KVR Audio

belmiro · Post by **belmiro** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 11:27 am

Which is best...I have narrowed my home monitor speakers down to these two.

Anyone have either of these can give me some feedback?

I will be using with the EMU 0404 USB audio interface from my laptop running Ableton Live 6.

I make deep house and downtempo club music.

Thanks for your help!

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 11:45 am

HiFi speakers are typically designed to flatter the music whilst monitor speakers are designed to be accurate. IMO you're looking for a choice between an apple and an orange...

belmiro · Post by **belmiro** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 11:52 am

I don't understand your comment.

Both of these are sold as studio monitors and reviewed as such in magazines such as Sound on Sound.

Can u suggest alternatives in the 200 UK Pound price range?

Thanks

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 12:11 pm

Best is to visit a shop that sells both, and compare them next to each other. At the end chosing any comes down to personal taste.

Whytherabbyt maybe got confused with the passive Diamond series. The passivese are home hifi, the actives are "pro" versions.

I've had the passive 8.1 for some days, and returned them being very unhappy with them.

vstDOG · Post by **vstDOG** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 12:24 pm

I have the Truth's and am very happy with them. From a value for money perspective these speakers are awesome!
I've heard many conflicting reports/reviews about them but the bottom line is price. At the time I bought them (about 2 years ago) there was hardly anything else available at that price range let alone anything decent so I was left with basically no choice but the Truth's. Perhaps now there's other options available at a simmilar price....dunno...

It took me some time to get used to their sound however these were my 1st pair of monitors so I had to adjust my ears to working with monitors in general.
These speakers can be very loud which is good for dance producers. Some people say that they're abit heavy on the bass side (typical for 8inch woffers) and sharp on the highs. Fortunately Behringer have included an adjustable crossover on the backs so that the user can adjust frequency response according to taste (very useful!)
Some users also reported the speakers picking up radio stations...I never had that problem

The overall build quality is excellent...very robust and no annoying plastic bits.
A friend of mine has a pair too and his studio is located inside an industrial building. He takes very poor care of them and they're always covered in sawdust

Still...no prolems at all...

Bottom line is these speakers are great for beginner - semi professional home composers and at that price range you basically cannot go wrong with them.

No comment about the Wharfedale's....never worked with them.

vstDOG.

belmiro · Post by **belmiro** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 12:26 pm

I am looking for something with a relatively flat response but I am a realist and know that at this price range its going to be virtually impossible.

I must admit I think the truths are going to be my choice as they can be set up for several room types and the wharfdales cannot.

I am interested to know why you didn't like the 8.1's?

I understand its subjective but your personal opinion would be appreciated.

Cheers guys!

belmiro · Post by **belmiro** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 12:30 pm

Thanks vstDOG.

I also heard about the radio freq. thing...which worries me a bit.

I am mixing on phones at the mo, so am looking for the next step up.

I am leaning to the truths frankly.

Cheers for the feedback.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 12:41 pm

BertKoor wrote: Whytherabbyt maybe got confused with the passive Diamond series. The passivese are home hifi, the actives are "pro" versions.

Hmmm. I certainly did, my apologies.

SimSam · Post by **SimSam** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 12:41 pm

I use the 8.2a's and can tell you they are amazingly flat and mixes done on them transfer very well to other systems. I bought mine after reading comments from several audio engineers who use them -- referring to them as "the best kept secret in the industry."

That might be an overstatement but they are really fine speakers. A friend of mine who is a professional and used to using Genelecs and other high rated speakers listened to them and ended up buying some for his home studio.

Take it for what it's worth. I think their brand name is their only shortcoming ;-)

Duncle22 · Post by **Duncle22** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 12:44 pm

i have a pair of the behringers & there the nuts.. i would recommend them 2 anyone.

peejunk · Post by **peejunk** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 12:52 pm

I will leave my bad opinion of Truths aside, I'll asure you that among the people in the know you will find the Wharfedales to be regarded above much, much more expensive nearfields.

I'd go for the DPAs without a blink.

Sam@Megablastic · Post by **Sam@Megablastic** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:02 pm

I would go with the Wharfedales, the only 2 good things Berhinger ever made were The V-Verb Pro (convolution reverb thing) and the patchbay. Everything else I've ever experianced by Berhinger has been total crap and breaks very easily.

belmiro · Post by **belmiro** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:13 pm

Fook...now leaning to the wharfedales..

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:26 pm

belmiro wrote:I am interested to know why you didn't like the 8.1's? I understand its subjective but your personal opinion would be appreciated.

I bought the passive Wharfedale Diamond 8.1 after reading some reviews, without testing/listening them in the shop, but I did ask weather I could return them when I was disappointed. And I could, which I eventually did.

There are good indications that the active Diamonds are much better than the passives. But please do try them before buying, next to some contenders.

The bass + treble sound were OK-ish, but there was this odd thing happening near the cross-over frequency around 2kHz. It sounded all wrong... like the sound was ripped in two and not properly glued together again. I think it was a phase problem in the cross-over filters.

I did a sine sweep test. The sound was definitely there, but on whole mixes you'd get annoyed by this scar right in the middle.

Mind you, these were the passive model so their filters have to work on the full load. I would think the actives have a different design: split the line signal with (active?) cross-over and feed each to their own power amp.

Also the bass and treble were in my opinion a bit hyped. You'd get tired after listening for long times.

I also tried to bi-amp them, using the dual speaker outputs of my amp. It was probably due to my amp, but that experiment sounded totally screwed up.

What I also noticed: treble sound was very directional. Only sounded good if the speaker was EXACTLY aimed at you ear. Go out of the sweet spot, and it was gone. My current set Alesis MonitorOne MkII doesn't suffer from this effect that strongly. It also has the balanced sound (non-hyped bass/treble) I was looking for. I know they lack some deep bass, but for my kind of music (rock) the "sub rumble" departement is not that important. The bass is clearly there, but not that strong.

Sam wrote:the only 2 good things Berhinger ever made were The V-Verb Pro (convolution reverb thing) and the patchbay.

Opinions on the Behringer patchbay do differ:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 68&start=0

belmiro · Post by **belmiro** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:34 pm

Thanks BertKoor.

I am definetly going to have a listen to both this weekend.

At the moment, I use phones and then check on various speaker set ups and tweak as I go.

I find my mixes have too much low end and are a bit thin up top initially.

I can get around this by adjusting but I really want to be able to get the mix almost right before checking on other speakers to save time.

Any other comments from anyone else?

Behringer B2031A Truth Vs Wharfedale Diamond 8.2 Active