Truth B3030A's

Well...being that I was recently told by one of the moderators on this site that the topic of Behringer is not all that welcome on this forum(despite the fact that the administrator created a thread specifically for Behringer),I don't if anyone will have any interest in this review,but here it goes anyhow......

Like most any reasonably experienced recording enthusiast & musician,I was extremely skeptical of Behringer and like many of you out there,I have read my share of bad reviews on various Behringer products and I was horrified by the sound quality of their keyboard amps.
My first experience with Behringer-back when I bought my first PC,was my purchase of the MS-20's and although they were Behringer's entry level desktops,they performed better than any consumer grade computer speakers I had ever heard.
Given Behringer's spotty history & in light of my recently blown tweeter on one of my B1030A's,Behringer remains to be a company that intermittenly manufactures a lemon or two,so you generally get what you pay for,but the Truth 3030 series in particular,are a tremendous value,that exceed their price point in performance.
Prior to my purchasing the Truth 3030's,I researched them heavily & could not find a single bad review and in fact-in one of the reviews I had read,another Adam A7 owner like myself,stated that they were comparable to the A7's and being that I needed a secondary set of monitors on a tight budget(until such time I could upgrade),I decided to give them a go.

Now due to the aformentioned moderator's proclaimed & extraordinarily acute sense of hearing,he was able to detect how incompetent the 3030's level of detail is,but being that my capability to perform & record cover songs down to the very last detail by ear(without sheet music),along with the fact that I play quite proficiently on keyboards strictly by ear,I think it's fair to say that my sense of hearing is more than adequate to detect the articulations of monitors.

Although monitor quality is subjective-as it is perceived differently(some love ribbon tweeters,other do not),the fact remains that ribbon tweeters in general,have a higher kHz response & thereby offering more detail than dome tweeters,at a lower cost.
While there are companies out there that do offer a "ribbon" level of quality in their dome tweeters,they are considerably more expensive.
The 3030's tweeters provide a frequency response of 27kHz,but the really novel feature of the 3030's tweeter is the 2" size,along with the front baffle's wave-guide,which provides a generously wide sweet spot.
The bass driver cone is made up of a Kevlar bi-weave,along with an extra deep cabinet,thanks to the external amp that is located in the rear of the cabinet,that is encased in metal...resulting in a surprisingly deep & punchy bass,along with good mid-range clarity for the money.

The 3030's also have a surprising amount of gain with more volume than is needed in a near-field situation,but this does serve as a very useful feature,in situations with audio interfaces that have weak gain levels.
As a general golden rule of mine,I never push any of my monitors to their limits and there's no need for me to do so,to get the job done,and being that Behringers are budget products,common sense should be exercised and I would not recommend adjusting the volume past the mid point and I am sure the sonic character would falter a bit in terms of accuracy at excessive volumes anyhow(I myself,have absolutely no intentions of putting these monitors through that sort of "field test").

In today's arena of super high resolution pro keyboards & software programs and with their extraordinarily wide audio spectrum,the Truth 3030 series are not ideally suited for such applications,but in the under $500 range,these monitors are a reasonable facsimile.

Two things about Behringer that really irritate me with regard to the Truth series,is that virtually all of the spec sheets on their monitors have listed,a low frequency response of 50Hz,regardless of size....however though,since I have worked closely with the 3030's for about 6 months now,I can confirm that the roll off point is reasonably accurate to this spec and they their overall response is very well balanced for the price.
The second thing-is that recently,Behringer has increased their price of the larger 3031's by an additional $100 per pair and even though Behringer would most certainly blame that on the tanked economy,it is quit immaterial as far as I am concerned.
Reason being,is that Behringer has their own facilities on quite a stretch of land in China,known as Behringer City...which is quite literally,an actual city...complete with live-in dormatories & all the trimmings.
This all results in extraordinarily low operating costs and like Wal-Mart,Behringer is in no way,hurting,because of the strained economy.

-Elwood

Pass on them. Pass on Samsons. They are not usable. I work for a Behringer dealer and we will not sell them. M-Audio is as low-end as we will go.

Sheet,

In the past,I've owned the Samson 40a's,50a's & 65a's and the newer Resolv A5's and for me personally,they're not usable,as the low end is weak & muddled.
The Rubicon series has an improved tweeter design,but the low end remains the same,& just wasn't worthwhile at all to me.
However though,some folks here seem to think that Samson is dead reliable & that they don't break down,so they will continue to lean towards them.
As for Behringer-particularly the Truth series,I have found that n-o-t-h-i-n-g with the exception of the 3030 series,is usable and that's the point I was trying to convey.

So then,the company you work for does not carry Behringer and therefore absolutely everything that Behringer has made & will make is utter garbage?
Sweetwater.com no longer carries Adam...does this mean that Adam monitors are unusable?Of course not.
I've owned the M-Audio BX5's and the Behringer Truth 3030a's blow the BX5's out of the water,so not everything that M-Audio makes is better than Samson & Behringer.

If your so anti-Behinger and you really feel this company has no place in this forum,then I'd suggest you submit a request to the administrator & have him/her remove the Behringer category and while he/she is at it,then this person might as well discard Alesis,iKey Audio,Tapco,Wharfedale,Altec Lansing,Tascam,Roland,Edirol,Hosa and fostex as well.

-Elwood

The reason Sweetwater no longer carries Adam goes deep. Some of the models , mostly the A7s, were having issues. Adam changed it's distributorship into the USA, changing the relationship. Focal came in and cleaned up.

I absolutely love the Truth B2031A series coupled with the Truth B2092A Subwoofer when they FIRST came out. I don't know what the newer ones sound like but when they first came out, several years ago, they were truly kick butt for the price and quality (BACK THEN...don't know about now :P )

Personally I would go to a store that has a bunch of speakers and tell the salesman my price range and ask for the salesman to play a cd that you bring and are familiar with. Then have the salesman toggle between the different speakers while you close your eyes and have no clue which one you are listening to. Let your ears pick out the best choice and you will usually never go wrong!!

(and yes people I know it depends on who's listening LOL & DUH! but you get the idea :P )
CHEERS!