ericn
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Balance Engineer
Posts: 16,086 
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Post by ericn on Apr 17, 2024 13:33:31 GMT -6
I went there looking to check out the Footprint01. Listened to all 3 models. The 01 had the most bass of the bunch, as expected. I didn’t really care for the 02. I felt like they lacked some clarity compared to the 01. The 03 was nicely balanced. Less bass than the 01, but I dug the sound. Never would have guessed they were the cheapest of the bunch. All have more bottom than the Amphions. Listening in the showroom though, I’m not sure if they would help with my mixing or not. Showroom setup is super weird. Couple towers of speakers, shit listening position. I’m not sure if having the added bass of thr 01 vs 03 would be better. Or even the added bass of the 03 over my Amphion Argon speakers. Pure listening, I would take the 01 over all of them, but practically, and for my space, I’m considering the 03. I actually have 2 sets of Argon since I was using them in the studio and at home, now I’m sitting on a pair in storage. I should sell them and grab the barefoot…  I get the ease of switching speakers but I have to say that pic makes me think of Best Buy and every speaker having a crappy position! Sure it takes time and effort but man it’s so much easier to actually sell speakers if you have 2 maybe 3 pairs in a room and try to position them so they actually sound good. But what do I know! |
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Post by Johnkenn on Apr 17, 2024 13:40:56 GMT -6
Just got back. It was set up the same as @jcoutu’s pic. (
As an aside - man, this new VK site is pretty disappointing…definitely doesn’t feel like an upgrade from the original site. But hey - if they keep more stock here in town it would be cool)
So - felt the same way Jesse did. The 03’s were impressive. Now - ya can’t exactly tell much, but you can at least compare them to each other. I like the detail of the Amphions for sure, but they definitely lack low end. The 03s were bigger on bottom and honestly the bottom sounded kinda flubby - but every bottom I listened to sounded a little flubby. If I didn’t have any prior knowledge and was going to walk out of the store with a pair just from that listening experience, I might actually choose the 03’s from that particular experience. I listened to Amphion One 18s, ATC 25, Barefoot 01,02 and 03, Mesanovics and one of the three way Focals. Actually, let me take that back - if I were choosing one out of what I heard without any prior knowledge or money as limiting factors - I thought those Focals sounded fantastic. And that was right after the guy said “I’m not a big fan of the Focal sound lol. But those are $7k, so they’re out.
But I usually can’t make any sweeping assessments without actually having them in my room and switching back and forth. It’s a hell of a price for what you get, though.
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Post by Johnkenn on Apr 17, 2024 13:43:42 GMT -6
I went there looking to check out the Footprint01. Listened to all 3 models. The 01 had the most bass of the bunch, as expected. I didn’t really care for the 02. I felt like they lacked some clarity compared to the 01. The 03 was nicely balanced. Less bass than the 01, but I dug the sound. Never would have guessed they were the cheapest of the bunch. All have more bottom than the Amphions. Listening in the showroom though, I’m not sure if they would help with my mixing or not. Showroom setup is super weird. Couple towers of speakers, shit listening position. I’m not sure if having the added bass of thr 01 vs 03 would be better. Or even the added bass of the 03 over my Amphion Argon speakers. Pure listening, I would take the 01 over all of them, but practically, and for my space, I’m considering the 03. I actually have 2 sets of Argon since I was using them in the studio and at home, now I’m sitting on a pair in storage. I should sell them and grab the barefoot… I get the ease of switching speakers but I have to say that pic makes me think of Best Buy and every speaker having a crappy position! Sure it takes time and effort but man it’s so much easier to actually sell speakers if you have 2 maybe 3 pairs in a room and try to position them so they actually sound good. But what do I know! They’re appointment only now - I kindve thought they were going to set up a pair of 03s and Amphions at a console or something. But no. If they had and I felt more comfortable comparing the two, there’s a good chance I would have walked out with a pair. |
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Post by jcoutu1 on Apr 17, 2024 14:02:08 GMT -6
I went in without an appointment.
I thought the bottom on the 01 might be too much because the Amphion are so much lighter. The 03 seemed to sit better at VK. But, I know a lot of legit people like the 01, so I was chalking that up to their room and shitty positioning. Would be a very different experience from my Amphion, with either pair.
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Post by andersmv on Apr 17, 2024 14:05:09 GMT -6
People on the purple site are having a conniption over noise coming from the 03's. Were any of you that heard them at VK next to other speakers noticing anything?
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Barefoot 3
Apr 17, 2024 14:06:45 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by jcoutu1 on Apr 17, 2024 14:06:45 GMT -6
Didn’t notice anything weird.
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Barefoot 3
Apr 17, 2024 14:09:58 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by Johnkenn on Apr 17, 2024 14:09:58 GMT -6
People on the purple site are having a conniption over noise coming from the 03's. Were any of you that heard them at VK next to other speakers noticing anything? Like huffing from the ports? |
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Post by andersmv on Apr 17, 2024 14:30:06 GMT -6
People on the purple site are having a conniption over noise coming from the 03's. Were any of you that heard them at VK next to other speakers noticing anything? Like huffing from the ports? No, noisy amps are causing a lot of hiss in the speakers. |
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ericn
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Balance Engineer
Posts: 16,086
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Barefoot 3
Apr 17, 2024 15:31:38 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by ericn on Apr 17, 2024 15:31:38 GMT -6
Like huffing from the ports? No, noisy amps are causing a lot of hiss in the speakers. As I’m setting up a pretty basic system for listening in the new place, umm gain staging? If not Yikes! |
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 16,086
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Post by ericn on Apr 17, 2024 15:37:03 GMT -6
I get the ease of switching speakers but I have to say that pic makes me think of Best Buy and every speaker having a crappy position! Sure it takes time and effort but man it’s so much easier to actually sell speakers if you have 2 maybe 3 pairs in a room and try to position them so they actually sound good. But what do I know! They’re appointment only now - I kindve thought they were going to set up a pair of 03s and Amphions at a console or something. But no. If they had and I felt more comfortable comparing the two, there’s a good chance I would have walked out with a pair. Man I remember when VK actually worked for the sale! That sucks. Getting Decent LF requires work, or when you’re selling you work on a default well positioned tuned sub and switch it on to magically show what a little more cash can do. |
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Post by kcatthedog on Apr 17, 2024 15:43:22 GMT -6
That set up look like a proverbial dog's breakfast approach,
how could you make real comparison other than to two speaker that are directly beside each other is beyond me.
Was there any clarify about all monitors being set flat and open, no filtering or room correction going on ?
not very impressed.
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 16,086
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Post by ericn on Apr 17, 2024 15:54:23 GMT -6
That set up look like a proverbial dog's breakfast approach, how could you make real comparison other than to two speaker that are directly beside each other is beyond me. Was there any clarify about all monitors being set flat and open, no filtering or room correction going on ? not very impressed. You can’t, what it does is force you to hand over your card take them home and at worst for them pray it’s just to much of a pain to bring them back. |
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Post by Johnkenn on Apr 17, 2024 16:18:26 GMT -6
That set up look like a proverbial dog's breakfast approach, how could you make real comparison other than to two speaker that are directly beside each other is beyond me. Was there any clarify about all monitors being set flat and open, no filtering or room correction going on ? not very impressed. You can’t, what it does is force you to hand over your card take them home and at worst for them pray it’s just to much of a pain to bring them back. This^^ |
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Post by kcatthedog on Apr 17, 2024 16:42:19 GMT -6
That’s just lazy retail. I worked as a waiter for a long time and believe in service.
If you need to make an appointment, you should be asked to pick from their in house list, your top 3-5 monitors to demo and they should be placed properly before you get there, set flat, be on the same stands or isolation system and then you demo.
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Post by nick8801 on Apr 17, 2024 16:50:18 GMT -6
Alto in Brooklyn did a fantastic job with monitors for me a few years back. Took turns setting up a couple pairs on the console. Even put up a pair of ATC’s that I definitely couldn’t afford, but just wanted me to hear them next to my other options. It was a really fun experience.
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Post by kcatthedog on Apr 17, 2024 17:04:03 GMT -6
^^This^^
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 16,086
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Post by ericn on Apr 17, 2024 17:25:30 GMT -6
That’s just lazy retail. I worked as a waiter for a long time and believe in service. If you need to make an appointment, you should be asked to pick from their in house list, your top 3-5 monitors to demo and they should be placed properly before you get there, set flat, be on the same stands or isolation system and then you demo. I completely agree, but in their defense time is $ and it’s mid month so nobody is scared they won’t make their nut for another week. I will admit in my last 2 years before 4/19/98 if you weren’t a VIP, friend or high $$$$$$ client, I probably wouldn’t be able to justify say 4 hrs of setup/ demo / breakdown. If you insisted on a demo and it wasn’t our standard setup & I couldn’t get the vendor to ship a demo you were probably going to end up with the newbie sales weinnie ( hey it was Madison Home of Oscar Meyer). Even if I wanted to and could do a demo the client hand to understand I just couldn’t devote the time. |
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Post by drumsound on Apr 17, 2024 21:51:47 GMT -6
I get the ease of switching speakers but I have to say that pic makes me think of Best Buy and every speaker having a crappy position! Sure it takes time and effort but man it’s so much easier to actually sell speakers if you have 2 maybe 3 pairs in a room and try to position them so they actually sound good. But what do I know! They’re appointment only now - I kindve thought they were going to set up a pair of 03s and Amphions at a console or something. But no. If they had and I felt more comfortable comparing the two, there’s a good chance I would have walked out with a pair. That ridiculous for an appointment. That’s just lazy retail. I worked as a waiter for a long time and believe in service. If you need to make an appointment, you should be asked to pick from their in house list, your top 3-5 monitors to demo and they should be placed properly before you get there, set flat, be on the same stands or isolation system and then you demo. This is my thought, too. Alto in Brooklyn did a fantastic job with monitors for me a few years back. Took turns setting up a couple pairs on the console for me. Even put up a pair of ATC’s that I definitely couldn’t afford, but just wanted me to hear them next to my other options. It was a really fun experience. That sounds like a great experience. How an appointment setting should work. |
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Post by suicity on Apr 18, 2024 1:56:33 GMT -6
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Post by Johnkenn on Apr 18, 2024 8:39:40 GMT -6
That costs more than a car…so, no.
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Post by Dan on Apr 18, 2024 9:05:33 GMT -6
These big dealers are not interested in demos of high markup equipment, being exclusive distributors and supporting a product line or manufacturer, selling workhorse pro products. All the money is in expensive live sound systems backed by workhorse to flat out garbage equipment, selling sweatshop sub Tascam prosumer crap, or clones to people who have rock star dreams when there’s no money in the record industry and they cannot even play a set as an opener for 50-100 bucks because they suck.
They prosumer crap manufacturers don’t want to spend a dime to fix grotesque product flaws like the cheap JBL 305 baffle vibrating, the KRK plate amps dying, the JBL 705/708 plate amps dying, the pots on all the art gear getting noisy, Behringer probably not being checked at all, the RME rack mount power supplies dying and the junk lelon caps on the boards, ssl and others using board mounted pots and faders in portable equipment where physically it will die, zoom not fixing anything, heat issues in over featured 1 rack unit gear that uses high power consumption older opamps like 5532 and 4580. They don’t want to redesign the circuits for better sounding, lower power consumption modern opamps that would save parts and labor money for them in the long term because most don’t want to fix anything and they won’t fix anything so there’s no point and all costs are deferred until they can get more money from investors and consumers. Many will throw it away and give you a new one under warranty then tell you to gfy when that’s up. They don’t build gear that is repairable.
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Barefoot 3
Apr 18, 2024 10:43:30 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by Dan on Apr 18, 2024 10:43:30 GMT -6
That costs more than a car…so, no. You can buy a new Nissan Sentra that gets 34 miles to the gallon for less than a pair of ATC SCM50ASL. Mains are cool but the price is ridiculous. Yeah they use more robust electronics than the Genelecs and Focals but the cost is literally 2 and 3 times as much and there’s no money in the industry when most smaller labels will just give the band copies. The Amphions use OEM drivers too. |
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Post by Johnkenn on Jun 3, 2024 17:20:43 GMT -6
Since my left Amphion tweeter blew, I decided to order the tweeter and also get the Barefoot 03’s to test out in the meantime. 1 hour in, and I like the Amphions a lot better. These can get a little crunchy and have somewhat of a boxiness to them. IMO. So they’re going back and I’ll just have to wait till I figure out how to install this tweeter.
Is there any like calibration or anything I need to know about?
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Post by kcatthedog on Jun 3, 2024 17:53:59 GMT -6
but they aren"t broken in ?
I think tweeter is just drop in, but wire correctly for phase.
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Post by Johnkenn on Jun 3, 2024 18:14:36 GMT -6
but they aren"t broken in ? I think tweeter is just drop in, but wire correctly for phase. I mean - I could be wrong - but I don’t think they will change thaaat much after burning in… |
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