Behringer Truth B2031A 8.75 inch Powered Studio Monitor Reviews

Great speaker. Good quality sound and excellent throughput. Thank you, Mike. I'm ready to get one more B2031A.

Works great out of the box. Thanks to Vern at Sweetwater for steering me in the right direction

Get these or a pair of Focal Be series with Beryllium tweeters. Everything else is a compromise. I've owned Behringer products for decades and never once had an issue or a failure. If your favorite reseller doesn't sell the Behringer brand they're not interested in giving you the best deal period. I think I should know, I'm an industry pro with years of experience and I'm not affiliated or associated with either Behringer or Sweetwater in anyway. I'm just a very satisfied customer.

Over the past 35years starting at MSU's OnCampus Recording Studio/Services (where I worked) until now with a compact AIO Studio as well as another with a small MixRoom here in Florida and another in Italy.
I have had at least two dozen studio monitors and experimented with all sorts of reflectivity, drivers, power levels, passives, actives, low volume brands, popular brands, those with paper, plastic, Kevlar, fiberglass and carbon cones. Mylar, Titanium, cloth dome, horn tweeters, even 3 and 4way monitors… and ever since I received the B2031A, I would try another set, and they would always end up in the comparison mix. Regardless of price… including PreSonus E7 (my other New personal favorite, JBL, AdamAudio, Avantone, Focal, Genelec, KRK, Klipsch, M-Audio, Mackie, Yamaha, and even two sets I built myself, of which 1 passive pair bi-amped with 4 Mylar tweeters arranged in 15degree angles from each other to eliminate side-wave crash distortions and a 10" woofer…
So, the bottom line? you have to spend substantially more money to get tiny improvements over the Behringer B2031A for virtually every studio purpose (depending on what you are recording and mixing though). I am a big believer in that there are simply No Monitors made that accomplish the job for a studio of ALL genres of music. I can Tell you from my own experience that mixing a 30piece orchestra, is not something the B2031A particularly does well at, and nor did any of the other monitors I've used or had or tested, and that turned out to be the reason to build and run completely separate amplification to each driver/group. However, pop, rock, metal, prog and just about every popular genre of music to record, mix, and master are definitely the kind the Behringer B2031A is fantastic at.

I bought these several years ago and they are still serving me well. In fact, they don't owe me a dime.

This speaker packs over 300W of power and is built very well. However, it is not well calibrated out of the factory and the tweeter / woofer balance is off, as well as some of its pre-eq. (verified with a calibrated mic)

If you tinker with it, you can have a wonderful speaker. As is out of the box, it is just a great value for the money. It's unfortunate because now it's competing with the JBL's LSRs, while with proper calibration, it goes into (old) Genelec territory.

Also, the auto off function is mostly useless. It needs quite loud playback to turn back on.

In objective tests, these compare very well with other monitors in this price range and beyond. Compared with NS10s which have their notorious mid-range (fatiguing) punch, these almost seemed scooped, but they are not. The aim here apparently was for the design to closely mimic a discontinued (and highly regarded) Genelec monitor, and the result is an extraordinarily affordable, well-designed, solid, useful pair of near-field monitors.

I have had mine in the studio for a couple of days, retiring a pair of Alessi Monitor Twos that I've mixed on for almost 20 years to good results. (You have to know your monitors. I knew those.) After getting the Abbey Road Studio 3 Waves plug-in with head tracker for checking my mixes on the emulated ARS3 monitoring pairs (far, mid, near), my Alesis monitors were no longer acceptable, with some midrange smearing and soundstage uncertainties that become more obvious after working with ARS3 (which I highly recommend for everyone, for a number of reason, none of which I'll go into here).

After a couple of days, I've dialed in good settings on the back — these allow you to boost or cut based on monitor position relative to the wall and to your general room tonal characteristics) — giving me clarity, accurate mids and highs, and a surprisingly tight, focused bass. These monitors are rated I think plus/minus 3dB flat from 50Hz to 21KHz. The Alesis Monitor Twos are three-ways that are rated down to 35Hz. I had been concerned that I'd miss the bass, but I absolutely do not. A/B comparing the ARS3 emulated mid-fields and near-fields with the B2031A, the bass response is very close to the emulated nears and just slightly down from their mid-fields.

While it is possible a subwoofer may come into my studio in the next few months, first I'm going to work with the Behringer DEQ2496 and a test mic, which automatically creates a "correction to flat" at the sweet spot where the mic is placed. (It's a little more complicated than than ... you get to limit how much EQ adjustment you want per band, divided into 31 bands per channel, and you should de-select low bands that the speaker simply cannot reproduce to avoid overworking the speaker in an attempt to get "flat down low" at the risk of stressing mid response). After this is done and I double check response with REW and listen to my mix point playlist, I'll make a decision. But based on the rough settings I have right now, these "Genelec knock-offs" sound absolutely terrific, detailed, and full-range, with great imaging, quick transients, great soundscape, and easy listening.

A couple of YouTube videos did some incredibly useful comparisons of tracks from ProTools played through a number of monitors, including these and several others in the price point and above. No question these were the best, or tied for the best. Several people have mentioned, and I have confirmed, that these are super-close to some JBLs that case a couple hundred more per pair.

I think the bottom line is that these long-loved speakers still hold up very well, even in a time when Adam (and Eve, a competitor formed by former Adam employees) offer down-market options which are excellent. I think we're in the middle of a fantastic time when home and small studios can stop worrying about the quality of their monitoring and get into more important stuff — like treating their rooms :)

Highly recommended.

Purchased the Behringer 5" driver powered monitor last year, mixed a couple records on them, was surprised how true they were. Just replaced a couple 8" JBLs with the 8" Behringer Truth boxes, same results, Truth, not hyped. You can trust what you hear, good or bad.

I have gotten consistently good mixes with these,. though not great all of the time (but mostly) Indeed angle them towards you and keep them ear level,. and then you hear the sweet spot quite nicely,. I also find the room compensation works a charm ... Only after all these years of constant use has one of them a developed a mild buzzing noise (probably an easy fix)

Next monitor purchase will either be the Truth B3031A's or Truth B1031A's

Glad to see Sweetwater is carrying Behringer products again : )
I would have bought these from them if they were back then ...

A few disclaimers:
I'm not one of these people who's tried 47 different monitors. These have been my main studio mon's for over 15 years.
I'm a HUGE Behringer fan. I'm aware some of their gear is pretty inferior (I've had some!) - but the pieces I have long-term have MORE than earned their keep, and were AMAZING price/value acquisitions.
I'm not a professional producer - strictly home-based hobbyist - but have a pretty good ear for what's good and what sux.

SO: while there are endless "comparables" to this model - similar specs, sound, price ranges, yada - I'll argue that this is one of those amazing price/value finds.
I've been able to use its' frequency adjustments and room compensation feature to excellent effect. They sound amazing, and I've been happy with how my mixes come out after mixing on these.
I've mixed at least 100 songs of various styles on these. Ranging from when I had cheap mic's and a little Fostex MR-8 (and little else), to my current setup (better mic's, board, processors, etc)...these monitors have proven themselves at every turn.

They are SURELY not perfect, nor the best gear that can be had. If you're a pro, or a specs fanatic, or unusually specific about exactly how you want your mon's to sound...you surely need to move up "the food chain" to the higher echelons of gear.
BUT - if you're an amateur, a hobbyist, or poor (I'm all three!) and want robust quality/performance out of your gear, these are a good choice.

For the money this is a great product. There is a faint noise issue eminating from the tweeters, but it is dramatically reduced to a faint whisper by using balanced cables, be that TRS or XLR. Very loud and fun to use so far!

These are some very popular monitors nowadays. I was lucky enough to get a pair at a ridiculously low price, tried them out and then resold them for a huge profit (couldn't resist). Now I kind of miss how great they sound compared to my current rig. The secret to getting use to these monitors is placement. Best to have them at ear level, tilted somewhat inward so you are immersed in the 'stereo field'. You usually don't have to use the room compensation in many cases but it is there if you need it. The quietest clean sound is achieved by using 1/4 inch TRS cords.

These are OK. There are other options in this price range that I think would be better options. I really like Behringer for the cost/benefit ratio they usually provide. I have some Behringer gear that I love and will never sell as it has become an essential part of my sound while many other high-end peices of gear have come and gone. But on these monitors, i don't trust my mix. I use other monitors as a reference many times just to check, and I guess I don't like feeling like I have to do that. The primary thing I notice is that they are pretty bassy, so I tend to cut. Then when I play through a car or home stereo as a final audit, I wish I would have left the bass in. These will work, and I do use them everyday. i guess once you learn thier deficiencies, you automatically compensate for it, but just feel that these could be more accurate. Not a bad buy, but I don't "Just love them". Bear in mind, I am not an audio mastering engineer, or a pro studio engineer either. A pro might come into my studio and advise that it is because how I have my room set up, or that I need acoustic treatment here or there regardless of what monitors I am using. I also find my only pair of recording headphones, the AKG Studio 240s bassy as well. So I have often wondered if it is just me? But, I know and can identify even balanced flat sound from trusted audio sources. Based on my experience with these, regardless of brand, in the future, if I were to replace these, I will likely go down to a 5" speaker to mix and monitor with.

I had used these since 2005 & once I got a better grip on Engineering it became clear that these are absolutely not clear - somewhat okay to compose with - but honestly incredibly un truthful for mastering ...

If you want monitors that are truly honest & great for composition ... Please look elsewhere - such as maybe a nice pair of coaxial monitors

Life in my studio is so much better now