ANYTHING BEHRINGER - yeah it's cheap, but we all use it.

[cgarges]

The only piece of Behringer gear I own is an older Edison that I purely bought because it was stupid cheap used and it had an okay phase correlation meter on it. I don't even know if the rest of the box works.

I have to admit that I have a bit of a problem with how many times they've been sued for blatently ripping off other companies' designs.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[dino]

Although I haven?t ruled out buying more Behringer gear, I'm a little pissed at them right now... I bought one of their effects boxes, a Virtualizer something or other... I just wanted something for adding a little verb to my monitors during recording.. The thing sounded ok, better than the Peavey and Alesis boxes it replaced... and it's worked for a couple of years without a problem.. The other day I fired up my system and it was dead.....The lights were on but nobody was home... Just a horrendous hum and no audio...I took it out of the system and tested it to make sure it wasn?t something else.... Still dead... Nasty hum... No audio.... Ok so I only paid a hundred for it... I have several other cheap fx boxes some that have survived decades of bar bands and other abuse and are still working... A hundred-dollar box is NOT a good deal if it only lasts two years... Fortunately for me, it was only used in my monitor system... I can still get my work done without it... But for anyone who isn't as financially able as myself to go out and replace something, and has to depend on it as his or her only effect processor, I would be really leery of Berry stuff..Dean

[junomat]

has anyone used the mx9000 8bus mixing console?

i am thinking of upgrading my mackie 1604 to this 8 bus console.

i feel i purchased the wrong unit for my ATAT.

anyone ever use this one?

thanks,
mat

[sonariste]

the autoquad

a cheap 4 ch gate with key filters.

awesome.
They dont make it anymore, the new 4 ch gate is a different design with parametric filters and it isn't as good. A BSS design?

The autoquad shows up on ebay occasionally, and well worth the $. If you can rationalize buying into their bad business practices.

I was told by a tech for showco, that the autoquad is a direct rip or the drawmer 4 ch gate. Even the circuit board are interchangable. hmm. How can they do that and get away with it?

If I had known that I wouldn't have bought it. I hate their buisness practices (I was ingnorant to them previously). I will not buy any behringer gear anymore.

I feel slightly better about my purchase because it was used, and I helped a friend out by buying it from him. Still, they suck as a company. But I will keep my autoquad for live gating.

[lsn110]

The headphone amp is just good utility.

That and the ecm8000 measurement mics. It's no Earthworks, but I've found it useful in a couple of situations.
For $30 a pop, it's worth having at least one.

[E-cue]

Apparently there's a mod out there for the Tube Magician that makes it an 8 channel mic pre.

I can't say if that sounds like 8 channels of suck, but seeing those unit go for $160, $20 a mic pre sounds tempting no matter what.

[loosegravel]

I had one of the little mixer things and thought it was great till I got something with decent pres that weren't noisey as hell. But It was a good little board to start out on. I had the 10 channle with the 5 faders. No phase correction...

The only thing I'd trust them to do for me now would be a patchbay or a headphone amp becuase they have the cheapest, most flexible and apparently the best deal units.

[pk]

I wouldn't buy Behringer if they made guitar picks.

Not trying to be an elitist, really, but lord have mercy does their quality control just suck. I bought one of their mixers a few years ago, praised it in admiration for the bargain I got away with instead of the Wackie 1402 which was more that twice the price. I thought to myself, how can they bash this company when truly the stuff isn't all that bad. Only time would tell. Six months later, one of the faders crapped out. One month after that, the left Control Room output crapped out. Now the master faders are causing static and need constant wiggling. Needless to say, I no longer use it and I monitor directly from the 002R - no more mixer, very happy.

I have two friends who bought their 'Truth' monitors when they first came out. Oh, the joy of not having spent $1200 on Wackie 824's, while these sound just as good, mmm....that Behringer bass, yum. One of these pairs of Truths is now in the dumpster, while the other was returned for different monitors altogether. Screws loose in the cabinet, right out of the box. Loose cone hinges on the from panel. Blown out tweeter, right out of the box, etc.

My take on Behringer is that while it seems you're getting a great deal, your really only leasing the use of the equipment's healthy life, which is generally the first year, if not less. I firmly believe that no matter what they churn out from that god forsaken manufacturing plant of theirs, it's gonna crap out eventually, even if it takes a couple of years or more. Oh yes, it will, whether it's that flashy digital mixer of theirs, that Vitalizer, Compounder, or those cheapest-tubes-available 8 channel preamps and modules they sell for like $100, it's gonna die.

Wow, that sounded negative and upon reading what I typed, I feel like a monster for such an otherwise happy chap. S'ok, they deserve it.

Time for a bowl of cereal now, good night.

[BobG]

I just purchased their new HA-4700 head phone amp.
Metal is thinner than other rackmount pieces but it works well.
I have it plugged directly from AW16G headphone out to ins on 4700.
Got a lot of noise one time but then recognized I had monitor volume control on 16G up to the max.
Backed it off and made up differences on 4700 and all is well.
We get what we pay for but at least there is something to pay for in this price range! BG

[E-cue]

My take on Behringer is that while it seems you're getting a great deal, your really only leasing the use of the equipment's healthy life, which is generally the first year, if not less. I firmly believe that no matter what they churn out from that god forsaken manufacturing plant of theirs, it's gonna crap out eventually, even if it takes a couple of years or more. Oh yes, it will, whether it's that flashy digital mixer of theirs, that Vitalizer, Compounder, or those cheapest-tubes-available 8 channel preamps and modules they sell for like $100, it's gonna die.

I haven't had any such problems with my Behringer gear, most of which I've had for years. At $50 a pop used, if an Edison only lasted me a year, it would be worth it. Hell, my Desper Spatializer cost more than that to fix when it took a dump.

[Auxillary]

Ive never had a peice of behringer equipment break. I take very good care of all my gear though. Always travels in padded case or original foam padded box. I rarely move any of my gear though. Im very happy with the use of my behringer gear and length of time I've had it without any problems.

[shane]

I think pk is pitchin for my team. Last holiday season I worked for an online music gear retailer. And ANYTHING I could do to sway people from buying behringer I usually would. Sure you pay half the price, but what do you think you get for half the price? 9 year old Chinese kids putting together the ABSOLUTELY cheapest parts money can buy. I couldn't tell you how many people called up pissed cause their $60 to $200 behringer mixers crapped out inside of a month or didn't work at all when they got it. I own a power play. It works fine so far, but i'll never get a piece of behringer gear that sits between the mic and the recording destination. If you like their stuff fine, I'm not trying to argue - I'm just telling you the consensus from the retailer's point of view.

shane

[junomat]

I think pk is pitchin for my team. Last holiday season I worked for an online music gear retailer. And ANYTHING I could do to sway people from buying behringer I usually would. Sure you pay half the price, but what do you think you get for half the price? 9 year old Chinese kids putting together the ABSOLUTELY cheapest parts money can buy. I couldn't tell you how many people called up pissed cause their $60 to $200 behringer mixers crapped out inside of a month or didn't work at all when they got it. I own a power play. It works fine so far, but i'll never get a piece of behringer gear that sits between the mic and the recording destination. If you like their stuff fine, I'm not trying to argue - I'm just telling you the consensus from the retailer's point of view.

shane

so you are saying that mackie doesnt have cheap labor putting their boards together? or yamaha?

let's be honest and fair here...

[axial]

another vote for the headphone amp, and I'm thinking of getting the truth mon. and the measurement mic, and this ummm, patchbay thingy

[pk]

here's a juicy little morsel I recently found regarding Mackie.

http://board.midibuddy.net/t70720.html


FWIW, I never, ever had a problem with Behringer ripping off design schematics from Mackie or any other brand. It's one thing to rip off and spit out some quality stuff, it's another to manufacture products that just plain suck on all counts. As far as I'm concerned, when it comes to Behringer stuff in the studio, it's not how 'surprisingly good' one of their items is, it's "how long will this item be reliable for". Their shit will fail when you need it most, I guarantee it.