 any time soon

[Phil Starr]

To be fair there will be an interaction between a cab and the room acoustics. Cabs will work better in some rooms than others. I've an old Peavey 15 that sounds just magnificent in our tiny practice room but very ordinary anywhere else. My Harke kickback sounds great in my home and the 1x12's I'm gigging (which normally sound great) sound poor in the same room. You really need to try cabs in a variety of spaces to make a meaningful comparison. You may not be able to get 'that' sound elsewhere.