BILL HOLLAND: So let's take a look at the input trim. This basically contros the input source, whatever is coming in to the monitor and how loud it's going to be coming in. Now, obviously you want to have your interface as loud as it can be without causing distortion coming in to the monitor, so do that but a lot of times you may have a source that's quieter. You know, a Lexicon Omega sometimes is quieter than, say, a PreSonus FireBox so you may want to go to here and just turn up the gain a little bit. But one thing to note is that if you're dealing with something where you're getting a louder output like let's say you have a preamp hooked up or a POD or something like that, you can actually -- you want to take that trim down fairly low. Ideally, you want to work with zero first and go from there. If zero does not produce the desired result, then you can adjust but always start with zero and adjust accordingly.

This is the low frequency response filter. You'll notice it has a setting for zero, -2, -4, and -8 dB. What this does is it adapts the speaker, specifically the woofer, to any additional sub you may put on there. One thing to note is that a lot of times, you're sending a signal out, there are sub-based frequencies in there that are lower in the mix, and the woofer will try to duplicate those, but a sub is actually going to be able to accurately reproduce those in your studio, so if you have a sub you don't want your woofer trying to put out those same frequencies, so this just rolls those off a little. Then, if you'll notice there's actually a diagram here that shows what the roll-off will look like depending on how much you're cutting off.

We also have room compensation which compensates for low frequency boost due to monitor placement, so if your monitors are close to your computer, yo obviously want less low frequency which is why it will be a zero, but you can actually adjust to boost that if you need more. If your monitors are 6 feet or 10 feet away from your computer, you might want more so you can actually hear it, especially if you're doing say sound monitoring in a sound studio for either effects or film, a lot of times your monitors are going to be up on the walls, up above your head, and so what you want to do is actually add more bass frequency response than you would if you have them right here because you don't want your mix blaring right in your face when you need to be hearing those crucial highs and mids.

Now we have a high frequency filter, and what this does is it can either boost or decrease your high frequency response. This has to do with the room damping. You're trying to match your monitors to the amount of damping in the control room, which is why they give you the option either go +2 or -2, and then if you really need to bring it down that much, -4. So, you'll notice the curve is actually here, we have the boost up here and then the roll-off that occurs.

For here, if you were going to get this minor service, say something is wrong, say your woofer starts just shaking uncontrollably or the tweeter goes out. This is something that I've noticed that is a big problem a lot of people on the internet are having with this particular pair of monitors: It's that the tweeters go out at an early point, maybe six or seven months in. It's not true for everybody. Some people have had plenty success with these, but again they're Behringer. You have to be aware that those things might happen, and again the reason to apply for the warranty, register the product, and hold on to your receipt.

So, if we look at this, there's a mute switch, mute low and mute high. Really simple. Turn it on on the low, it takes the woofer out. Turn on the high, turns the high out.

Last but not least, for the switches we have power mode. Pretty simple, on and off or auto. Auto's probably what I would recommend using most of the time simply because what it does is that it sits there and says, "Okay, so is there a signal coming through? Is there a device connected?" so you know your interface powers up, you have your XLR plugged in here or your 1/4" and the interface goes, "Okay, I'm sending the signal to the monitor." Monitors come through here, monitor goes, "Oh, okay. I'm turning on," and it's on. But, it's doing a power-save-type operation the rest of the time. And if you stop using it for a period of time, if you're not sending music out say you're writing emails or writing a script or whatever, I mean you probably wouldn't be writing emails on your sound computer, but let's just theoretically say some people only have money for one computer, so during that time, monitors go into standby mode and shut down but then if you start up again they're right back up.

And finally, I'll show you what the inputs are on this. If you look, we have a balanced input, 10k-Ohm input, and an unbalanced 1/4". Again, pretty simple setup for these monitors but if you're looking for something that's pretty basic, you're trying to get your first monitors for your studio, and you think you're going to be replacing them soon, you might as well go with these because they're pretty inexpensive, easy to find, and I mean as long as you keep your receipts, again, you should be alright.

Again, I'm Bill Holland for Gearwire.Com. These are the Truth B2031A monitors for the studio from Behringer, and this has been Gearwire.Com.