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

Bruce Morgen

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Would 2031A be a better choice than Kali lp 8 v2?

Being as the Kali is a very recently upgraded design with several generations newer, quieter, and more versatile electronics, I'd venture a big "no." FWIW, I have both Behringer and Kali speakers in my current system -- the Behringers (4 2030Ps driven by 2 Aiyima A07s via a Dayton DSP-408) are quite good given some external PEQ, while the Kalis (2 "2nd Wave" IN-8s and an IN-5) were truly exceptional right out to the box.
 

krabapple

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That anecdote would be more convincing as evidence if the 2031A (active, larger woofer) and the 2020P (passive, smaller woofer) could really be considered equivalent for the purposes of argument. I doubt they can.
 

Bruce Morgen

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That anecdote would be more convincing as evidence if the 2031A (active, larger woofer) and the 2020P (passive, smaller woofer) could really be considered equivalent for the purposes of argument. I doubt they can.

Which part of "FWIW" didn't you understand? :cool:
 

gino1961

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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
Genelec P26WP-01 Replacement 10" Woofer Speaker for Genelec 1032A
Note: look at the price
The new Genelec 1032 CPM costs around 2000 euro/each
 

gino1961

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It would be interesting to see klippel measurements by Amirm on this loudspeaker.
I doubt that the distortion measurements are as low as a Genelec - The Behringer monitor uses a bassdriver nowhere near the performance of a really good loudspeaker. But ofcourse the cost of this loudspeaker are really low to.

Below Amirms distortion measurements on the smaller Behringer brother , B 2030 .

View attachment 188904
Hi my guess is that these are the limits of an extremely cheap woofer showing up. If there is something really expensive among speaker parts is the woofer.
 
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YSC

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Genelec P26WP-01 Replacement 10" Woofer Speaker for Genelec 1032A
Note: look at the price
The new Genelec 1032 CPM costs around 2000 euro/each
So in retail the woofer cost alone is 1/4, I do believe genelec can have some better deals than consumers
 

hege

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How does a random seller with a used driver relate in any way to actual parts price from Genelec service? It's obvious fishing.
 

gino1961

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Good day, thank you for your kind and valuable replies. I have to make a premise.
I own both a pair of B2030a and a pair of B2031a
As a concept it seems to me that the smaller ones are more balanced. In the sense that "stretching" an 8" woofer up to about 2kHz is a bit too much for me (I like the concept of keeping a constant dispersion at the xover point as much as possible for an almost "seamless" transmission between drivers and a decent response out of axis).
Anyway ... my feeling is that for both models the weak point is the woofer.
And Dr Amir's test on the passive version of the 2030s confirmed my impression. An unacceptable distortion but that fits for such a cheap woofer. My guess is of course that both active and passive models use a same driver. Not sure but very likely.
Of the 2031, however, the bass impressed me very positively ... for a room like mine, absolutely sufficient. No need for a sub indeed.
So with the help of a carpenter friend I want to build a thick adapter ring (like 5 cm thick) to mount a good 6.5" or 7" woofer on the 2031 ... at the cost of sawing a piece of the tweeter flange (or make/buy a new one)
I am absolutely convinced that it is worth it
In a only two-way speaker the key element for overall performance is often the woofer. The woofer has to reproduce both the very bass and the midrange without distortion. A very demanding task indeed.
Decent and cheap tweeters instead can be found quite easily. Especially if they are cut at 2kHz with a 24dB/octave slope.
A good woofer costs about the same as a single complete Behringer
Of course they must have fitted poor woofers. For budget issues. They cant do miracles.
 

hollis

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I use 5x 2031a + 2x 8c for my office 7.1. Had some issues with distortion from a rear, so I dragged them out to the deck, laid out each flat on its back, and measured them in (allmost) halfspace. Turns out, used pairs of 2031a dont match eachouther at all. The orange+red traces look like an older variant maybe, with geen+blue being vastly improved. Pink, pink is just broken, that was the one that I was hearing an issue from during The Expanse.

I'm going to pull that one out, and change my center to an in-wall center.
 

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hollis

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And distortion plots if thats of value to anyone. RR was the one that had the most issues with actual HT content. Its not the worst graph of the bunch though.

The last two graphs, with the spike at ~200hz, those are red+orange above

From left to right: C, RR, RL, SR, SL
 

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krabapple

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In a only two-way speaker the key element for overall performance is often the woofer. The woofer has to reproduce both the very bass and the midrange without distortion. A very demanding task indeed.

If you add a sub crossed over right, the toll on a woofer is significantly reduced.

And without good measurement suite to aid you, I think 'hacking' a speaker design like you intend to is an iffy proposition at best.
 

gino1961

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If you add a sub crossed over right, the toll on a woofer is significantly reduced.

And without good measurement suite to aid you, I think 'hacking' a speaker design like you intend to is an iffy proposition at best.
I don't think it is a secret that this speaker looks very like a monitor by Genelec
I am quite sure that just one woofer of the Genelec costs much more than a complete pair of Behringer
I would like to see distortion figures of both speakers at same SPLs and distance
Again the secret of very good 2 ways is in the woofer
I have the 2031a The woofer is just some plastic and this is just normal at these prices
My idea was to use a metal woofer but they're very expensive
Something like the Visaton AL170 mounted on a reducing flange
That woofer should be flat up to 2kHz
But the woofers i like most are those where the diaphragm is a portion of a sphere instead of a cone
The sphere is the perfect shape
 

gino1961

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Genelec P26WP-01 Replacement 10" Woofer Speaker for Genelec 1032A
Note: look at the price
The new Genelec 1032 CPM costs around 2000 euro/each
Sorry my mistake The model similar is the 1031a
The woofer part number should be P22WO-03
Looks like a Seas to me
 

tgorle

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I've been using a pair of 2031A's in my studio for a long time... I measured my room and listening position with REW, calculated the required EQ filtering, and exported a custom impulse file. I use Equalizer APO to apply the impulse to the speakers using Windows out (or you can just apply the exported EQ filters of REW from Equalizer APO), and I use a Convolution Reverb plugin to apply the impulse file when using my DAW (not using the Windows audio out). The software is free, you just need a decent measurement mic and audio interface. As you can see from the Equalizer APO image, keep the preamp gains down and adjust to stay at or below -0.0dB Peak gain to let the EQ/Impulse do its job and avoid clipping. The difference is simply amazing, and these applications will improve ANY system. Images showing examples. Cheers.
 

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gino1961

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I've been using a pair of 2031A's in my studio for a long time... I measured my room and listening position with REW, calculated the required EQ filtering, and exported a custom impulse file. I use Equalizer APO to apply the impulse to the speakers using Windows out (or you can just apply the exported EQ filters of REW from Equalizer APO), and I use a Convolution Reverb plugin to apply the impulse file when using my DAW (not using the Windows audio out). The software is free, you just need a decent measurement mic and audio interface. And, of course, this will improve ANY system. Images showing examples. Cheers.
Hi thank you very much May i ask you how much did you like them ? what are you using now ? thanks again gino
 

tgorle

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Hi thank you very much May i ask you how much did you like them ? what are you using now ? thanks again gino
I still use the $400 Behringers... now that they're essentially flat and tailored to my room, I can't justify spending $3000 for speakers that will still need their own adjustments to be comparable.
 

gino1961

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I still use the $400 Behringers... now that they're essentially flat and tailored to my room, I can't justify spending $3000 for speakers that will still need their own adjustments to be comparable.
Thank you very much So i will keep them Even if i have still this idea of changing woofers in my mind I have two seas already as candidate
(Seas P21RE/P H0942-08 Woofer. H0313 2015 remake) https://www.falconacoustics.co.uk/seas-p21re-p-h0313-8-woofer.html
i am not confident on the quality of the woofer It must be a 20USD unit considering the price of the complete speaker It feels very plastic Not even treated i think
I cannot find distortion measurements to confirm my doubts
 
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AnalogSteph

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Have you seen the teardown pics here?
This has to be the most impressive speaker driver I've seen in a speaker priced this low. The basket is a massive thick cast aluminum, spider looks quality, and the shielding of the magnet is damn near 100% effective.
 

gino1961

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Have you seen the teardown pics here?
hi thank you very much for the very kind and valuable information
the fact that it looks good does not mean that it is good
I think that this speaker can be a very good base for some experiments with different drivers
but they will cost money
as i said above I would like to see distortion measurements They can tell a lot indeed about the woofer actual quality
Good tweeters are easier to find
i have an old krk monitor that was quite well reviewed in its days
the cabinet is very ok but the woofer has a very small coil
the woofers are very important and very good ones are rare and expensive
 
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D

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I bought one speaker out of curiosity. I wanted to see the value the speaker delivers for just $199.

View attachment 188871

What a great first impression unboxing and taking it apart!

These things are designed (thanks, Genelec!) and built (thanks, Behringer!) really well: the cabinet is dense and solid, the driver frame is cast, the circuits have good layout and soldering. Speaking of circuits: 3 TDA7293 chip amps power it, fed by a toroid transformer. At the +/-42V supply voltage, the power these chips can deliver is over 300W. This is not the 20-year old B2031A design you see reviewed online: on the outside it looks the same, but the PCB is a new revision of the now discontinued B3031A (which I have had for 10 years and like a lot).

View attachment 188765

I particularly like the front facing bass ports and the down facing rear connectors that make placement easy.

But then you turn it on... Right out of the box, my B2031A sounded very bright. Sure enough, a sweep confirmed the tweeter is 4-5 dB too loud above 4 kHz. They say it is factory calibrated... Did the technician stick the microphone in the woofer?

Thankfully, Behringer has put 2 hidden trimmers to change the level of the tweeter and adjust a ~17 kHz booster.


MOD 1

Using the factory trimmers, I decreased the tweeter level, and added a bit of a high boost to flatten it (as much as possible). This ended up in an overall flatter response, but also with a wide ~4 dB dip around the crossover frequency, which is at 1.85 kHz. Each driver is at -10 dB at that point. So overall, factory calibration was bad, but even after manual calibration, I am left with a smiley-face response.

View attachment 188770

I am starting to think the woofer cut off frequency is too low due to a wrong component value, which messed up the rest of their factory calibration.


MOD 2

It was time for more drastic measures. I removed the main PCB, took out the soldering iron and increased the woofer's low-pass filter cut off frequency a bit, so that the cross over is at 1.95 kHz vs 1.85 kHz originally. I didn't want to take out existing components (they are also glued), so I decided to solder a 47 kOhm resistor in parallel to R86 like this:

View attachment 188872

This increased the overlap of the two drivers and bumped the frequency valley by ~2 dB. Still not ideal, but better.


MOD 3

The response above 5 kHz bugged me. Not only is it not flat, but then the sudden drop off. The only reasonable course forward I could think of is to modify the 17 kHz booster. My plan was to move it to 25 kHz and counter that steep fall off. After another couple of hours of studying the board and simulating the circuit, the mod was to solder a parallel 10k resistor to R80.

View attachment 188767


Conclusion

As you can see, all the mods I did cost absolutely nothing (other than a weekend of my effort). I am dumbfounded why Behringer doesn't tune their speakers better. With all the mods, the speaker is quite nice actually.

Final response, 37-20kHz +/- 3dB.

View attachment 188768

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.

Is it something possible?

I'm sorry for asking, it's just that I don't know how to do what you did as I have absolutely no experience in doing those sort of things.

I'm based out of Montreal Canada by the way.

Best Regards,
 
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