Rob Chapman - "the best guitar cab" He's EVER HEARD - Alex from Barefaced explains how it works 

That's great to hear (and obviously your tone will be even more great to hear with a Barefaced AVD guitar cab!) A

This is always the litmus test, the benchmark, the burning question. Without this, most demos are not as helpful as they could be.

Yes, actually pushing it further. Try your whole line in a band.I'd like to hear the 1x10 as well against a loud drummer

Did you get the cab yet? Please keep us updated with your thoughts, thanks

I did indeed! About 2 weeks ago I received delivery. It sounds incredible! I was a little bit skeptical of the video, not wanting to believe that the multi-directional sound actually worked but to my relief it definitely does! Fills the room with sound! I had an Orange 2x12 closed back cab before this which is a MONSTER in both sound and weight, and it suffers badly with placement and directional sound. Unless you are stood directly in front you do lose some of the sound, especially in a band/gig enviroment. But with the Radical 2x12 this is definitely not a problem. It lacks SOME of the bass/lows and that punch of the Orange but the fact it is easier to transport and I can actually hear it makes up for that fact. Build quality is excellent and I do not regret my purchase one bit! It did arrive in the wrong colour that I requested but that was easily rectified with their excellent customer service team :)

Nothing pioneering, those designs have been going on for decades. Cheers.

@@georgefromgreece4119 it’s not for guitar but the MBL 101 X-treme is my current favorite loudspeaker design.

@@PooNinja thanks for the feedback!!!

Yea like 3 of them montage can fit alnicos I dunno about bareback... and they aren't making them anymore luckily I got 2 of them

I would be interested in buying one of this! I've been looking and comparing combs like "Roland GA-212" and this sounds amazing

Agree, they need to either make the full combos or team up with somebody that specializes in amps and the other aspects of sound. Companies like Swart come to mind.

@@bjornfsteen Why? It's pro gear with a high (er) price tag and most pros are happy to use an amp head and cab, and often swap around. The benefits of this cab are largely wasted on bedroom noodlers... I like that they are specialists in speakers!

@@joelonsdale Because pros don't occupy that big of a chunk in any market and the money is with the masses. That's how I see it anyway. It's not like they are making custom solutions with a big contract. I think it would be great to sell the tech and negotiate contracts with other manufacturers where they get a cut for each unit sold with their tech in it. Or if they can make a retrofit kit for cabs and combos.

@@Parcolai Of course, you can make mass market crap and get rich. Or you can specialise, sell something amazing to fewer people and get less rich but keep your soul.

You were baffled. :)

​@@magnusberger6762After watching this video, I think we all need baffled. 😉👍

Good name!

2nd this! Use a Mesa Mini Recto, and just because I have one, but because I have one.

A lot of people don't realise how loud 25 to 30 watts is, even when driving a cab designed 60 years ago: the Vox AC30 was designed as an amp for club gigs. The awesome thing about Alex's design is how it sounds off axis, not necessarily that it's any more efficient.

How sound works in air seems to be such an afterthought in guitar gear! Adjustable (moving parts) on speakers are rarely a good idea because of the risk of vibrations or buzzes - but if it was possible how would people be tuning it? Tuning these AVD to do what we wanted required a really analytical process, which I can't imagine many guitarists getting right - it's not like tuning an instrument! ;) A

@@BarefacedAudio Thank you for your response! Yes indeed, it is complicated, but not impossible! Just engineer and design easy controls for it. (Just kidding... :D) But good to see, that there is still room for innovation! I am learning to play guitar for a year now and I am still figuring out, what setup I would like to run. Currently my setup is a guitar, audio interface and a linux computer with headphones.

Todd Cushing thought nobody was talking about it

The Forte cabs are a classic case of a bright idea but not a lot of science so it's not as well executed as it could be! A

Just had a look at the Port City designs - interesting, there's certainly some logical thinking there but also some gaps in the knowledge and understanding of how sound behaves, based on an interview I just read with the designer. I just had an email asking us about returns from the USA, so I looked up how often we get returns: The last guitar cab returned was in September 2020 and the last bass cab returned was in May 2019 - I think that's a pretty good success rate thanks to making great products and making sure we match the right product to the right player!

@@BarefacedAudio Just read your reply, I ordered the Victory 2x12 vertical model this past week. :-) Looking forward to hearing it soon! I may use it solo, or use in stereo, with an older 2x12 Celestion standard cabinet (as I use Fractal Audio AXE FX). Thanks!

Michael Murray It is indeed! Bobby made it from scrap ply on the CNC machine, quite a feat!

I've not been able to find any prior art for this in any audio field, which is why we've made a patent application. However the concept comes from my learnings about the importance of polar pattern and the interaction of a speaker with the room its in - a big influence was the late Siegfried Linkwitz, whose website is a mine of information: www.linkwitzlab.com/

@@BarefacedAudio thank you. I'm excited for this technology.

If you're out front then you hear the combination of the AVD output and the cone output. And due to precedence effect your brain sums the two, adding the mid and treble clarity from the AVD to the sound from the cone which is lacking in those frequencies off-axis, but it continues thinking the sound it's hearing is solely from the closer (ie sooner) source.

lol no! Of course not.

We can do that if you have a Hot Rod Deluxe you can send us! ;-)

@@BarefacedAudio :) Quite costy since I live in the north of Norway:) Very eager to try it out. Might just order one an try it out myself. I'm sure it will work just greatd:) Very curious what it would do to the sound compared to what comes out of the combo speaker.

You can order direct from us, via our website. Email us for advice first! A

g Yes, we’re certainly seeing that problem - hence more making of videos and less making cabs. If it doesn’t change soon then Barefaced will have to shrink to survive and then rebuild as the gigging economy returns. Such is 2020 life! A

yes or extra rubber feet to set one vertical or horizontal; However, because of the design, no need to have it vertical as the highs and mid will be heard just as well as a vertical.

MrDavemiley the idea was more around floor space. If I’m doing wet dry with lunch box heads to have the 2x12 vertical is better than horizontal.

They now do make a vertical 2x12...! :-)

We've tested this at length for bass guitar to see if we could apply it to our bass cabs and for most bass sounds it doesn't help - similar to how it's very rare to add reverb to bass. You want immediacy rather than space with bass so it doesn't fall back and get buried in the mix.

We can do 4 ohm speakers in certain models! But impedance is always secondary to tonal needs, and also less important than sensitivity when it comes to loudness.

I've been making some videos about the development of what became the AVD cab - have a watch of them! However, I shall do a video explaining Thiele (and other non-standard guitar cab designs).

It doesn't dominate, instead the wider dispersion and more even response means that it slots more neatly into the mix. Imagine if on a recording the level and tone of each guitar sound varied hugely depending on where you were sitting vs the studio monitors / hi-fi speakers - that's basically what happens with normal guitar cabs. Instead of having to suffer really loud and really quiet points in the room, the cab is loudest when you're fairly close to the front and on-axis but doesn't stop off like a stone or change massively in tone where you're standing anywhere else. We've only ever got really positive feedback about how they work in bands, to the point where even drummers say "please bring that new cab next time!"

We have a one month trial period if you're within Europe! (Any further afield and the shipping costs get a bit too high).

I'll for sure keep them on my radar anyway.

To be perfectly honest the goals were always about solving sonic problems at gigs, I never even thought about home use - however it turns out that the benefits at home are actually rather substantial! That ability to fill the room with sound much more evenly makes for a better and more consistent tone at lower volumes.

We started out as a bass cab company and we make some of the most acclaimed bass cabs you can buy (that's not hyperbole, search and you will find!) so low frequency response is something we're very good at! We use the same thickness plywood on all our bass and guitar cabs and it works extremely well for getting great sound, because we use it right. It's a question of bracing and tuning. You get a better sounding cab that also weighs much less whilst still being gig-tough. The downside is that it takes longer to design and longer to build, so it costs more. A

This is a great example of how sound and acoustics are misunderstood, so thanks! You don't get phase issues because you're dealing with direct and reflected sound and the brain doesn't care about phase. At low frequencies the AVD corrects the phase of the rear output hence the rise in efficiency and output. You don't get micing issues because any bleed sounds far more like the sound you want, so it's less of a problem. You don't get the excessive bite like being completely on-axis with the speaker cone, it's far more like standing in that good listening position and then being able to walk around the room and hear that same good tone. The "wall of sound" smack isn't to do with a closed back cab projecting sound forwards, it's because they have more lows than an open cab - the AVD does that too. Also closed back cabs don't project all your sound forwards - they're omnidirectional at lower frequencies and then have a narrowing dispersion pattern with rising frequency, hence all the problems they cause. Regarding what you love, what does "as punchy and bouncy as possible" actually mean? My first reaction is that you should swap your guitar for a bass guitar! ;-) A

I'm not sure if it's possible (our bass cabs move so much air and the AVD in the guitar cabs would go turbulent and stop working with that much air movement) and if it is, whether it's beneficial!

Bob Wijnschenk If the cab is anything from only few inches to as much as thirty feet from the rear wall the AVD works. The benefit diminishes more with big distances to the rear wall because the reflection is less strong but in those scenarios you don’t need to stand as close to your cab so the off-axis frontal output is less of an issue. I’ve noticed a few people assuming you need lots of space behind the cab - why do you think this is? Just wondering about guitarists’ intuitive understanding of acoustics... A

@@BarefacedAudio thanks for the clarification.