15 or not 15? What do you think?

[Chienmortbb]

Alex from Batrfaced has a video on three 15” cabs on YouTube . Thoughts? 
 

 

Edited 9 hours ago by Chienmortbb

[joel406]

I'll take IEM's for the win.

[Steve Browning]

15's are the future! 🙂

 

When Barefaced first appeared, it was 15's all the way. The website went to great lengths to extol their virtues. 

 

I agree with Alex that the TE cab sounds best (to me). Of course I'm biased, having been a 15's fanboi since starting playing about 50 years ago. The only non 15 unit I have is the passive radiator in the bottom of the Walkabout cabinet.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Dispersion, dispersion, dispersion. It's inversely proportional to the size of the source. The main reason for larger drivers is they can move more air than smaller drivers. If you use multiple smaller drivers you can move just as much air with higher efficiency and wider dispersion so long as they're vertically aligned. Fifteens work best where dispersion isn't a concern, which means either in sub or in 2 way or 3 way cabs where the fifteen is only run to 800Hz or so.

[gjones]

I have a 2nd generation Barefaced Compact with a 15 inch driver, it's very good.

 

In that video I prefer the sound of the Markbass as it sounds punchier with more low mids.

[aniki]

I used to like the 810 due to having drivers up closer to your ears. My back of course no longer likes this solution!
Nowadays I prefer 15's to anything. I run either two 15's stacked vertically or if with the 'two amp band', 4x 15's. They're all neo's so simple to move around.

The cabs are fairly efficient and I use tube heads so volume is never an issue (except being too loud)

Tonally I get everything from my basses rather than pedals and don't find 15's lacking in any way...

[neepheid]

15" cabs don't fit in my car.  12" cabs do.  So purely from a practicality point of view, I'll stick with the 12s, thanks.

[Beer of the Bass]

My takeaway from the video was less about them being 15s, and more about how some of those older driver designs have a really pleasing thing going on in the mids and highs, if they're used without pushing their limits too hard. The others have portability and overall volume advantages, but that Trace cab is an immediately likeable bass sound for me.

[chris_b]

Between the 70's and the mid 80's I used Fender, Ampeg and Peavey 15" cabs. Then 20 years of EV15's in Dynacord and Mesa Boogie cabs (IMO the best of the lot).

 

But with the advent of "properly" designed 12" cabs I don't see the need for anything larger.

[fretmeister]

The best bit about the video is showing that 15 inch cones do not have "a sound" and that they can be very very different.

 

As much as I am a Mark Bass fan, their 15 inch cabs have always been a bit flubby. I did the common 151HF with the CSM 102p combo for quite a while and I never could et the EQ to work well with the 10 inch cones and the 15. Sounded much better with one or the other. Eventually I got a pair of MB 121 Club cabs instead and used them for a while. Two identical cabs = dead easy to EQ without a problem.

[DGBass]

I'm still unsure what the point of the comparison is other than 15" speakers are perhaps still a viable option, and depending on any feedback or demand for them BF recieve they may build 15" cabs again. But as Mr. BF mentioned it would likely be a 2x15 only they would be interested in building. That's still going to be a physically large cab even if they apply the same sonics and design philosophy as they do to their smaller driver cabs. It would also likely have a pro crossover and tweeter adding to size and complexity, and i'll guess a potential £2k plus price tag. Personally I like 15'' speakers, always have done, still use them, and for a particular sound they make and how they feel in use. The 1518 cab in the video sounded the best overall imho and reminded me of the 1518 I owned which was an early 90s grey tolex with the Celestion C15J-300. It really could handle a lot of bottom end but also had that extra mid/brightness the older cab with the Fane has. The cab in the video is an 80s version and ten years is a sizeable gap in speaker design that imho made the 90s grey tolex TE cabs much more useable. 

 

Still, it's nice to see and hear a near 40 year old cab still has something to give tonally, as long as you are using an amp from the same era ,eg. something like an AH150/200/250. And of course if you are happy to lug it about. Well designed high output 15" cabs that can deliver prodigous low end , have meaty mids, and sparkling highs are never going to be compact, cheap, or ultra lightweight. Thats one reason it would be difficult to persuade players to exchange their lightweight ten and twelve cabs for a 'decent' modern well designed 15" cab.  I'll be the first to applaud if BF could work their magic on such a cab that doesn't end up costing a king's ransom. So, thumbs up from me for any development into modern 15" cabs, especially single 15 inch cabs.