As well as a distinctive design, these huge nearfield monitors offer a frequency and time-domain performance that compares with the best.
Hugh Robjohns
When the eponymous American manufacturer Barefoot Sound launched the unusual MicroMain 27 (‘MM27’) monitors a couple of years ago, the Internet forums lit up with excited chatter. I’ve seen and heard these intriguing and distinctive nearfield monitors at various trade shows since then, and I’m very pleased now that a UK dealer (KMR Audio)has been appointed. Thomas Barefoot’s innovative design is quite different from most other high-end, nearfield, three-way active monitors, the most distinctive feature being the side-facing bass drivers, which I’ll consider in more detail later in this review.
Design & Construction
The MM27s are designed to serve as main monitors operating in a nearfield position, with enough resolution for mastering purposes, as well as general tracking and mixing duties. The front baffle is machined aluminium, and this is inset into an MDF cabinet that has generously radiused corners, to minimise diffraction. The cabinet is sealed, not reflex ported, and is extremely well braced and damped, enclosing a volume of 32 litres. Not only is the MM27 quite large for a nearfield speaker, measuring 241x521x387mm (WxHxD), but each cabinet is also extraordinarily heavy, at 32kg, making it a struggle for one person to set these beasts up! Substantial stands will be required.
The front baffle accommodates three drivers: a one-inch, soft-dome tweeter and two five-inch mid-range drivers set up in a D’Appolito configuration — which is to say that the tweeter sits between the two midrange drivers, which are mounted vertically above and below, in individual, sealed enclosures. Essentially, the D’Appolito arrangement is intended to optimise horizontal dispersion. Usefully, a rocker switch alongside the tweeter can be used to engage or de-activate a standby mode. Two associated LEDs indicate when the speaker is working (green) and when an amplifier is clipping (red).
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