new PA speakers not clear bass tone

[Disease8]

I just bought some behringer b212d 500 watt speakers and I am not happy with the bass tone. it is not clear and well defined but seems more distorted than I would have thought. I only wonder if they are defective or its just because they are behringer. i have always been quite satisfied with behringer products and was expecting them to be clear also reviews of them do not mention this and seem to point to the opposite that they handle bass really well with no distortion at eve loud levels. I wonder if they need to be broken in more before they will accurately recreate bass tones a specially at loud volumes. I worry because they were a display copy which I didn't get a discount for and wonder if its worth just returning them for a factory pair to be sure or just play through them for a while before making a desicion?
I am very picky and have returned many things before and found that my gut instinct usually to be correct even with some cheap products you expect a certain level of quality...
Thank you,
Dom.

 

[gecko zzed]

It's worth your while checking what is being fed into the speakers. What is your music source, and what is the path from source to speaker?

You also need to take care with the speaker's XLR input; it serves dual roles, taking line level as well as mike level. If you have the speaker's gain knob turned clockwise from the 12 o'clock position, you get too much gain for a line level input.

 

[Front End Audio]

What is your sound source, and how do you have it hooked up to the PA? Which jacks are you plugged into on the Behringer PA. Have you set the knobs appropriately? Is the clipping LED lighting up?

I hope this helps,
Damian

 

[Disease8]

Balanced line level into XLR inputs. Gain knobs only 1/4 up. I'm just going to return them I THINK. Should try line inputs to bypass impedance matching. Their not clipping...

 

[gecko zzed]

Balanced line level into XLR inputs. Gain knobs only 1/4 up. I'm just going to return them I THINK. Should try line inputs to bypass impedance matching. Their not clipping...

Gain knobs on what? Speakers or mixer? Or are you using a mixer? What is the source of the material? Are you confident that the signal is clean before it gets to the speakers? Because the indicators are not clipping may not mean much if the initial signal is not matched to whatever input you are using. Are you referring to clipping indicators on speakers or on desk (or somewhere else)?

 

[Disease8]

Balanced line level out of my sound card (Alesis io26) into the XLR input of the Behringer B212D, the gain knob on the back of the speaker was only up 1/4, 9 o'clock.

I used the speakes again last night as monitors for The Popes (front man used to be in The Poges). It was a rehearsal and I recorded it too, I used my mixing desk to route the outputs from my Alesis IO 26 to the Behringer's through the mixers Aux outs so I used to long unbalanced jack to jacks. The sound was much different, the bass clear. I found this before when plugging line level into mic inputs. But the impedance matching XLR inputs on the back of the Behringer B212D's should be able to handle line inputs right? Maybe because they were balanced before it thought the were mic level inputs? I don't know but its a shame if I can't use XLR's to feed the speakers and have to bypass with jacks every time.
I was very please with the speakers and so were the band, not perfect (had a little hiss with no signal? And seemed to limit or compress when the acoustic guitarist hit a really loud chord?).. But for the price they are a very loud weighty pair of speakers and when they played right they certainly sounded crisp, clear and loud. Still concerned about the problems but I'm sure I'll work around them.
Thanks for your help hope you can explain why the XLR inputs were not able to handle line level inputs when they say they should be able to....
Cheers, Dom.

 

[gecko zzed]

Balanced line level out of my sound card (Alesis io26) into the XLR input of the Behringer B212D, the gain knob on the back of the speaker was only up 1/4, 9 o'clock.

I used the speakes again last night as monitors for The Popes (front man used to be in The Poges). It was a rehearsal and I recorded it too, I used my mixing desk to route the outputs from my Alesis IO 26 to the Behringer's through the mixers Aux outs so I used to long unbalanced jack to jacks. The sound was much different, the bass clear. I found this before when plugging line level into mic inputs. But the impedance matching XLR inputs on the back of the Behringer B212D's should be able to handle line inputs right? Maybe because they were balanced before it thought the were mic level inputs? I don't know but its a shame if I can't use XLR's to feed the speakers and have to bypass with jacks every time.
I was very please with the speakers and so were the band, not perfect (had a little hiss with no signal? And seemed to limit or compress when the acoustic guitarist hit a really loud chord?).. But for the price they are a very loud weighty pair of speakers and when they played right they certainly sounded crisp, clear and loud. Still concerned about the problems but I'm sure I'll work around them.
Thanks for your help hope you can explain why the XLR inputs were not able to handle line level inputs when they say they should be able to....
Cheers, Dom.

Here is a pic of the back panel of the B212D.
http://www.behringer.com/EN/images/photos/B208D_B210D_B212D_B215D_fig1_web.png

You will note that the top left knob is graduated from line on the left to mic on the right. In the picture it the knob is pointed at 12 oclock. The settings they show in the pic are the ones that you should start with.

I don't know why (even at a reduced level setting on the B212D) you don't get a clean clear signal from the Alesis via balanced XLR, yet you can get one with unbalanced jack to jacks.

As an experiment, try going from the main XLR outs on your mixer to those speakers and see if the same problem occurs. Let me know what happens. We'll take it from there.

However, line level signals are more robust than mike level, so if jack-to-jack works and XLR doesn't, you are unlikely to suffer any grief.