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Ashdown RM-112T- v Barefaced Super compact


Kevin Dean
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As I use a ABM1000 that's 1000watts & 2000peak the Ashdown cabs was designed to be used with the Root master Heads & this cab is 350 watts ( 8 ohms) , The Barefaced is 600w. After speaking to Lee at Ashdown I'm going to get a Sica driver from them that is capable of handling the ABM that works out at about £100 including Vat .

Edited by Kevin Dean
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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I've now done several gigs with the Ashdown RM 12 with the Sica 700w driver fitted , Word of warning these speakers are not a straight exchange if you are thinking of doing it yourself , The hole needs another 3.5 mm routed out .Ashdown can do this for you & this version works out at about £380 . As I said before I've only done this because I have the ABM1000 .
I took the Barefaced to both gigs & swapped the cabs mid set & Had two professional sound engineer friends at both gigs to give me feed back . Conclusion was quite simple for me I'll be selling two Barefaced super compacts in great condition with roqsolid covers .

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Its like any gear really, its personal preference. If we all thought the same sound was great there would not be many manufacturers. I always hope that the cheapest, lightest, smallest and locally manufactured option will sound the best to my ears, but sadly its rarely the case.

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I have to admit after slagging them off for quite a long time that Ashdown got it right this time with the RM head series and the cabs, those blueline cabs were absolutely awful. They were very difficult to get a good sound in different rooms and all you got was a bit amount of mush and don't even try them with an active bass.

I tried them at GAK and I was floored; they are lighter, clear sounding and you could almost throw anything at them and will still sound great. I felt in love with the RM-500 head, so much I'm planning to buy one and use it with my BFM cab as my Carvin BX500 seems to love my Warwick WC210.

Hats off to Ashdown for getting it right this time.

Edited by Mcgiver69
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[quote name='Mcgiver69' timestamp='1476440698' post='3154300']
I have to admit after slagging them off for quite a long time that Ashdown got it right this time with the RM head series and the cabs, those blueline cabs were absolutely awful. They were very difficult to get a good sound in different rooms and all you got was a bit amount of mush and don't even try them with an active bass.

I tried them at GAK and I was floored; they are lighter, clear sounding and you could almost throw anything at them and will still sound great. I felt in love with the RM-500 head, so much I'm planning to buy one and use it with my BFM cab as my Carvin BX500 seems to love my Warwick WC210.

Hats off to Ashdown for getting it right this time.
[/quote]

strange i've never had a problem with the blueline cab and in various rooms but am very tempted by these new white ones just wish they did a 4x10. And yes the RM head is very very good.

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[quote name='Kevin Dean' timestamp='1476436665' post='3154236']
Well I've now done several gigs with the Ashdown RM 12 with the Sica 700w driver fitted , Word of warning these speakers are not a straight exchange if you are thinking of doing it yourself , The hole needs another 3.5 mm routed out .Ashdown can do this for you & this version works out at about £380 . As I said before I've only done this because I have the ABM1000 .
I took the Barefaced to both gigs & swapped the cabs mid set & Had two professional sound engineer friends at both gigs to give me feed back . Conclusion was quite simple for me I'll be selling two Barefaced super compacts in great condition with roqsolid covers .
[/quote]

Blimey, food for thought indeed! Seems like a superb cab on that basis!

The thing that really interests me (and I'm truly not baiting BF owners intentionally here) is that these equal the Barefaced cabs for volume/loudness/dispersion or however you wish to phrase it. Of course, tone is subjective and others may prefer one over the other for that, but it's very interesting indeed that these equal or perhaps even outperform the Barefaced cabs/drivers in a real world setting, given how they claim they perform compared to similar speaker cabinets. How have Ashdown achieved this?

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[quote name='Kev' timestamp='1476465124' post='3154636']


Blimey, food for thought indeed! Seems like a superb cab on that basis!

The thing that really interests me (and I'm truly not baiting BF owners intentionally here) is that these equal the Barefaced cabs for volume/loudness/dispersion or however you wish to phrase it. Of course, tone is subjective and others may prefer one over the other for that, but it's very interesting indeed that these equal or perhaps even outperform the Barefaced cabs/drivers in a real world setting, given how they claim they perform compared to similar speaker cabinets. How have Ashdown achieved this?
[/quote]

Careful Kev, you're seriously paraphrasing there. Kevin prefers the Ashdown but nowhere did he say that it equalled or outperformed for volume/loudness/dispersion etc. ;)

Also really worth bearing in mind Kevin's modded the cab so the standard RM isn't what's being compared here :)

Edited by Merton
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[quote name='Merton' timestamp='1476467307' post='3154651']


Careful Kev, you're seriously paraphrasing there. Kevin prefers the Ashdown but nowhere did he say that it equalled or outperformed for volume/loudness/dispersion etc. ;)

Also really worth bearing in mind Kevin's modded the cab so the standard RM isn't what's being compared here :)
[/quote]

That's fair enough, I was perhaps wrongly assuming he/sound engineers didn't choose the weaker performer. It could well be more about value for money.

And I'm aware it's not the standard spec, but the price Ashdown quote for the upgrade is still a fair whack cheaper. :)

Edited by Kev
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If it were to equal a barefaced equivalent I would be surprised.
But its not impossible after all they have been around a while and working with sica and building mass produced cabs for years. So really they have no excuse not to be able to build something as good and mass produced (cheaper).

I mean Berhinger probably have the resources to put out some amazing cabs at a lower cost if they wanted. Actually they would no doubt just reverse engineer a cab and driver knowing them. Oh and double its true power handling ;D lol. Isnt the 2x10 pretty much an eden cab design.

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I had a quick look at the Sica website, and they don't appear to make a 700 watt rated 12" that matches the displacement Barefaced quote for their 12". So I'd guess that if both cabs were pushed to their limits the Barefaced would still have more output in the low end. Sica do have some pretty capable looking drivers, but it does look like the Barefaced still brings something extra to the table to justify the cost. Whether you need the extra output and which cab you prefer the tone of is up to you, and the Ashdown does look like a decent cab.

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[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1476527098' post='3154964']
It's likely to be the 12 K 3 PL model - 700 watts programme. There's only a certain amount you can glean from spec sheets, but it looks to be in the same ballpark as the Eminence offerings.
[/quote]

Yup, the 3012HO goes slightly better in terms of power handling and more critically is 3dB more efficient... But as you say they are in the same ballpark..

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But at the retail level the Sica is £55 cheaper than the 3012 HO... (about 130 v 185) So you pays your money..... I know Alex does not use the standard 3012HO anymore, but I suspect the new neo drivers he uses are based on it..

Now does anyone want to sell me their 15" BF Compact? :-)

Edited by markstuk
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[quote name='eude' timestamp='1476437400' post='3154245']
Wow, that's pretty awesome and a nice result for Ashdown!
Are the regular drivers just as good as these 700w albeit without the same power handling?

Eude
[/quote] The standard speaker is a Blueline speaker ? but White Sounds pretty good to me .

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This Sica driver is custom made for Ashdown , The only reason I've got it is because of the power of my ABM1000 . I don't like to get involved with all the technical info ,The product either works for me or it doesn't . For me The Ashdown had better dispersion especially when using Synth sounds via my Roland GR55 The tweeter definitely helps Here But the Low end dispersion was pretty much the same as the Barefaced . I mainly play pick style & for me the Ashdown cut through a live mix a lot better in the mids . I really really wasn't expecting to like it more but I just do .
Plus I like the inset handle a lot more ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm not really surprised at any of this. Alex has always been spot on and totally honest with his posts here, and in his BGM articles but he makes his living by selling speakers and has to indulge in advertising talk on his website. Barefaced sell very well engineered cabs with great drivers, but there is no magic speaker genie. The 'sound ' of a cab is down to taste and what suits upon the music you play. The independents have pioneered lightweight high excursion speakers, the big boys manufacturing in China were bound to catch up with 'me too' products.

My guess, and I'd love someone to provide me with both cabs to dissect, is that the biggest differences are in the bracing of the cabs, which you'd probably only notice in critical applications and in excursion which you'd only notice if you attempt to drive very high power levels at very low frequencies, and most of us won't so long as we have enough speakers. Two good twelves should have enough for 95% of us.


You really need to be careful with these power specs. The limiting factor for power dissipation is how quickly the heat can be removed from the coil. Most of this is transferred via the magnets and tiny neo magnets need lots of fins to compete with ceramic magnets. Most designs also use the air movement around the coil to ventilate heat away but this has its limits too. Ultimately around 350W is the most a 12" speaker can dissipate, whatever the manufacturers claim. Anything much higher is always a peak figure.

In any case the real limiting figure is usually excursion, There aren't many speakers I've modelled over the years that aren't excursion limited down to 200W or usually less in the lower octaves somewhere, and all of them will fail if you put 400W of 33Hz through them continuously, not that you ever would. There's no such thing as a 700W continuous 12" speaker.

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