User Reviews : Behringer MS40

1. Behringer MS40 - 1 year ago (Serbia)
Purchase year : 2007        Price paid : 130 €
If you're used to regular desktop speakers, you'll have no problems with controls. Unlike regular big nearfield monitors, there are no "room adjustment" pots, only a bass and treble pot on the right monitor's front panel. There's also a regular volume control (x2, because MS40 supports two independent inputs). That's simply great, because big nearfield monitors require outboard volume control (on a mixer, on a desk, something like Mackie Big Knob or adjustment from soundcard's software control panel). As far as bass and treble controls go, set them at 50% (recommended, knobs are made to "stick" there a bit) and forget them. Right volume (the one you use if you feed MS40 with line-out signal) gives you way too much volume for nearfield monitoring on 25%, and woofers start to excurse on cca 60% (depending on how bass-heavy the sound is, of course). Use the "Power On/ Off" a lot, because MS40s are power hogs, as all real 40watters.
Now the only problem - there are no TRS inputs. You choose between RCAs, stereo mini-jack and two digital inputs (optical and coaxial). For sure, digital inputs won't hum, and so far I haven't noticed any hum using RCAs, but - if balanced ins are your game, tough titty. No cables are included, except a power cable and a connector that sends the signal to the left speaker. I give it an 8 only because they are what they are, 10's go to Mackie nearfield monitors and such expensive units.
Again, for what they are, they get an 8, 10's belong to really expensive equipment.
Think of monitors as of a chalkboard. Monitors DO NOT (I cannot overemphasize this) sound "great". They say: "You have given me a sound X, it has such-and-such faults, it goes on the coordinate Y in the stereo spectrum." No more, no less. That's why you buy them, of course, to know what's wrong with your sound, is it hissy, is it too boomy, is it harsh, NOT to enjoy it.
MS40 do what thy are meant to do. You will hear microphone hiss, you will hear stereo separation, you will hear depth and bass (to some extent, but that is always the problem with 5-inch woofers, no matter who produces them).
They have more "crystal" than anything you can buy for 100 bucks or so, no comparison. Because their boxes are really big (and I mean big, check the specifications on Behringer homepage) thy will give you more bass than M-Audio or Roland desktop monitors. Cabinets are MDF, just as Behringer Truth cabinets, which means density, and density means good.
Note that both tweeters are on the left side of speakers - which is not ideal. Left tweeter should be on the right side of the left cabinet, and because of that you'll have to rely on your software to tell you where exactly you have placed your sound. But that doesn't bug me too much, I don't know if it will bug you.
Their strongest point is, of course, D/A conversion. I haven't tried it, because I rely on my E-MU 0404 to convert audio, but I expect MS40's converters to be more than decent. Why? First of all, good D/A converters are not that expensive. Second, they support 24bit and 192 kHz conversion, which means that they belong to newer generation of converters. Third, I know that those small Roland desktop nearfield monitors sound as good or better when their D/A converters are engaged, than when they are connected to line-out. Anyway, this feature means you don't have to have a very good soundcard - just buy a motherboard with S/PDIF outs and you'll avoid the hassle with balanced cables and expensive connectors. Record your softsynth or any MIDI in 24bit/192kHz quality, and let MS40 tell you how does your MIDI track actually sound. You'll save some money... think about it.
Well, the volume pots seem a bit fragile, but I hope that you'll buy these to take good care about them, not to use them as boomboxes. Take care of your equipment, you might want to sell it somewhere down the road.
Behringer takes good care of their customers, if you follow their policy. Read more about it on their website. I haven't had any problem with their equipment so far (USB MIDI controller, small mixer, such stuff), but I tend to be extremely "lighthanded" when I treat my gadgets. I simply want them to work as much as possible.
There's simply nothing else which can be called "active nearfield monitors" for such price. Strong points - extremely large box and woofers for the price, decent techno "thump-thump-thump ad infinitum" for 5-inch woofers, looks good and - if you don't have studio equipment - saves you from the "look at the power bill-you want HoW MuCh for those ballanced cables?-how do I turn them down?-I need new soundcard-I can't afford a headphones' amplifier!" hassle.