TRUTH B2030A/B2031A
3.3 Speaker placement suggestions
3. Applications
Since the sound of a speaker depends to a great extent on its
surroundings, placing your TRUTH correctly is very important.
Please try to follow these suggestions through. Your efforts will
be rewarded with better sound and higher resolution.
3.1 Connection
Use the enclosed power cord to connect the TRUTH to the mains.
To avoid ground loops, both speakers and the mixing console
should be fed from the same outlet. For your convenience, the
B2031A features an automatic power-up system which activates
the TRUTH as soon as a signal is present on its input, and deac-
tivates the speaker after signal pauses of more than five minutes
(only B2031A).
Both speakers are built identically. There is no need to concern
yourself with which speaker should be placed left and which
speaker should be placed right. Place the TRUTH on a flat and
stable surface, if possible use a dedicated speaker stand. In this
way, the speaker is acoustically decoupled and won’t induce vibra-
tions in nearby objects, which would affect the bass response. If
you cannot use a stand, put the TRUTH on spikes or damping
foam material. Another aspect is the distance between speaker
and wall: keep the speaker away from the wall, as this would
emphasize the bass response, particularly in corners, where two
walls form an angle.
Function: The switch for the automatic power-up system (11)
has three positions. When set to OFF, the speaker is completely
switched off and cannot be activated with the POWER switch
{6}. PositionAUTO allows the automatic operation as mentioned
above. In position ON, the B2031 is activated all the time and can
be switched off only with switch {6}.
The BEHRINGER TRUTH B2030A/B2031A are so-called near-
field monitors, which means that the impact of the room acoustics
on the sound will be reduced considerably owing to the short
distance between speaker and listener.
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Be sure to switch the TRUTH off with the POWER switch
during longer pauses.
Now connect both speakers to your console by means of com-
mercial XLR or TRS cables. Since the TRUTH is an active speaker
system, instead of conventional speaker cables you will need
normal TRS or XLR cables.
Connect the TRUTH to the control room outputs of your console,
so as to be able to control the monitoring volume independently
of the main mix level. If your console does not have such outputs,
you can also use the main mix outputs. However, in this case the
speaker volume cannot be set independently of the main mix level,
i.e. you must adjust the monitoring volume on the TRUTH. Please
consult the operating instructions accompanying your console to
find out whether it has balanced or unbalanced outputs. Connect
these outputs to the TRS or XLR {3} input. If possible use the
balanced connectors, so as to avoid interference and hum. It
won’t help, however, to connect unbalanced outputs with balanced
inputs. The benefits mentioned above will apply only when both
inputs and outputs are of the balanced type.
Fig. 3.1: Incorrect speaker setup
This illustration shows how you shouldn’t do it: you can clearly see
that a portion of the sound bounces back from the walls before it
reaches the listener’s ears. Thus, direct and reflected sound waves
overlap which results in a coloration of the sound.
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Be sure to mute the signal sources before you put the
TRUTH into operation.
Once the TRUTH has been connected as described above, you
can activate the speaker with the POWER switch.
3.2 Level setting
When the TRUTH has been connected properly and switched
on, you can now turn up the console output that feeds the
B2030A/B2031A. Provided you have a signal source connected,
you now hear the audio material as it is played back by the TRUTH.
The INPUT TRIM control {7} on the rear panel is set to 0 dB ex-
factory, i.e. unity gain, which is okay when you feed the TRUTH
from a pro-level console. In this case, the TRUTH automatically
operates at maximum level, provided that your console has been
set up correctly and its output is set to 0 dB.
Fig. 3.2: Correct speaker setup
The LIMIT LED {2} helps you control the level. It lights up as soon
as overloading causes one of the internal protections to respond.
The TRUTH doesn’t get damaged when the LIMIT LED lights up
with occasional signal peaks. However, please make sure that it
won’t light up all the time, because sooner or later this will activate
the thermal protection system and temporarily mute the built-in
amplifiers, to warn you that you are driving the TRUTH too hard.
If so, you can reduce levels either on your console or using the
INPUT TRIM control {7}. If the outputs on your console don’t
provide studio-level signals, you can turn up the INPUT TRIM
control. If you connect the TRUTH to the preamp output of your
stereo system, it may also be necessary to raise the level on the
TRUTH itself. To build up a rudimentary stereo system, you can
directly connect the outputs of a CD player to the TRUTH’s inputs,
and use the CD player to adjust the volume.
This effect can be reduced by turning the speakers towards the
listener. To make reflections from ceiling or floor less likely, the
tweeters should be on the same height as your ears. Please
note that the TRUTH should be operated vertically. Where this is
impossible, place it horizontally as shown in figure 3.3, to allow
for an improved stereo image.
Fig. 3.3: TRUTH setup horizontally
Not only the physical location of speakers but also the acoustic
characteristics of the room have a substantial effect on the way
your TRUTH sounds. Make sure that the room neither sounds too
hall-like nor too dull-basically, neither like a bathroom nor totally
without an echo. You can alter the room acoustics easily by install-
ing or removing carpets, curtains or furniture. Fabric covering on
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The TRUTH is capable of producing high volume levels.
You should mix your recordings at moderate levels, so
as to avoid listening fatigue and hearing impairment.
Applications
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