fEARful verses Barefaced cabs

[malcolm.mcintyre]

Has anyone had the chance to compare these?
I suppose the most direct comparison would be between both makes three-way lightweight cabs with the 12 inch woofer.
The uncertain long wait times for the Barefaced cab, makes the prospect of an immediate CNC cut kit for the fEARful an attractive proposition, and I almost never sell gear on, so the resale value difference doesn't bother me.
The US forums are all over the fEARfuls, but Barefaced rate highly here.

[Mr. Foxen]

The original ones were developed pretty much in parallel, which is why the big one and the 15/6 are very similar. But Barefaced ran with the lightweight construction, whereas Fearful are designed well for DIY, so Barefaced will come out lighter unless you fiddle a bit with the design; thinner wood, prestressing and such.

[molan]

They both look 'home-made' to me

[geoffbyrne]

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1370970120' post='2108121']
They both look 'home-made' to me
[/quote]

How do they sound?

G.

[LawrenceH]

IIRC there was some discussion as the designs were developed about which drivers to use, and the Barefaced went with Beyma for the midrange while the fEarful went with 18Sound, probably due to availability.
I could be wrong about this, but I think the frequency response charts from 18sound themselves were done minus dustcap and as result there is a resonance peak which shows up in real life in the upper-mid/treble range, that's not on the chart. It's possible that later iterations of the fEarful crossover have dealt with that though.
The recommended 18sound tweeter on the fEarful is almost certainly a nicer unit than the rather long-in-the-tooth Eminence APT80 (common on many bass cabs, including Barefaced and Bergantino I think). Probably not much of an issue for a bass cab though, especially given how high they'll cross over in a 3-way design.

[malcolm.mcintyre]

Was gearing up for a bit of soldering, but buying the cabs cut and glued together by Speaker Builder, but ve just priced up the complete build cost to me for a fEarful 12/6 and it comes to almost the same as a built Barefaced Big Baby.
Difficult to see the point in self build if these cabs are sounding similar, but there is only a few quid in it.

[LawrenceH]

I can't see it being worthwhile unless you get the saving from doing the cabs yourself, tbh - I'd say get a Big Baby unless you share Molan's objection to the cosmetics.

[stevie]

You could save a fair chunk by using the Eminence midrange driver with very little performance hit. It only really starts to make sense if you build your own cab (as long as you see building a cab as a leisure pastime).

[JTUK]

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1370970120' post='2108121']
They both look 'home-made' to me
[/quote]

In that case I'd get one or two of the guys who built their own in the build diary forum to do them
They looked far better efforts to me...

Edited June 13, 2013 by JTUK

[Guest bassman7755]

Another thing to consider is resale value. If you decide you don't like it then a BF can always be shifted for good money very quickly. Your self-build on the other hand will likely only be worth the component prices if your lucky.

[Conan]

[quote name='malcolm.mcintyre' timestamp='1370967444' post='2108064']
I almost never sell gear on, so the resale value difference doesn't bother me.[/quote]
[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1371146885' post='2110556']
Another thing to consider is resale value. [/quote]

[chris_b]

It's a black box that stands at the back of the stage. Who cares what it looks like.

What does it sound like?

I haven't heard any Greenboy cabs (I would imagine they are very good), but the Barefaced cabs I have heard are up there in the top 5% for sound reproduction.

Which is the point, yes?



I just wish Alex would make a Super112T cab that could prise me away from my Bergs. I'd like to try one of those with a Super12T.

[Marvin]

It's not really comparing like with like. There's, to my knowledge, a very limited number of authorised fEARFUL builders in the UK and essentially they are DIY cabs. Barefaced are the finished thing.

I thought about building a fEARFUL, but when you work out the price of materials and factor in the that you have to spend the time building it the Barefaced look very very attractive on price