Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Behringer Eurolive B212A PA Speakers - Even I could afford them

I wasn't sure what to talk about today but I found the answer staring me right in the face, literally. The Behringer Eurolive B212A avtive (self-powered) PA speakers.

I bought these speakers last year from Musician's Friend while attending school and have loved them everyday since then.

Here's my experience.

I researched a few products in a price range of under $300. Here are a few items I considered:

Nady PCS-12 Powered 12" 2-Way Speaker Enclosure



Alesis Transactive Mobile Roller PA With iPod Dock Black



Mackie SRM350 2-Way Active PA Speaker



The reason I went with the Behringer Eurolive series is becuase they had good reviews for the most part. Usually the bad reviews were from customers who were just unlucky and got a dud. That happens with every brand no matter what the price range is so I didn't pay too much attention. Still, you can't expect affordable low-end products to perform like the high end equipment.

Another deciding factor was that I could buy a Behringer PA package deal that had these speakers in it, also inside were 2 mics, 4 XLR cables, 2 speaker stands, and the UB1832FX mixing board.

Behringer UB1832FX / B212A PA Package $599.99 USD

Behringer UB1832FX / B212A PA Package


I unfortunately Mackie did not offer a package deal as good as Behringer did so I researched some more about products that came in the package deal:
  • Behringer Eurorack UB1832FX-PRO Mixer
  • Behringer XM8500 Microphones (x2)
4 - 20" XLR cables and 2 speaker stands came in the package too but I didn't look very hard into these items because I already had cables so these were extras. From the pictures the speaker stands looked good enough.

So I ordered this package using Musician's Friend online shopping cart. Everything went through perfectly and a few days later I got the tracking numbers for my packages. I sort of picked a bad time to order because they were right in the middle of changing to a new warehouse and a few items in my order were shipped individually. That wasn't so good because I live in Canada and as so am subject to paying customs each time a package makes it to the border. I was a little upset and phoned up Musician's Friend with my complaint. I spoke with a very friendly woman who got everything sorted out and they even paid the shipping on the few items in my order that still weren't shipping at the time. Talk about awesome customer service! Great to deal with.

I should note that I did not just buy the Behringer PA package, I also bought a pre-amp, 2 50" XLR cables, a condenser mic, a USB sound card, and a pop filter. But this article is about my Eurolive speakers.

Okay, I'm now staring at all of my brand new sound equipment. I'm so excited, yet fearing that I might be another "dud" victim receiving a defective product. I carefully opened the boxes and set up my new equipment; plugged it into my laptop, and loaded Cubase. Wow, everything sounds so awesome! So full and rich. Thick low ends and bright highs. They're also extremely loud, 400watts loud, my god! These speakers sound fantasic. All of my music that I have been making and listening to on my Labtec computer speakers suddenly sounded so much better. The real test was when I used these speakers to DJ a Pizza Hut staff party. I set up these speakers in a mid-sized hall which held up to about 150 people. I used the stands that came with the Behringer PA package. By the way, the stands are sturdy, lightweight, and good quality. I put the speakers at about head level and started pumping the music. The hall was filled with with the sounds of deep resonating bass and the screams of a lot of happy people hearing their favorite song. The night went on smoothly and I had a lot of compliments by the end. The first and biggest test was a success.

So a year later and I mainly use these speakers for mixing and mastering my music as well regular music listening. I would say they are on for about 8 hours a day, everyday. No problems at all yet. I would totally buy these speakers again. If I had more money I'd probably look into a higher end brand but for now I couldn't ask for more than I got with the Behringer Eurolive B212A speakers. A very good buy.

Behringer EUROLIVE B212A Active Loudspeaker

1 comment:

Unknown said...

when i bought my house i wanted to listen loud music, costa rica investment opportunities helped me to decide buy a house there, now i am doing parties all the time, i love my speakers.

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