Behringer Truth B2031A - how truthful is it? (review / modding)

[krabapple]

Hi Roci,

First and foremost, congratulation for your project. It is amazing to see someone put so much detail in fixing a decent product into a better one.

I was wondering if you were open to mod a pair for me? I would buy them new and ship them directly to you.

I would keep Mr. Sykora's #1 caveat in mind

1. No proof has been offered to demonstrate the alleged out of box performance is lacking. A good start would be to establish a baseline measurement.

Amir tried to measure one 'out of box' but it was defective and AFAICT there has been no followup.

At ~$200 per unit I'm tempted to buy one just to send to Amir if he can't get a replacement from Behringer.

 

[Deleted member 57422]

I would keep Mr. Sykora's #1 caveat in mind

1. No proof has been offered to demonstrate the alleged out of box performance is lacking. A good start would be to establish a baseline measurement.

Amir tried to measure one 'out of box' but it was defective and AFAICT there has been no followup.

At ~$200 per unit I'm tempted to buy one just to send to Amir if he can't get a replacement from Behringer.

I'm there with you.

I'm willing to spend 400$ plus 150$ of shipping for a man to prove his point, do both of mine, take the measurement and send them back to me.

I mean, the Genelec 1032 are still 1900$ per box.

If I can get something in the water for 1/5 of the price. Why not?

Plus i'll be honest, I find it very kind and nice from anyone with absolutely no obligation to do any of this or share any of his find to actually share it with everyone.

And I dont have any of his soldering knowledge.

So if it can serve in any shape or form, I'll be able to go to bed and tell myself, you didn't do anything special today but at least that's a little something for someone and that's very cool.

Worst that can happen is that he run away with the monitors.

Best thing that could happen is that I actually receive a nice cheap pair of corrected monitor that I will enjoy very much.

So really, my offer to Roci stand still. It would actually do me a triple favor and I'd be very grateful.

 

[Digby]

I'm there with you.

I'm willing to spend 400$ plus 150$ of shipping for a man to prove his point, do both of mine, take the measurement and send them back to me.

You'd only need to send the amplifiers. They disconnect from the back of the speakers pretty easily.

 

[gino1961]

hi sorry to ask again
are any distortion figures thd or imd available?
by the way i think that the model that actually inspired the 2031a is this discontinued one

1031A - Genelec.com

The Genelec 1031A was in production between 1991 and 2005.

www.genelec.com

not the 1032a

 

[gino1961]

nice and a budget option!

but as a sidenote I did impress more by Genelec after seeing this, you have Genelec to deisgn the whole thing ground up, and even with the great cabin and waveguide copied Behringer can't get nearly close to the original Genelec, yet Genelec usually don't cost an arm and a leg to buy

Well the more similar 1031a are discontinued since years
The more recent and bigger 1032a actually don't cost an arm and a leg
Just about 10 times more than the Behringer
I would be quite shocked if they were performing on a par

 

[YSC]

Well the more similar 1031a are discontinued since years
The more recent and bigger 1032a actually don't cost an arm and a leg
Just about 10 times more than the Behringer
I would be quite shocked if they were performing on a par

I suspect when the basic design is cloned, with okish driver the performance falls into dimminishing return category if the Behringer is in luck they practically don't differ too much in a 1 vs 1 contest, but then for genelec beside the material and labour and R&D cost, should be the factory calibration and QC quality, unit to unit variation is the area I would expect the Behringer to be really bad, could be missed in listening only as our ears isn't that sensitive especially with room modes and real music, but if relyed upon on production/ sound effect they could be a lot worse as a whole

 

[gino1961]

I suspect when the basic design is cloned, with okish driver the performance falls into dimminishing return category if the Behringer is in luck they practically don't differ too much in a 1 vs 1 contest, but then for genelec beside the material and labour and R&D cost, should be the factory calibration and QC quality, unit to unit variation is the area I would expect the Behringer to be really bad, could be missed in listening only as our ears isn't that sensitive especially with room modes and real music, but if relyed upon on production/ sound effect they could be a lot worse as a whole

Hi thanks for the very helpful reply
It seems to me that the Beh are a very good platform for smart diy mods
I think i will look around for another working pair
At their price point most speakers come with a plastic enclosure that i don't like very much
The xover point at around 2 kHz makes amps and cabinets usable for almost any 2 ways combination even vintage
Most probably they will not be optimized but with a little help from an eq
Looking at the review of their passive smaller version i see the woofer as the bottleneck I wonder if there is a similar issue with the bigger 8"
I am afraid so
Thanks a lot again

 

[YSC]

Hi thanks for the very helpful reply
It seems to me that the Beh are a very good platform for smart diy mods
I think i will look around for another working pair
At their price point most speakers come with a plastic enclosure that i don't like very much
The xover point at around 2 kHz makes amps and cabinets usable for almost any 2 ways combination even vintage
Most probably they will not be optimized but with a little help from an eq
Looking at the review of their passive smaller version i see the woofer as the bottleneck I wonder if there is a similar issue with the bigger 8"
I am afraid so
Thanks a lot again

I guess that will still be limited given their price point, and to be fair I don't think they will factory QC each speaker nor having a tight driver spec tolerance, so the old issue, channel imbalance or performance deviation could be big, and even with EQ, unless you have a good and big room, gated measuring you might be able to get the really close to one another, but then I doubt that's a feisble solution

 

[gino1961]

I guess that will still be limited given their price point, and to be fair I don't think they will factory QC each speaker nor having a tight driver spec tolerance, so the old issue, channel imbalance or performance deviation could be big, and even with EQ, unless you have a good and big room, gated measuring you might be able to get the really close to one another, but then I doubt that's a feisble solution

I see However fwihu the stronger parts are enclosure and electronics
If i had a passive 2 ways of which i like the sound it would be just a matter of cannibalizing its drivers and put them in the Beh at the place of the stock ones
To make an adapter ring is not a big issue if the sizes are different

 

[roci_big_ear]

I bought my 5th B2031 speaker (1 Dec 2023). It is virtually identical to the previous ones from ~2 years ago. Here are the results - stock (purple) vs mod (white). In room measurements from 0.5 meters away.