anyone A/B'd Behringer Truths vs M-Audio Sp5B?

[the_mouse]

both of these monitors are available 2nd hand near me for a good price.

The RRP new is pretty similar, but I can't listen to both beforehand to decide myself.

If any of you have input, it'd be greatly appreciated.

thanks,

Mouse

"squeak"


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[rockum]

I A-B'ed the truths with the mackie 824's. If you're interested, I'll give you my impressions.

[Richie Monroe]

I've listened to both, and I wound up owning a pair of SP5B's, and God help me, I've learned to mix with them. I'm not a technogeek, so I won't try to wow you with a technical comparison. I simply thought the Behringers sucked. The SP5B's are actually pretty good budget monitors, but they need a flat reflective surface, such as a hard wall behind them, as they blow most of their bass out of the rear bass ports. Putting a wall behind them really helps that.-Richie

[rockum]

I simply thought the Behringers sucked.

Wow, I thought they were pretty good... There were a few small things I heard in a pair of Genelec's that I just couldn't hear in the Behringers, but when A/B'ed them with the Mackies, although the Mackies sounded better, I didn't feel like there was near the difference that you would expect considering the Behringers cost me $360 and the Mackies were about $1000 more than that. I listened to about 7 or 8 very different tunes with both pairs. They certianly had a different flavor or character but both were pretty pleasant. Only on an Oscar Peterson jazz chart where there were some very high trumpet chords, did I notice that the Truths seemed pinched and unmusical in contrast to the Mackies. In one of my other test songs, the Truths actually sounded a little better warmer and more natural. The songs I chose to test with were ones I knew well and ones that were considered classics. Now that I am getting used to mixing with the Truths I notice that I have to go a little lighter on the reverbs than I expect because I must be losing a hair of the verb tails in the mix. It's not severe. Funny, because when I a/b'ed them with the Mackies the Behringer's always sounded a bit more distant or ambient. I feel like my ear is pretty good, but I don't have the tech know-how needed to optimize their placement in the room in combination with correctly setting their settings switches.

Rock