Barefoot mm27 or PMC IB1s/IB2s active

[NLP]

What do you guys think which one are better for mixing and (I hope) maybe mastering. Price between this loudspeakers is not so important, more important is quality of sound.
Please help because I cant audition Barefoots Im living in Europe.

[GYang]

Originally Posted by NLP

What do you guys think which one are better for mixing and (I hope) maybe mastering. Price between this loudspeakers is not so important, more important is quality of sound.
Please help because I cant audition Barefoots Im living in Europe.

I can't give you definite answer, but in my case the smallest active PMC in less than 2k range competes quite well side by side with my reference K+H nearfileds (almost 3 times costlier).
In my non-humble opinion PMCs are probably the best monitors in each of their respective categories (especially actives).
If I would consider to buy main monitors (what I don't need) I would take some of bigger PMCs without hesitation and doubt. They are incredibly true, pleasant, reliable and they wiped out difference between top notch audiophile and absolute top quality studio reference monitors. They just sound right.

[pw8888]

love my barefoot......

[vlado@couchreco]

Originally Posted by NLP

What do you guys think which one are better for mixing and (I hope) maybe mastering. Price between this loudspeakers is not so important, more important is quality of sound.
Please help because I cant audition Barefoots Im living in Europe.

hi,

i had IB1s in my studio for 4 years ... i really love these speakers ... IB2's are step ahead
due different mid driver, which are IMO more precise. due a studio upgrade i use now MB2. extremely good speaker but it definitely has a diferent feel in the low end. or to put it in other words IB2s low end is more fun MB2s more precise .... whatever you chose you'll have great speaker for your work.

best

vlado

[Gravity8058]

PMC's have been around for awhile and Barefoot is a new company so very few will have experience with both. I used Genelec 1031a's for years, then started auditioning a replacement. I spent at least two weeks working with the following:

PMC AML-1's -- too bright, a little thin on the bottom, great imaging, not quite capable of loud volume.

Adam S3A -- strange mids, horrible low end, everything sounded bad on them.

K&H 0300D -- Pretty impressive, nice, but too flattering, too smiley faced.

Then we tried the Barefoots, DONE.

The only speaker I would put in the same catagory are the ATC ASL 100, but even their the Barefoots extend lower.


--- with that said, I prefer our B&W's for mastering, but you wont find a better mixing speaker under $12k ---

[NLP]

Is the PMC IB2s so much better than PMC IB1s as regards higher price.

Is there anything like them, except ATC monitors, because I was hoping K+H would be great contender.

Mr. Doug: are Barefoots stiff competition to PMC IB range?

[GYang]

Originally Posted by NLP

Is the PMC IB2s so much better than PMC IB1s as regards higher price.

Is there anything like them, except ATC monitors, because I was hoping K+H would be great contender.

Mr. Doug: are Barefoots stiff competition to PMC IB range?

K+H is great contender.
I really doubt that many people tried them as is appropriate and that means coupled by two subwoofers (that by the way have built in active crossover, so no phase issues or low frequency overlaping occur between subs and main boxes).
Whole system works without efforts on the low end, very relaxed, but tight and powerfull. In relation to some opinions on high frequencies I would say it's matter of taste. I used them in parallel with ADAMs and PMCs, on many various materials and each of them sometimes sounded more appropriate, but generally K+H is where I stopped without looking back.
Bigger PMCs are even more impressive in it's neutrality, but again we are talking about nuances on very top quality and it's not something worth spending more time and money when you once reach that stage.
If you have chance to listen them all, you'll see that at the end of the day what today sounds impressive tomorrow can sound dull, so main point is to get used to your tool and to understand how your ears/brain interact with it.

[Gravity8058]

Originally Posted by NLP

Mr. Doug: are Barefoots stiff competition to PMC IB range?

Didn't shoot out a PMC other than the AML-1's, so I cant say with any degree of authority. Quite often speaker manufacturers do have a certain "sound" that carries to some degree throughout their line, but I dont know for sure.

K&H 0300D's are beautiful sounding speakers, but that's not what I want when I'm mixing -- just the hard cold truth thank you.

[NLP]

Thank you very much, this informations are quite helpful!
I continually follow threads about this and must admit that is no place for good advice like here on GSthumbsup .
You have completely confirm my considerations. Thanks!!!

Just only to somehow audition that Barefoots and compare them to PMC IB...
or if someone can do that instead of me, please let me describe some conclusions.