New Barefoot Footprint03 studio monitors

[Pearljam5000]

 

[holdingpants01]

45Hz with 6.5" for 3 way is kind of pointless and they don't even make the sub to fit these (nor 02 or 01), though price is fine

 

[sweetchaos]

I’ll see myself out…

 

[sweetchaos]

 

[3125b]

It's side ported:

Don't think I've seen that too often.

At 2000$/pair it compared most closely to Dynaudio LYD 48 it seems.
Though it is significantly smaller: https://comparesizes.com/comparison/LYD-48-vs-Footprint03/1706028426795

 

[holdingpants01]

side port and woofer size suggest the ATC SCM25A Pro influence, but ATC is 5 times more expensive lol

 

[Somafunk]

Nice enough looking small 3 way monitor but given the tales of barefoot reliability issues and lack of any dsp/dip switches I’ll give them a pass and stick with my Dynaudio LYD 48’s

 

[raindance]

So in 2023 we can't make A-D converters that handle full range including high frequencies? Why would you even do this?

 

[Somafunk]

Why would you even do this?

When I was looking at buying new monitors/sub 3 years ago I considered the Barefoot Footprint 02 but I noticed that there was a lot of “fluff” online presence from artists who were singing their praises which led me to believe they must have a very good marketing and publicity budget, this put me off from buying or auditioning them, I never hear about them now so I guess the marketing budget has ran out.

My Dynaudio may not be exciting and edgy but they’ve proven to be very dependable as they have been used from 10am through to 2am every single day in my setup connected to my iMac which i sit in front of for 14hrs+/day.

 

[Pearljam5000]

When I was looking at buying new monitors/sub 3 years ago I considered the Barefoot Footprint 02 but I noticed that there was a lot of “fluff” online presence from artists who were singing their praises which led me to believe they must have a very good marketing and publicity budget, this put me off from buying or auditioning them, I never hear about them now so I guess the marketing budget has ran out.

My Dynaudio may not be exciting and edgy but they’ve proven to be very dependable as they have been used from 10am through to 2am every single day in my setup connected to my iMac which i sit in front of for 14hrs+/day.

How do your Dynaudios compare to Genelec and Neumann ?

 

[Somafunk]

Dunno?, never compared side by side but I expect Neumann and Genelec would trounce them, a mate who helped me with the acoustic treatment and measurements brought his Hedd Type 20’s which I loved but couldn’t afford so bought the closest thing which was 48’s and 18s sub

 

[kemmler3D]

So in 2023 we can't make A-D converters that handle full range including high frequencies? Why would you even do this?

I guess so you don't have to do any attenuation, from the sound of it.

Hard to imagine that the analog crossover is cheaper than just adding another DAC in the speaker, so I have no idea. I'm struggling to find a straightforward rationale for this. What they say it's for doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

 

[jaakkopetteri]

45Hz with 6.5" for 3 way is kind of pointless

What do you mean?

 

[holdingpants01]

What do you mean?

it's too small for 3 way, properly designed 2 way of this size would be better in every way, from the directivity, through less complicated to cheaper, yet you still need a sub which barefoot don't even make. Seems like they are dead set to at least 3 way monitors under the Barefoot brand for better or worse and they also didn't want to cannibalize their 02 and 01 models.

 

[dfuller]

These look like probably the least broken barefoot designs I've seen, so that's a plus. That said, flat baffle + ring radiator + quite high crossover point (3900hz) with mid and tweeter rather far apart means horizontal directivity error, a pretty serious pinch vertically, and a tiny sweet spot thanks to the ring radiator beaming at like 6k.

it's too small for 3 way, properly designed 2 way of this size would be better in every way, from the directivity, through less complicated to cheaper, yet you still need a sub which barefoot don't even make. Seems like they are dead set to at least 3 way monitors under the Barefoot brand for better or worse and they also didn't want to cannibalize their 02 and 01 models.

It's not pointless - 3 ways inherently have less IMD than 2 ways given the same LFX, and it's easier to design for decent dispersion matching (and I have yet to find a 2-way that doesn't have a sudden step down in sound power, 3 ways more smoothly drop off).

Nice enough looking small 3 way monitor but given the tales of barefoot reliability issues and lack of any dsp/dip switches I’ll give them a pass and stick with my Dynaudio LYD 48’s

Barefoot reliability is largely down to Hypex plate amps being dodgy as hell.

 

[jaakkopetteri]

it's too small for 3 way, properly designed 2 way of this size would be better in every way, from the directivity, through less complicated to cheaper, yet you still need a sub which barefoot don't even make. Seems like they are dead set to at least 3 way monitors under the Barefoot brand for better or worse and they also didn't want to cannibalize their 02 and 01 models.

Can't agree, a 2-way build would lose in IMD as you can't really fit a significantly larger woofer in. I don't see why the directivity would be significantly better either.

45Hz is also quite adequate depending on your musical taste.

 

[holdingpants01]

Can't agree, a 2-way build would lose in IMD as you can't really fit a significantly larger woofer in. I don't see why the directivity would be significantly better either.

45Hz is also quite adequate depending on your musical taste.

off axis cancellations from two crossover points will be worse than from one with proper waveguide but it's probably as bad as their other models anyway. 45Hz is just not enough for it's intended purpose, taste have nothing to do with it and again, there's no sub made for it, so you're left with third party subs and crossovers if you want to hear the full frequency range.
I had both 01 and 02 for demo at my place, didn't like them, no adjustments at all, no room correction, no matching sub, the MEME was useless, weird midrange and overblown low end, really confusing products but for this price Footprint 03 will sell like hot cakes, their brand recognition is extremely wide in the prosumer studio world

 

[Somafunk]

but for this price Footprint 03 will sell like hot cakes, their brand recognition is extremely wide in the prosumer studio world

The speaker brand equivalent of "The North Face Puffa jacket" , if you're in the uk then you'll know what I'm talking about.

 

[dfuller]

I had both 01 and 02 for demo at my place, didn't like them, no adjustments at all, no room correction, no matching sub, the MEME was useless, weird midrange and overblown low end, really confusing products but for this price Footprint 03 will sell like hot cakes, their brand recognition is extremely wide in the prosumer studio world

I owned FP01s as well, wasn't a fan at all either.

 

[jaakkopetteri]

off axis cancellations from two crossover points will be worse than from one with proper waveguide

Not necessarily, plenty of 3-way monitors have cancellations just as nice as waveguided 2-ways

45Hz is just not enough for it's intended purpose

Which is?

so you're left with third party subs and crossovers if you want to hear the full frequency range.

How is that a problem?