BAREFACED ONE10T | REVIEW

Barefaced One10T GI

MSRP: (UK) £549 / (US) $TBC

When Barefaced launched the One10 in 2015, it blew everyone away—no one expected a cab this small to have such a huge warm sound, or go quite so loud. However, it couldn't do sparkly clean tweeter sounds as well as a cab with a good tweeter...that's where the NEW One10T comes in! Dan Veall tells us more.

I tend not to watch previous review videos, but thinking back to the Barefaced One10 review I wrote back in 2017, I recall wondering whether it would benefit from the inclusion of a tweeter.

Well, it seems that I wasn't the only one as today we look at the brand new Barefaced One10T

A well designed two or three-way system can certainly help the sound as a whole, and Barefaced Audio could never be ?? for being a brand that cut corners or put anything less than 100% into the design of their products.

I've watched Barefaced as a brand taking shape from the very early prototyping posts on bass community forums by company owner Alex Claber, (who I might add is an incredibly knowledgeable chap with the sort of drive that is akin to a terrier with a meaty bone to chow down on).

So, when it comes to adding a tweeter to a speaker cabinet, you know that the drivers will be well-matched with the right sort of crossover to suit the voice of the cabinet as intended.

So what makes this cabinet special versus other 1x10's on the market? Ok, a little word about the 10" drivers in this range of cabinets:

Designed by Barefaced and Eminence USA, the is partly an answer to demand in that rather than offering a less coloured, high transient response, high dynamic, flatter response output of the 12XN550 found in the Barefaced 'BIG' range, such as the Big Twin II and the Big Baby II, the 10CR250, a 250W RMS driver offers a more coloured approach that is pleasing tonally and sympathetic to the needs of bass guitar sound. Its response takes drive effects particularly well.

Indeed, this little cabinet uses a rather clever Hybrid Resonator (which as Barefaced go on to say, "damp[ens] the mid-bass hump and fatten[s] the deep lows with two controlled resonances working in unison, and giving you a ton more power handling in the real bass") which delivers quite an impressive perception of low end from a deliciously compact cabinet offering.

I'm yet to break this cabinet in, so in my review video, it could be argued that the full bottom end and open tone is yet to be experienced, but that didn't stop me from cranking up some serious low B action; some long, slow high energy notes to see what the cabinet would deal with. No high pass filtering or limiting here, I've got the bass EQ boosted in the video.

I'd argue that the space that I recorded in wasn't the best match for micing up - but if you were here and experienced how good the cabinet sounded, well, then you'd be happy with using it at "The Dog And Duck" on a Tuesday night and Massivo Tone Studios at the weekend.

Well-thought-out appointments come as standard too, metal corners to protect the cabinet, feet on two sides allowing for vertical or horizontal positioning and a side handle for when you make just one journey from your car to the rehearsal room, with your bass and amp in a bag on your back!

Weighing in at a mere 8Kgs, this 38cm tall cabinet is rated at 8 ohms nominal impedance, a pair of these would make a super little stack, but a quick look at the available cabinet offering from Barefaced will soon have you salivating at a modular set-up pairing your favourite cabinets for every possible gig.

On that subject, I do like that if you are utterly confused about which cabinets to buy, you can contact Alex Claber himself, who, as a bassist too, has a huge amount of experience and can direct you towards the right cabinet for your needs.

Oh, and should you, for some unknown reason, make the wrong choice, Barefaced Audio even offers a one month trial period (T&Cs apply) with a full refund.

So, expert knowledge and an extended return period on top of a great sounding range of cabinets: It's hard not to see why Barefaced Audio has cemented itself as a brand that stands behind its products confidently and rightly so.

Barefaced have a webshop, and you have the option of selecting either steel or cloth front grill (choice of two colour cloth grills no less!). I may be a bit fussy here, but owing to the position of the tweeter, the new grill is a different design to that of the One10, non-tweeter model.. and I have to say, I think I prefer this one… eyes left, that's the new Barefaced logo too, firmly attached to the grill, it's never going to rattle or vibrate at high output volumes!

Overall, this is a great cabinet that would suit those who like tuneful backline rather than FRFR offerings for modellers, those who are fed up with tugging anvil-like cabinets around and those that like to surprise bandmates!

Also happy in a multitude of genres.

For more information, please visit:

barefacedaudio.com

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