Allen Monitor II vs Behringer Truth 2031a

I have a pair of Allen Monitor IIs which take up too much space in my current setup. I've researched that the Behringer 2031a is the best speaker option. Does anybody have an idea of how these would compare? Thanks!

[mdyde]

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I've never used the Allen Monitor II's, but I have a set of four Allen HC-12's. So, I'm assuming that the ones you are referencing are the ones here on Reverb below:

https://reverb.com/item/7229582-allen-o ... monitor-ii

Allen monitors tend to be pretty warm, and emphasize the bass somewhat, and have more understated highs. With a 12 inch and a 15 inch driver, and open back, I would expect the Monitor II's to be like that pretty exactly. If you don't have a subwoofer, you might not need one because of their performance. The open back limits the bass somewhat, but otherwise a 15 inch driver is more than enough for a sub.

The 2031a, however, has a tiny tweeter and an 8.75 inch woofer. There's a lot of technology inside these, to make the signal as flat as possible. That means highs will be more accurate (though that might make some mixtures screechy), and the rest of the signal pretty flat. A lot of people feel they need a sub with the 2031a's, that the bass performance by themselves isn't enough. There's are better monitors than these, but I'd say these are the cheapest you can get that will still give you acceptable organ reproduction.

If it were me, and I was missing a lot of detail in the highs, I might get two 2031's to complement the Allens. You'd probably need the two 2031a's and a sub to replace them though.

Thanks, Carlos - I appreciate the information!

Can't find much info on the Monitor II, but it looks like they are just 2 woofers and a tweeter mounted into a rectangular woorden box. I agree with larason2: I think the Behringer are a good choice within the price range.

(I think that, given speakers with a flat frequency response, screechy Mixtures are a result of room acoustics. Listening position must not be too close to reflective surfaces, a small room will be unsatisfactory).

Most people spend many 1000s of euro's/dollars on a Hauptwerk setup. Therefore, I usually recommend people to spend a bit more on the most important aspect of an organ, namely the sound quality. If possible, go for small, high quality speakers (such as Genelec) combined with a subwoofer.

Carefully consider speaker positioning: place the speakers at ear height. Create an equilateral "stereo triangle" between your listening position and the stereo pair of speakers.

Another fairly low-priced alternative is the Adam T8V. They're rear-ported, so they need to be placed at least 6 - 8 inches away from the wall or set the bass EQ to -2 dB to compensate. I've had very good sound from T8V and T7V.

A subwoofer will be needed with any of these 8" or smaller speakers, which may be a problem since you're trying to save some space.

As to squealing mixtures, don't aim the tweeters right at your ears unless they are at least 8 ft away.

Thank you for your responses! Is there any sub recommendations? Thanks.

I use an SVS cylinder sub, but it's not exactly space-friendly.

As to squealing mixtures, don't aim the tweeters right at your ears unless they are at least 8 ft away.

Actually, tweeters should be pointed at your ears (at any distance). You'll get the on-axis frequency response, and most speakers are optimized for the on-axis response. Of course, feel free to place speakers as you like, but the root cause of squealing mixtures is something else. Something could be wrong/suboptimal in (the recording of) the original, in the quality of the speakers, or in the room acoustics.

Thank you for your responses! Is there any sub recommendations? Thanks.

Most important question: do you have the means to perform EQ, or the time to learn it? The frequency response in the 16-120 Hz range is totally dominated by acoustics of the listening room, and will need to be EQ'd. Otherwise you'll just add boomy bass.

Second question: do you want to reproduce the fundamentals of 32' stops? In that case, you'll need a big sub that can go down to 16 Hz. Otherwise, a smaller sub that goes down to 32 Hz suffices.

Other characteristics of subwoofers are usually not very critical. You won't need a lot of power: you don't need to fill a stadium with rock music, and the output of any subwoofer is greatly boosted by placing the sub in a corner of the room.

Organ samples can sound terrible when the tweeters are directed at my ears. None of my 26 main speakers point directly at me. I'd much rather work out speaker placements once that make most organs sound good than try to voice all the upperwork on all the organs to not hurt my ears, or blame the samples. Just a personal convenience.

Stereo speaker placement in a triangle at ear height is good for CD playback but not necessarily the best for this, especially with multichannel audio (I literally can't fit the dozen stereo triangles at ear level in my room). Some people aim speakers at the wall or ceiling. At least consider alternatives.

Hi Philip, For a sub be sure to look over the Rythmik Audio products at www.rythmikaudio.com. They have some of the very best designs for organ use in a wide range of sizes depending on the size of your room. I can't remember if you heard my 18" model when we lived in Washington. It's overkill for anything smaller than a medium sized sanctuary but can be turned down to play great in a small room. Wonderful company still owned by the design engineer so far as I know.

The Behringer 2031A bottom out @ 50 Hz, so they do need to be supplemented with a subwoofer for 32' stops. Also, these monitors are a direct rip-off of the Genelec 1031A.

Here's a lengthy thread on Genelec 8330 vs. Behringer 2031A. further on in the thread there are comments regarding the 1031A vs. 2031A.

Hi Philip, For a sub be sure to look over the Rythmik Audio products at http://www.rythmikaudio.com. They have some of the very best designs for organ use in a wide range of sizes depending on the size of your room. I can't remember if you heard my 18" model when we lived in Washington. It's overkill for anything smaller than a medium sized sanctuary but can be turned down to play great in a small room. Wonderful company still owned by the design engineer so far as I know.

I second Rythmik. We run two of their 18" in our church.