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

beagleman

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Nice mod but an 80dB scale makes everything seem a lot flatter than it is. 6dB difference from 2k to 10k doesn't seem that impressive, considering that with a higher resolution measurement rig like the Klippel high Q peaks/dips would show up more.

Here's No Audiophile measurements/review btw:
View attachment 188790
Doesn't seem to have such a pronounced crossover dip. He also did a tweeter mod including removing the grill and 'diffuser'. Ah someone just mentioned it as well.
I like that Dip, between 1 and 6 kHz.

That is not truly flat, but makes a LOT of music far more listenable.
 

Tangband

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I like that Dip, between 1 and 6 kHz.

That is not truly flat, but makes a LOT of music far more listenable.
I think that this is like, - it depends. A lot of hifienthusiasts are used to listen to loudspeakers with very bad directivity. I can assure you that a dip between 1-6 kHz is not something you want if you have a loudspeaker with good directivity.
Toole is right about that almost everyone gonna select the speaker with the flattest response and the best directivity if testing blind.

A loudspeaker with bad directivity however , gonna need a dip at the crossover region. But this is not the case with this Behringer.

I have played around with my 8340 using GLM to see what I prefer and in the long run, with most recordings, a flat respons within +- 1,5 dB 200-20000 Hz combined with good directivity is sounding the best.
 
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I think speaker companies "tune" their speakers on purpose to what you get from your measurements. Every speaker manufacturer could produce a flat response if they wanted to. It is not some magical thing they are trying to achieve but just fail. They want it to sound the way it sounds. Am I wrong here ?
 

FrantzM

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I think speaker companies "tune" their speakers on purpose to what you get from your measurements. Every speaker manufacturer could produce a flat response if they wanted to. It is not some magical thing they are trying to achieve but just fail. They want it to sound the way it sounds. Am I wrong here ?
Yes.
 

hollis

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….So 2 of these for $500.00 total, then one of the good inexpensive DAC's that Amir has tested, I want one with a sub, for around $200.00, then a cheap but good sub, and then for around $1K one has a pretty nice system, in theory at this point.

These go on sale often, I picked up a pair for $150ea in the last 12mo. $200ea is a more common price.

I would not recommend any subs at $200, but at $500 you start getting into Rythmik L12 and that could be a very competent 2.1, sub $1k system.
 
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roci_big_ear

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These go on sale often, I picked up a pair for $150ea in the last 12mo. $200ea is a more common price.

I would not recommend any subs at $200, but at $500 you start getting into Rythmik L12 and that could be a very competent 2.1, sub $1k system.
I agree. As you can see in my plot, these speakers hit 37 Hz at -3dB. With EQ, you can get them lower. The cheap subs won't add much. You'd want a 25 Hz sub...

And yes, I picked up mine last week for $199 + tax (for 1 pcs).
 

mightycicadalord

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These speakers are interesting to me, they come from the before time, before music group started buying everything and a lot of behringers gear was pretty questionable compared to what it is now. Someone there seemed to try a bit with this product and the different revisions. I prefer the 2030 though, really awesome imaging. Behringer seems to have a great product they could sell for more, and improve upon easily but they don't seem to care much as long as they keep selling. They care so little that last time I ordered the 2030a's about 4 years ago, the box was labeled 5 1/4" woofer, but they have a 6"+ woofer. I found this mislabeling in a few other places.

Pros- really low self noise, great build quality, could take eq on the bass for days to get it flattened out, could get nearly PA levels in medium sized rooms, never got close to their limit they just don't seem to care what you put through them.

Cons - crappy power on/off procedure to avoid pops, questionable build in some areas, quality control, tweeter gets old after awhile

Want to talk about the power on/off thing. These things have two power switches, one on the top and one on the back that also controls auto standby. The top switch seems to control whether the unit gets power, and the rear switch enables or disables output to the drivers. When turning it on you want to have the REAR switch set to OFF. Then turn ON the TOP switch. Then turn on the REAR switch to On. Effectively you want the rear switch set to off when powering the speakers on or off to avoid the awful pop on these speakers have.

I had the passive model for a long time but sadly discontinued, active is still a good value but the tweeter made me sell them. I did some mods in the meantime. Couldn't EQ it to do what I wanted. The woofers construction is really ringy, the basket rings a lot and the magnet cover does as well. There's also a little chamber between the magnet cover and the magnet where I think air kinda bounces around and disturbs things but that could be also be nonsense.

I noticed that one of my speakers sounded a little muffled in a weird way. I tried to compensate with volume but that didn't work. Upon taking the tweeters apart I noticed one of the diaphragms was not seated into the magnet all the way. I had to kind of shape the voice coil a bit to get it in right. Measurements seemed show it was performing fine after that so I moved on. Shoddy QC though especially for something marketed as a monitor. The 2030a come with their own supposed measurement plot specific to the speaker but who knows if that's BS.

You don't need to remove the grill to get the tweeter benefits, just the little plastic diffuser on the inside. After the tweeter is disassembled I suggest pushing the diffuser out from the front vs. trying to peel it off from the back, peeling left annoying to deal with residue while pushing didn't. Blue is with diffuser removed.

with and without phase plug orange is with.png


The whole tweeter assembly has no wood behind it so it kinda vibrates in place.

The ports are really ringy, like if you tap any part of the front of the speaker you can hear the ports ring. Tap the ports and you get a pitched tone. I wrapped some thin rubber sheets around them then secured them with hair ties. It did this.

port changes.png
 

Head_Unit

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Porsche...for many years noted [Boxster] would never have more power than the base 911 as not to cannibalize the sales of their core model)
Yeah, like how the 944 Turbo S was quickly suppressed, eh?
 

phoenixdogfan

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Not sure about how a German operation like Behringer would address this post (if at all). @ctrl would know better than I. As has already been pointed out, this could simply be one defective speaker. Given how important “branding” is here these days, the most I might expect is for the marketing folks to call Amir and request a retraction…

Before we go there, consider the following:
  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.
  2. The OP also has not demonstrated how the speaker settings might help or not.
  3. The OP has not shown measurements of how his mods affected a baseline measurement.
  4. The OP has not established that his measurement system is accurate and that his measurement conditions are credible.
  5. Most of what has been claimed, could have been addressed with the speaker settings and/or external eq. One’s willingness to modify electronics is NOT a substitute for good engineering practice.
While can give the OP some leeway, ASR has stood for objectivity in audio equipments reviews. So far, this thread is a bunch of subjective claims that lack scientific credibility.

I hope further objective evidence is shared, but suggest the usual ASR skepticism should apply here for now. :)
Strongly agree with point 5. Don't know why you need to break out the soldering iron and crack the hood to fix FR when we have so many software tools to painlessly accomplish the same thing.

What I'd really like to see is 2034 spins of both the Genelec and the Behringer.
 

sarumbear

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Don't know why you need to break out the soldering iron and crack the hood to fix FR when we have so many software tools to painlessly accomplish the same thing.
Why do you think people modify their cars? It is a hobby, that's why.

Why are some people are so against this person? He paid for the speaker, he can do anything he wants.
 

Bruce Morgen

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I think of Behringer as a photocopy of a photocopy. They do their best to copy things exactly but there's always some generational loss.

For the most part, the closest they get is an appearance-oriented approximation -- "to copy things exactly" would make the Behringer clone too expensive for the typical Behringer customer.
 

Petr66

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Here are my 2 B3031A, along with the single B2031A. They are all moded now in a similar way and measured in exactly the same place and way.

Unfortunately, I don't have plots before modifications, but it seems the B3031A tweeter is just flatter.

View attachment 188791
Hi, I have 3031A. Your results are amazing. I have no experience doing this. You don't happen to have a setting for the parametric EQ (DSP) for the 3031A. Thank you all for your advice.
 
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roci_big_ear

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Thank you, and sorry, I don't have any reliable measurements of the B3031A before tinkering with them. I first modified them (8 years ago) before buying a calibrated microphone, and then modified them again after I upgraded the mic. Speaking of microphones, I had the ECM8000 before, which receives lots of bad mouthing online, but actually my own measurements show it is quite good out of the box, and for our hobby reasons you don't really need the calibration file as it is +/- 2dB in the audible range. Here is the calibration file I created for mine after comparing it to a reference mic:

30 1
50 0
100 -1
120 0
400 -1
600 2
800 -1
1000 0
2000 1
5000 1
10000 2
15000 1
20000 -2
 

krabapple

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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

The Genelec costs >$1000 per speaker. This Behringer can be had new for $200.
 

Digby

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I bought one speaker out of curiosity. I wanted to see the value the speaker delivers for just $199.
You didn't really give us an answer regarding the value you think they represent. I think they represent exceptional value and you may have to spend four figures to get better. Certainly all close competition seems to be at least twice the asking price.

People will point to various speakers being somewhat flatter in FR, but which of these flatter speakers will give you useful response down to 37hz?
 

YSC

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You didn't really give us an answer regarding the value you think they represent. I think they represent exceptional value and you may have to spend four figures to get better. Certainly all close competition seems to be at least twice the asking price.

People will point to various speakers being somewhat flatter in FR, but which of these flatter speakers will give you useful response down to 37hz?
Hardly, but 2 things I would consider:

1) Behringer is not historically very reliable, so some factor if one don't want the risk, plus unit to unit variation I believe (no proof) might not be as consistent as other brands.

2) in most case I prefer a 2.1 or 2.2 systems with subs as below 100hz a lot of times room modes dominate so much that you will have a huge null somewhere in your bass response, a dedicate sub should work better.

Of course, that's just me, and obviously these babies are a better fit for more budget concious customers

 

Digby

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Hardly what?

I have one over 10 years old still working (another failed, but they are cheap enough to replace)

As to point 2, did you read what I wrote? 2.1 or 2.2 systems that beat the B2031A...yes, but that is four figures, probably more than $2000 if you want Genelec satellites, so where do we disagree?

I'm not sure if you are being patronising regarding "budget conscious" customers. I purchased the 8030cs and didn't think they were better (sans subs); even discounting the lack of bass, they seemed to have something of a forward tilt to the presentation that I didn't enjoy. They may be better with subs, but then the comparison (price wise) is as sensible as comparing the 8030cs + subs to Dutch & Dutch 8cs.

Apples and oranges.
 
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YSC

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Hardly what?

I have one over 10 years old still working (another failed, but they are cheap enough to replace)

As to point 2, did you read what I wrote? 2.1 or 2.2 systems that beat the B2031A...yes, but that is four figures, probably more than $2000 if you want Genelec satellites, so where do we disagree?

I'm not sure if you are being patronising regarding "budget conscious" customers. I purchased the 8030cs and didn't think they were better (sans subs); even discounting the lack of bass, they seemed to have something of a forward tilt to the presentation that I didn't enjoy. They may be better with subs, but then the comparison (price wise) is as sensible as comparing the 8030cs + subs to Dutch & Dutch 8cs.

Apples and oranges.
for hardly I mean hardly is replying for this "People will point to various speakers being somewhat flatter in FR, but which of these flatter speakers will give you useful response down to 37hz?" which means I AGREE.

Well I just searched for Behringer reliability and google generally reported some contraversals, TBH I have no personal experience so I say what I found in google, your experience is nice for you but may/may not be applicable to everyone is what I mean, of course any brand have some weight on luck, but I think you know what I mean.

For it's price I would say likely the reliability isn't that big an issue and modern 2nd or even 3rd tier parts are more durable than the past, but that doesn't affect the unit to unit tolerance point, of course I don't have data here, but in this price range, regardless of manufacturer I would expect more unit variation.

For 2.1 systems of course I am not mentioning something like 8030C which I am using, that for sure is a lot more expensive and another tier, what I meant was say JBL 305P, Adam T5V or KRK Rokit 5 G4 with paired single sub, not too much or in 4 figure cost but likely go deeper and tackle room mode better.

Overall it's my own preference, and I am not patronising regarding budget conscious customers, what I mean is just literally, if budget allows for a 2.1 system in the class of say a KRK RP5 G3/4 with a active sub, something like $200 more which is not a huge sum in absolute terms, having a 2.1 may make overall FR and experience a lot better is my point, but if having a 2.0 only and absolutely want to spend the least amout of money, these babies I AGREE IS A GREAT CHOICE, placed near front wall for boundary gain and some EQ to tame the bass peak these can get a pretty good full range in room.

No offense actually, but to get the very good result as the OP one need some skills and take risk of modding the electronics, which isn't very easy at least to some electronic noob like myself.

One more thing just as why I admit I quite dislike Behringer, it's just my personal insistance. No hate for Chinese brands as I owned a lot of them, but I really have a bad image on companies outright copy the design of others. Of course it could benefit the general consumers in a way of getting some really great and very likely reliable product at a dirt cheap price, but I really appreciate those who do the own R&D, and in long term if these persist, less and less brilliant guys would really invest into R&D which is bad to the consumer
 
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