Behringer

POB

POB

Inspired
I've always tried to avoid slating Behringer gear, some of it is quite good and on the face of it it's very good value for money but for the last year it has been hell working with their equipment. I'm fortunate enough to own an electronics company and can work to component level and perform my own repairs. I accept at the Behringer price point they have to cut corners but I would expect the stuff to be designed properly and at least work beyond its warranty. This is this year's actual roll of shame:

DDX3216 Digital Console - failed power supply and processor board, now obsolete. I now have 3 of these desks, 2 I cannibalize just to keep just one going.
Ultra Curve 2496 - Great unit, I own 3 all of which suffered temperature related crashes. Finally fixed by adding heatsinks to the DSP chips.
Reverb 2496 - Great unit, same problem.
Tube Ultra Series rack gear, 4 units - All vintage style metering lamps blown or intermittent - not repairable
Xenyx Mixer - Pulled that out before Christmas for a one-off gig. Dead power supply.
B1 Condenser Mic - Nice mic but I'm convinced the output is out of phase with everything else I use.
X V-Amp - Practice pedal or was, now dead.
Ultra Gain Mic2200 - intermittent output.
People asking me to fix stuff their - I've lost count.

Caveat Emptor.
 
Their only thing with positive long time experience (, my own and from others) is the FCB1010 midi footcontroller. Occasional lemons aside, you don't get punished buying cheap on that one.
I stay away from everything else they sell ;)
 
I was thinking of trying their 'Truth' powered nearfield studio monitors .... their 8.75 inch woofer ones cost per pair are about the cost of a single 6 inch monitor from the other manufacturers. Anyone got these? Did they blow up?
 
That's the sad thing, it's not all bad just a bit of a lottery. The DEQ2496 is a great bit of kit when it works and the DDX3216 digital console was mind blowing for under £500, close but no cigar.
 
I just got a pair of Truth B2031A and have to say i am really amazed. A really great, warm and deep sound.
 
Many things I had have worked great, others have been a bust.I had the truth B2031A monitors for years now, they have been great. Way better/reliable than the Alesis monitors I had before. 2496 has worked great for me, no problems there
virtualizer multi-fx has work great. small 4ch Xenex mixers has worked great.

2 ultra link pros - works great but ppots need to be cleaned regularly
same with fpq ultragraph pro

ultragain pro A/D/A converter works great.

fcb101 was good until I sold it
the bcf2000 worked great when I owned it. Slow on getting updates for it though.

powerplay pro 8 headphone distribution amp works great

The vamp is just a piece of aliasing crap
tube mic preamp, output failed. sounded like crap before that
Xenex 32 chanel board - on of the dsp effect does not work (plus went through 4 of them before - all had various issues )- when we replaced it with a presonus 24.4.2, we realized how better the presonus preamps sounded.
we have a 15" sub and 2 15" passive monitors - we only use them in emergencies. We already blew one tweeter.



The new X32 digital mixers look and sound great. But for that kind of money, I'll wait and see what issues people are having a year from now.
 
X32 is a new paradigm for the company. Behringer has gone through many changes over the years (I was GM and ordered product for the store when they first appeared, many namm shows and meetings with them, etc.).

The truth monitors are hit and miss depending where you will end up using them. They don't shield some of the components correctly so RF and other interference can easily get through. It was a major problem for most of my customers and we stopped carrying them. Otherwise they actually sound good.
 
I just don't understand this kind of business philosophy, build cheep stuff that a mass market will spend hard earned money on and then the end consumer has to spend more of their hard earned money fixing it or even worse chuck it into a land fill.

Just spend the extra money and do it right the first time and compete with the others instead of trying to to under cut everyone at the risk of reputation
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Sixstring said:
I just don't understand this kind of business philosophy, build cheep stuff that a mass market will spend hard earned money on and then the end consumer has to spend more of their hard earned money fixing it or even worse chuck it into a land fill.

Just spend the extra money and do it right the first time and compete with the others instead of trying to to under cut everyone at the risk of reputation
joint2.gif
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What's not to understand? It's human nature... I've owned some GREAT B*ringer gear - still have some - tho' as mentioned it does tend to be hit-or-miss. Consumers are basically "idiots". I've lost count of the times I've seen folks post on music-related forums about "what should I buy" and being told to "buy once, cry once", yet they'll STILL go and buy "intro" or MI level gear and moan profusely when it fails!

Based on my experiences, that decision is mostly due to budget and "I need it now" and the instant-gratification society we have become. B*ringer fills a niche, as do other vendors such as L6, Peavey, Kuston, Nady and... so on.
It's a tough sell... why spend $700+ on a decent guitar wireless rig when you can get one for under $250? If you've never been down that path, how do you know when friends - who've used entry level gear and never progressed further - are telling you its OK.

Had this happen to the last band I was in. They didn't want to RENT my PA as I refuse to use my $25,000 PA for free. Leader had a budget, but liked Peavey from prior use. I recommended the best system he could get for the $$. He contacted a friend of his who said his choice was fine, so he went and bought a Peavey/Behringer rig, and I'm not talking top of the line from either BTW - like PV118 subs!! Entry level gear. He will be replacing it before long when the B*ringer mixer and monitors fail... QED !!
 
My friend just got the X32 board and it's friggin sweet. I'm extremely leary of Behringer, but that board seems pretty amazing. We'll see how long it lasts.
 
I have a FCB1010 that I don't use anymore, but it's a super solid piece of gear. I also have a Behringer B1 microphone that I've always been happy with and a while back I bought a pair of Behringer 3031A monitors that sound absolutely awesome. My power amp on my big rig is a Behringer EPX2000 that has never given me a bit of trouble.

I know some people don't like some of Behringer's products. Hell, I used to be a Digitech fan, but I hated their 1101 big time. Point is, no one's going to like or have good experiences with all the products a company puts out if they put out a lot of different products like Behringer does. What it comes down to is, read lots of reviews before you buy anything. Behringer puts out some really great products at awesome prices that are totally worth owning. For the less than stellar products, you can avoid those by just doing your research before purchase.
 
I have the new X32 and I must say...........this thing will change your mind about Behringer. Just my 2 cents, YMMV.
 
As Javajunkie said: I had and used some Behringer device and some of them works very fine while others.....
I was looking at the X32 when it appeared on the market but I haven't tried it yet
 
I have a little 8 channel mixer
I used to use it to connect a pair of 2120's to my Marshall poweramp [so I have an actaive and standby unit live]

it sounded ok [just a little noisy, but for live purposes was absolutely fine]
toured it silly and it never failed
after something like 10 years, it got a bit scabby [a couple of knobs got snapped off, got dented - just the result of years on the road] so I replaced it...

it met all of my requirements and I have to say proved to be pretty rugged
 
My experience with Behringer kit is also patchy - some good, some not so great

A line mixer appeared poorly balanced left to right, but worked ok. A feedback destroyer would need a significant input level before the left channel would kick into life (don't ever recall the actual purpose of the unit actually being that good either)

We have two little 10" 200w powered speakers as bit of additional / side monitoring - they seem to work ok, but only trusted to a non-critical application really
 
s0c9 said:
What's not to understand? It's human nature... I've owned some GREAT B*ringer gear - still have some - tho' as mentioned it does tend to be hit-or-miss. Consumers are basically "idiots". I've lost count of the times I've seen folks post on music-related forums about "what should I buy" and being told to "buy once, cry once", yet they'll STILL go and buy "intro" or MI level gear and moan profusely when it fails!

Based on my experiences, that decision is mostly due to budget and "I need it now" and the instant-gratification society we have become. B*ringer fills a niche, as do other vendors such as L6, Peavey, Kuston, Nady and... so on.
It's a tough sell... why spend $700+ on a decent guitar wireless rig when you can get one for under $250? If you've never been down that path, how do you know when friends - who've used entry level gear and never progressed further - are telling you its OK.

Had this happen to the last band I was in. They didn't want to RENT my PA as I refuse to use my $25,000 PA for free. Leader had a budget, but liked Peavey from prior use. I recommended the best system he could get for the $$. He contacted a friend of his who said his choice was fine, so he went and bought a Peavey/Behringer rig, and I'm not talking top of the line from either BTW - like PV118 subs!! Entry level gear. He will be replacing it before long when the B*ringer mixer and monitors fail... QED !!
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My point is that it's a waked business model. I won't buy it never have never will as long as they continue to run it the way they do. I understand your POV but it's not mine and there is other budget conscious gear out there that holds up better without the fear of will it work or not, You own PA gear you known what I'm talking about.
 
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