Will Behringer B2031P's work well with my receiver?

[Cristofori]

Hello All,

After reading about the Behringer speakers here (thanks WmAx) and checking them out further, I decided to go for them. Being on a budget for now and preferring smaller speaker/sub combos, I just don't see how I can get anything better for that price short of a really great "used" deal.

Lo & Behold, I found out my local music store carries them on top of several other studio monitor makes, including Yamaha, Tascom, JBL, etc. But they usually only carry the active models for pro use, although they can order the passives as well. I talked with the shop keeper, and he said those types of speakers are designed differently and were usually not meant to be played very loud, and to make sure my amp could handle them well. Although he seemed to be mostly familiar with the active monitors, and I'm not sure what his definition of "very loud" really meant.

After checking them out further I found out they were 4 ohms, and my Marantz SR4023 receiver does give a rating for 100wpc into 4 ohms (80wpc into 8 ohms), so I assume this is OK, although my Marantz is not one of their top of the line models or a really Hi-End piece of gear by any means. Should I have any problem running these over a period of time?

I am wondering if there is some kind of "catch" to all this. The price vs SQ ratio of these speakers is beyond reasonable. I can't understand how they could be making much money on these things, even being made in China!

This music shop can get these for me for the same price as the cheapest online store I've found so there is no reason not to do business with them. I always prefer to examine physical product, deal with human beings and support B&M stores whenever feasible.

The responses I get here may help me to decide whether to go ahead and order these or not this Friday.

Also, on an unrelated note. If 4 ohm speakers are more efficient and cause your amp to run them at more power, then why are not all speakers 4 ohms or even less? It seems like there can only be nothing but positives to this as far as performance or SQ goes.

What are the possible drawbacks or concerns to using 4 ohm speakers?

 

[lsiberian]

Hello All,

After reading about the Behringer speakers here (thanks WmAx) and checking them out further, I decided to go for them. Being on a budget for now and preferring smaller speaker/sub combos, I just don't see how I can get anything better for that price short of a really great "used" deal.

Lo & Behold, I found out my local music store carries them on top of several other studio monitor makes, including Yamaha, Tascom, JBL, etc. But they usually only carry the active models for pro use, although they can order the passives as well. I talked with the shop keeper, and he said those types of speakers are designed differently and were usually not meant to be played very loud, and to make sure my amp could handle them well. Although he seemed to be mostly familiar with the active monitors, and I'm not sure what his definition of "very loud" really meant.

After checking them out further I found out they were 4 ohms, and my Marantz SR4023 receiver does give a rating for 100wpc into 4 ohms (80wpc into 8 ohms), so I assume this is OK, although my Marantz is not one of their top of the line models or a really Hi-End piece of gear by any means. Should I have any problem running these over a period of time?

I am wondering if there is some kind of "catch" to all this. The price vs SQ ratio of these speakers is beyond reasonable. I can't understand how they could be making much money on these things, even being made in China!

This music shop can get these for me for the same price as the cheapest online store I've found so there is no reason not to do business with them. I always prefer to examine physical product, deal with human beings and support B&M stores whenever feasible.

The responses I get here may help me to decide whether to go ahead and order these or not this Friday.

Also, on an unrelated note. If 4 ohm speakers are more efficient and cause your amp to run them at more power, then why are not all speakers 4 ohms or even less? It seems like there can only be nothing but positives to this as far as performance or SQ goes.

What are the possible drawbacks or concerns to using 4 ohm speakers?

You will be fine, but make sure you get the 2030p's.

 

[Cristofori]

You will be fine, but make sure you get the 2030p's.

Thanks, but why? The 2031's are also passive, but are a little bigger with 8 inch woofers. At this ridiculous price, why not?

 

[lsiberian]

Thanks, but why? The 2031's are also passive, but are a little bigger with 8 inch woofers. At this ridiculous price, why not?

They lack the midrange. The 8 inch woofers roll-off too early. Since you plan to add a sub. Let the sub take care of the extension.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Because 2030p have better - aka more flat response than 2031,
and don't worry about bigger woofers - you'll need to add sub anyways to get proper low-end
To your original question - YES, 2030 or 2031 aren't complex load and your marantz shouldn't have any issues powering them

 

[Cristofori]

They lack the midrange. The 8 inch woofers roll-off too early. Since you plan to add a sub. Let the sub take care of the extension.

Thanks, I do plan on adding a sub, but I don't know when that will be. In the mean time, I want the best performance I can get.

Does this same thing go for other bookshelves as well? Are the smaller models usually the best bet if adding a sub?

I see that people add subs to their systems using larger than bookshelf speakers all the time, sometimes more than one. Is this only good for HT purposes?

 

[lsiberian]

Thanks, I do plan on adding a sub, but I don't know when that will be. In the mean time, I want the best performance I can get.

Does this same thing go for other bookshelves as well? Are the smaller models usually the best bet if adding a sub?

I see that people add subs to their systems using larger than bookshelf speakers all the time, sometimes more than one. Is this only good for HT purposes?

There is no hard fast rule. Since some drivers roll-off higher than others.

 

[no. 5]

Thanks, I do plan on adding a sub, but I don't know when that will be. In the mean time, I want the best performance I can get.

If it may be a long time before you get a sub, get the 2031's. The 2030's have almost no bass.

Does this same thing go for other bookshelves as well?

There is a connection between cabinet size and low frequency extension, but generally speaking, the smaller the cabinet the higher the low frequency roll-off will be.

Are the smaller models usually the best bet if adding a sub?

Usually smaller speakers lack the most bass, but in my opinion, it is always best to add a sub.

I see that people add subs to their systems using larger than bookshelf speakers all the time, sometimes more than one. Is this only good for HT purposes?

Nope. And especially no when multiple subs are involved.

 

[TLS Guy]

Hello All,

After reading about the Behringer speakers here (thanks WmAx) and checking them out further, I decided to go for them. Being on a budget for now and preferring smaller speaker/sub combos, I just don't see how I can get anything better for that price short of a really great "used" deal.

Lo & Behold, I found out my local music store carries them on top of several other studio monitor makes, including Yamaha, Tascom, JBL, etc. But they usually only carry the active models for pro use, although they can order the passives as well. I talked with the shop keeper, and he said those types of speakers are designed differently and were usually not meant to be played very loud, and to make sure my amp could handle them well. Although he seemed to be mostly familiar with the active monitors, and I'm not sure what his definition of "very loud" really meant.

After checking them out further I found out they were 4 ohms, and my Marantz SR4023 receiver does give a rating for 100wpc into 4 ohms (80wpc into 8 ohms), so I assume this is OK, although my Marantz is not one of their top of the line models or a really Hi-End piece of gear by any means. Should I have any problem running these over a period of time?

I am wondering if there is some kind of "catch" to all this. The price vs SQ ratio of these speakers is beyond reasonable. I can't understand how they could be making much money on these things, even being made in China!

This music shop can get these for me for the same price as the cheapest online store I've found so there is no reason not to do business with them. I always prefer to examine physical product, deal with human beings and support B&M stores whenever feasible.

The responses I get here may help me to decide whether to go ahead and order these or not this Friday.

Also, on an unrelated note. If 4 ohm speakers are more efficient and cause your amp to run them at more power, then why are not all speakers 4 ohms or even less? It seems like there can only be nothing but positives to this as far as performance or SQ goes.

What are the possible drawbacks or concerns to using 4 ohm speakers?

I would get the active version and not the passive. Use your preouts. Passive crossovers are best avoided if possible. Also your receiver will have a longer life it you do not use the internal amps. You will have better sound if you get the active version.

 

[Alex2507]

First of all the 2030P's are listed as 8 Ohm. Secondly a modest Yamaha RX-V663 will drive those to pretty high SPL's in a normal sized room without any problems. Thirdly the amps in the active versions are suspect. Behringer seems to have a bad reputation over all except for a few gems, the 2030P being one. Granted it's all hearsay.

If budget is where it's at the 2030P's and a cheese rec'r fit the bill all day long. Throw in a couple of Dayton subs and you've got it made.

But if you have money you should spend it.

 

[TLS Guy]

First of all the 2030P's are listed as 8 Ohm. Secondly a modest Yamaha RX-V663 will drive those to pretty high SPL's in a normal sized room without any problems. Thirdly the amps in the active versions are suspect. Behringer seems to have a bad reputation over all except for a few gems, the 2030P being one. Granted it's all hearsay.

If budget is where it's at the 2030P's and a cheese rec'r fit the bill all day long. Throw in a couple of Dayton subs and you've got it made.

But if you have money you should spend it.

You may be right. After a quick search there do seem to be problems with Behringer gear.

To make matters worse, they do not make even schematics let alone a service manuals available to service techs. They only make them available to a few and far between vendors.

I suspect that is because they don't want others to know what junk their designs are. What ever the reason that is reprehensible. I would never purchase any amp I could not get at least a schematic for.

So despite how WmAx bums their load, they are off my list of preferred manufacturers. I will continue to keep the Quad 909 as my number one recommended domestic amp, for home audio and home theater applications.

I understand Emotiva have recently made a spectacle of themselves, so they need to go on the caution list.

I guess you really can't do things on the cheap, but I leaned that a very long time ago.

I have just visited friends in Vancouver, who had a professionally installed 5.1 set up using all Paradigm speakers and a Pioneer elite receiver. The only unit that was any good was the Pioneer Elite plasma display. The sound was simply awful and miles away from creating any illusion of realism.

So I guess I'm going to recommend quality more strongly than ever from now on, and the avoidance of cheap junk.

 

[sholling]

First of all the 2030P's are listed as 8 Ohm. Secondly a modest Yamaha RX-V663 will drive those to pretty high SPL's in a normal sized room without any problems. Thirdly the amps in the active versions are suspect. Behringer seems to have a bad reputation over all except for a few gems, the 2030P being one. Granted it's all hearsay.

If budget is where it's at the 2030P's and a cheese rec'r fit the bill all day long. Throw in a couple of Dayton subs and you've got it made.

But if you have money you should spend it.

+1 to what he says.

 

[Cristofori]

First of all the 2030P's are listed as 8 Ohm. Secondly a modest Yamaha RX-V663 will drive those to pretty high SPL's in a normal sized room without any problems. Thirdly the amps in the active versions are suspect. Behringer seems to have a bad reputation over all except for a few gems, the 2030P being one. Granted it's all hearsay.

If budget is where it's at the 2030P's and a cheese rec'r fit the bill all day long. Throw in a couple of Dayton subs and you've got it made.

But if you have money you should spend it.

The 2031P's which is what I was inquiring about and what I want to buy, are 4 ohm speakers. It was suggested by another member that I go with the 2030P's instead (which are 8 ohms), for frequency roll off reasons. Secondly, I don't have a Yamaha RX-V663 and probably won't be getting one. I have a Marantz Receiver that I'm happy with so far. Thirdly, I don't want the active models, but the passive ones, so internal amp issues are irrelevant to me.

And no, I don't have gobs of money right now, otherwise I wouldn't be asking about these. I'm under no delusion that these will be the last speakers I will ever buy, and will only be a temporary thing.

Also, the Behringer's seem to have a pretty good reputation around here from what I've read.

No offense, but I've never seen a reply that was so exactly opposite of everything I was asking about.

 

[Cristofori]

You may be right. After a quick search there do seem to be problems with Behringer gear.

To make matters worse, they do not make even schematics let alone a service manuals available to service techs. They only make them available to a few and far between vendors.

I suspect that is because they don't want others to know what junk their designs are. What ever the reason that is reprehensible. I would never purchase any amp I could not get at least a schematic for.

So despite how WmAx bums their load, they are off my list of preferred manufacturers. I will continue to keep the Quad 909 as my number one recommended domestic amp, for home audio and home theater applications.

I understand Emotiva have recently made a spectacle of themselves, so they need to go on the caution list.

I guess you really can't do things on the cheap, but I leaned that a very long time ago.

I have just visited friends in Vancouver, who had a professionally installed 5.1 set up using all Paradigm speakers and a Pioneer elite receiver. The only unit that was any good was the Pioneer Elite plasma display. The sound was simply awful and miles away from creating any illusion of realism.

So I guess I'm going to recommend quality more strongly than ever from now on, and the avoidance of cheap junk.

These speakers are only $150 a pair for crying out loud! At that price I don't plan on keeping them for ever or having them serviced, which they will probably never need, not the passive ones anyway, which is what I would get if I bought them.

Cheap junk or not, they will be better than the cheap old Fisher speakers I picked up at an estate sale that I'm using now, which smells and sounds like the ghost of party basement past. I have no doubt that the Behringer's will sound better, and the 8' woofers probably put out more base then the Fisher's 12's.

Again, I'm under no false pretenses that I will achieve sonic nirvana here, I just need something that looks decent and is acceptable to listen to temporarily until I can get some really good speakers.

 

[WmAx]

You may be right. After a quick search there do seem to be problems with Behringer gear.

So despite how WmAx bums their load, they are off my list of preferred manufacturers. I will continue to keep the Quad 909 as my number one recommended domestic amp, for home audio and home theater applications.

I recommend Behringer on a case by case basis; I have never recommended Behringer as a blanket brand recommendation. They have some exceptional products with very high quality build and performance. They have some products with known failure/defects.

There is nothing cheap about the Behringer Ep2500 amp. It uses all quality parts/components. It uses mil-spec redundant glass epoxy PCBs and it's measured performance is nothing but impressive.

The active B2030 has known reliablity issues with the amp it uses. The passive has no reliability issues, and it's drivers/parts are what is never expected in a speaker in it's price class, but far better.

The B-5 microphone is an insane value; it's performance I believe, has never been previously known for a mic of it's type that did not cost at least 8x what it costs.

Certain mixer series are known to have noise problems and other performance issues. The Xenyx line of their mixers has no noise problems and uses all high quality contstruction parts; not even a cheap pot or slider is used; all high quality Alps units are used as well as quality parts through almost the entire units.

Behringer has an odd collection of products. Some are extraordinary, some are not even mediocre. I can only guess how this can happen, but I presume it has to with a large degree of miscommunication between departments/divisons and lack of a core focus for the company to guide all of it's divisions to the same standard.

-Chris

 

[MidnightSensi]

I recommend Behringer on a case by case basis; I have never recommended Behringer as a blanket brand recommendation. They have some exceptional products with very high quality build and performance. They have some products with known failure/defects.

There is nothing cheap about the Behringer Ep2500 amp. It uses all quality parts/components. It uses mil-spec redundant glass epoxy PCBs and it's measured performance is nothing but impressive.

The active B2030 has known reliablity issues with the amp it uses. The passive has no reliability issues, and it's drivers/parts are what is never expected in a speaker in it's price class, but far better.

The B-5 microphone is an insane value; it's performance I believe, has never been previously known for a mic of it's type that did not cost at least 8x what it costs.

Certain mixer series are known to have noise problems and other performance issues. The Xenyx line of their mixers has no noise problems and uses all high quality contstruction parts; not even a cheap pot or slider is used; all high quality Alps units are used as well as quality parts through almost the entire units.

Behringer has an odd collection of products. Some are extraordinary, some are not even mediocre. I can only guess how this can happen, but I presume it has to with a large degree of miscommunication between departments/divisons and lack of a core focus for the company to guide all of it's divisions to the same standard.

-Chris

Their products are all reverse engineered knockoffs. The level of quality depends on which and how some Chinese plant knocked off what they sent them.

Their Truth monitors are old school Genelec knockoffs, their DJ mixers are bad Denon knockoffs (the slider is so sloppy its almost unusable for smooth house mixes, maybe functional for breaks or hiphop), their amps are QSC RMX knockoffs.

Behringer is what it is. They are whores. Sometimes you get luckly, sometimes you get one that is sick.

This guy sounds like he wants something to use for a while, and I think for the money there isn't many other options. Worst comes to worst you have a pair of garage speakers.

 

[Cristofori]

I recommend Behringer on a case by case basis; I have never recommended Behringer as a blanket brand recommendation.

How about in my particular case (read opening post)?

The active B2030 has known reliablity issues with the amp it uses. The passive has no reliability issues, and it's drivers/parts are what is never expected in a speaker in it's price class, but far better.

It is the passive ones I intend to get, so hopefully that wont be an issue.

Do you recommend the 8 ohm B2030's over the larger 4 ohm B2031's? I probably won't be getting a sub anytime soon until I can get a decent one (unless a great deal falls in my lap), so I'd like as much bass I can get with the eight inch woofers.

However, a pair of B&W 600 series bookshelves I used to have had excellent bass for their size, using the same size woofers as the smaller B2030, so that might not be an issue if I can get better high/mid performance from the smaller ones.

On what level do you think these speakers rate as compared to some other, higher priced bookshelves? I'm trying to get in idea of what I might realistically be expecting if I go for them.

 

[Cristofori]

This guy sounds like he wants something to use for a while, and I think for the money there isn't many other options. Worst comes to worst you have a pair of garage speakers.

Yes, that is the case. But I already have some Basement/Garage monstrosities and I don't need another pair!

Even though $150 is next to nothing for a decent pair of bookshelves, I'd still rather not waste the money if I can hold out for something better.

 

[Alex2507]

I don't have a Yamaha RX-V663 and probably won't be getting one.

I was using it as an example of an inexpensive rec'r.

No offense, but I've never seen a reply that was so exactly opposite of everything I was asking about.

It was a reply that addressed several points that had been brought up in the thread but if you had read many of my posts you would see that I am quite capable of making posts that have way less to do with what a thread is about than that one. I kind of thought that was pretty much on topic.

Won't be bothering you again.

 

[Cristofori]

I was using it as an example of an inexpensive rec'r.



It was a reply that addressed several points that had been brought up in the thread but if you had read many of my posts you would see that I am quite capable of making posts that have way less to do with what a thread is about than that one. I kind of thought that was pretty much on topic.

Won't be bothering you again.

No problem, I apologize as I thought all those suggestions were directed at me, but had little to do with any of my specific questions, which seems to happen all the time on these things. It's a bit frustrating.

However, I'm never one to stop a conversation from taking place with others, so be my guest!

One thing you did show me is that the smaller B2030's are 8 Ohms, even though those weren't the models I was really looking at. If I do decide to go with these smaller ones, at least I now have this info.

So thanks for that!