Should I take the jump and get Behringer Monitors?

[phillys]

I know, the obvious answer is a big NO if I want to mix well. But the big problem is this: there are no other place in my town that sells monitors or even decent neutral sounding speakers and the only brand that I could find is a pair of Behringer Monitors and they cost about $110. I suppose using them to mix would be better than using my 2.1 Altec Lansing speaker system to mix?

Should I take the jump?

 

[SuperDuck]

Honestly, the Behringer monitors I heard sounded pretty decent, especially considering the price. If I lived someplace where I could use them at a decent volume, I would probably buy a pair!

 

[phillys]

I've been doing some scouting around the net about the prices for Behringer MS16 Monitors and here are the sites that I've found that stock these monitors:

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and the price for a pair of these monitors averages around $59-69 and that is in fact more than $40 difference. Do you think it would be a wise idea to print out these sites and haggle down the price with the shop owner?

Any other opinions on these Behringer monitors?

 

[TL5]

Sorta'. I don't know what your expectations are on those monitors, compared to what you are presently using.

Those appear to be patterned after Roland MA-8's. I've used the MA-8's in radio production, in rooms where the monitor's function is to simply give a break from headphone ear fatigue. You can hear the program material, but they're not something you want to be making critical music mixes on. If all your doing is looking for splice (edit) points in a longer program then they're fine.

Again, I'm basing these remarks on the Roland MA-8, the Behringer's you linked look identicle. It could be a step up from where you are. otoh, if you have good computer monitors, with a subwoofer, you may have better speakers already. JMHO. YMMV
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[adisu]

Hi there.
I use the behringer truth 2031A for 5 years now and to tell you the truth they are o.k. for mixing but just o.k. no more than that , for a very good mix you need a much better monitors like genelec(so good so expensive).
Anyway for begginers the behringer are Good especially because of the low price they sell their stuff.

But I wouldn't buy the one you show on the links ,those are too small , I heard a pair of those at friends house and they sound more like computer speakers than real monitor .
The sound they give is nothing close to the realistic sound you need to mix and work in studios , too many frequencies are lost (high and low end) and it really color the sound.

If you want something cheap for begginers you better save your money wait a little for a little bit more money and buy the behriger Invalid Link Removed(Not the best but much much better than those computer speakers who imitate to be monitors).

Trust me on that (...on not buying the pair you are about to buy).

Hope i helped.
Adisu.

 

[Yvon]

I tried many monitor and I bought the KRK rokit 5.

They sound much better and about the price of the behringer.

 

[phillys]

Thanks for the helpful comments and I guess I will hold on a bit on those monitors but I don't quite understand this part:

Again, I'm basing these remarks on the Roland MA-8, the Behringer's you linked look identicle. It could be a step up from where you are. otoh, if you have good computer monitors, with a subwoofer, you may have better speakers already. JMHO. YMMV
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Does it mean that my Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers(with a subwoofer or woofer) itself is better than the pair of Behringer that I'm considering to get? I thought the presence of the woofer would colour the sound in such a way that the bass sounds tight and good on MY 2.1 speakers but not on other 2.0 speaker system or even in mono.

 

[TL5]

Does it mean that my Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers(with a subwoofer or woofer) itself is better than the pair of Behringer that I'm considering to get?

Probably, admittedly though, I don't know that much about your specific Altec computer speakers.

If those you linked are what I think they are, similar to the Roland MA-8's, then adisu is spot on in saying they are decent computer speakers but not much else. The Roland's are decent sounding PC speakers, but not 'studio monitors'. The Behringer's you are considering appear to be of the same ilk.
That's all I'm saying.

 

[J Posega]

The guitarist for my band uses a pair ot Behringer Truth monitors for recording and such, also for practice we run our drum machine into his M-Audio M-Bus and into the laptop, which feeds out to the monitors. They work nice, but I'm a total recording n00b.

 

[Snarf]

Don't buy Behringer. It's all bad. Get yourself some RP5's.

 

[vindy500]

thats the most ignorant remark ive ever heard snarf

 

[Joe Nerve]

Some people like to badmouth inexpensive gear cuz it does something for their ego somehow. don't understand it.

i have behringer 60 watt amp that cost next to nothing and is being abused to all hell with no problems whatsoever for over 2 years.

 

[Chopsrr]

Don't buy Behringer. It's all bad.

That's not true either. Granted, their stuff might not be road-tough for gigging and all, but in a permanent installation, their products aren't bad at all. Over the years, I've used several of their noise gates, EQs, etc, etc with absolutely no problems at all.

Some of the most recent have been an Autocom Pro, Ultra-Curve Pro DSP8024, and currently I'm using an Ultragraph Digital DEQ1024. All of these including the others worked without flaw, completely silent, no distorsion and did/do what they are supposed to do.

I've never had a problem with Behringer, so see no need to stop using them only because others say they suck.

Again, it's all completely subjective.

 

[Aarix]

Some Behringer stuff ends up working out ok, but I wouldn't have high expectations for these speakers. The Roland's that they are modeled after are barely passable to begin with. If you want better PC speakers, they are probably fine. But I wouldn't mix with them.

If you are looking for real monitors, options don't really even start until you get up to about $250-$300.

When I was looking, I ended up settling on Wharfedale 8.2a's before I had heard them. Fortunately, when they got here they sounded fantastic.

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At the time, I was reading reviews about how they sounded as good as $3k-$4k Genelec's & Tannoy's. I don't know about that, but they stand up real well next to similarly priced KRK, Event. They have a incredible transparency and realism. When listening back to recorded music, you can hear the physical space it was recorded in. Not surprisingly, the price has gone up about 20% since then. I think they are still a steal.

 

[funky_bass_guy]

I have a pair of JBL Control 1s with a Cambridge Audio poweramp which cost me less than £100 but it sounds great and is very loud. I am not sure how they compare to proper monitors but the sound is very detailed to me.

 

[lillitnn92]

Does it mean that my Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers(with a subwoofer or woofer) itself is better than the pair of Behringer that I'm considering to get?

last thing you want to do is try and mix on a 2.1 system built for mulitmedia use. you want your monitors to be as transparent as possible. in other words, ruler flat (as much as possible or should i say, as much money you have) frequency from 20hz to 20khz. you don't want any speaker your trying to make crtical level adjustments with accenting anything in the mix.

i'll give an example with what can happen.

say you mix with those little Behringer MS16's. well, they are not going to put out enough low end, what you will do is start pushing it up in the mix to hear it on them. next thing you know, while listening to it on a bigger home stereo, it's bass heavy. same thing the other way. 2.1 multimedia setups are going to be a bit heavier on the low end. so you'll end up backing it off. then when you listen on a bigger home stereo you'll loose your low end.

lower to mid range home speakers, computers speakers, 2.1 -5.1 systems are going to be "colored" from the factory. this is how they get people to by them because they are tailored to sound "better" to average people.

now this does not mean you can't. i have seen and heard people using their computers speakers or home speakers. you just need to reference them on somehthing else to "hear". like you could do a quick sample on the 2.1, then take it to a home stereo to see what happens, then just compensate. but i wouldn't reccomend doing that. you don't want to get in that habit. i have heard some songs done that way and they have sounded great, but they had lots of practice doing it that way and knew what and where to boost/cut.

there's a few dozen choices "up to" $300-$400 that you could go with that would serve you well for now. Behringer and M-Audio make some of the most popular in that price range. go to Musicians Friend and read the reviews.

 

[D.A.R.K.]

no matter what brand of monitor you buy, you will have to spend alot of time comparing your mixes on different systems and getting used to the quirks of your system and acoustical enviornment.

 

[phillys]

Thanks for all the awesome advice.

Well, I have recently mixed a few songs on these 2.1 Altec Lansing speakers and they turn out to be too muddy for some(let's just say MANY) of my friends but it sounds awesome both on my 2.1 as well as my home stereo.

Does it mean that my home stereo's got too much colouration too?

 

[vindy500]

or it might mean that because you love the bass so much you turn it up and like it, where as it actually sounds crap to the majority of people

 

[phillys]

Well, I heard it myself when it was played on other systems and boy, there needs to be some word to describe 'more than muddy'.

Yeap, the word is 'muddier'. :-/