From groups@jamesfry.com Fri Nov 25 14:16:06 2011
Subject:Behringer B210D speakers

Hi all,

I've been gigging for the last few years with a Nord Stage 76 and Triton
classic (previous to that a Roland RD700 and various other synths) with a
pair of JBL EON15G2s. I also had a pair of Mackie SRM350 Mk1 speakers too
but, while they were compact and relatively light, I felt they were noisy
compared to the EONs and had a very compressed sound when driven at
anything more than solo levels. Anyway, I sold the Mackies a couple of
years ago when I folded my function band as I figured I only needed one set
of speakers, and I've been really happy with the EONs for bigger gigs.

More recently I've been doing more big band and combo stuff than anything
else, and more often than not we've had a rehearsal before the gig (unheard
of!), so I've been getting fed up of carting the EONs around with me. I was
considering a pair of QSC K10 based on the feedback on here, but that would
cost over £1400 (getting on for $2200 US) and I felt that was rather a lot
of money to spend on a hobby with no return, so I started looking for
alternatives.

I was really intrigued by Norm's praise for the Behringer B210D speakers a
couple of weeks ago. I've had both good and bad experiences with Behringer
gear in the past. I found their powered mixers and amps absolutely
horrendous - noisy, no headroom, compressed, and the mic preamps harsh. Odd
bits of outboard have been fine though, and I've been using one of their
tiny mixers for some time now and its been great (it is mounted to a
plastic chopping board and just gets chucked in the box at the end of the
gig with little care, and its been working great for 3-4 years now).

So, anyway, I figured how bad can the B210D speakers be, and ordered a
pair. I was originally only going to order 1, and really wanted the 8"
until I realised they don't have carrying handles, but I really like stereo
for pianos and the spread you get for the leslie. Got them last monday, and
I've done a couple of rehearsals and two gigs with them so far. I'm really
impressed so far...

Positives:
Very light, easy to carry, PLENTY of gain - I can't see Electro users
complaining there, pretty quiet, at least compared to my previous speakers
(when I first set them up I had to check they were on!), built in mic pre
if you need it, angled for wedges (can be angled on both sides, so you can
have the woofer/tweeter symmetrically aligned with you). Plenty of bass,
although as you would expect this does back off at loud volumes, but I have
found I need to back off the low end on EQ to stop a bit of boom on some
stages.

Negatives:
The plastic marks very easily compared to the JBL and Mackie stuff, control
knobs stick out a bit and might get damaged in transit, the weight balance
is a bit off, so when put on their side in the car they tend to roll around
a bit. They have a horrendous yellow triangle with an attempt at drawing an
ear on the front, so everyone knows they are Behringer from 200 yards away.
On-axis sound is great, but off axis it loses a bit of sparkle - this is
only really noticeable on the Stage piano sounds though - on EP's and
Hammond they sound great.

All in all, I feel they were definitely worth the money. I can get into
rehearsals in one trip now (one speaker in one hand, cables + folding music
stand in rucksack, keyboard bag on shoulder, stand in other hand) - that's
less than some of the sax section!

Cheers

James

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