behringer

[rgsw]

is it true that behringer are no better than bog roll?

if so i am extremely pissed off as at school we have just spent £2k renovating our old sound system with behringers 2442A eurodesk, two B1520 200W speakers and the ep1500 amp. was this all useless s**t and will it break down in the near future?

Mind you though i was not impressed from the start as the led level panel was stuck on upside down and they say that they can't tell me how to flip it over and i have to return it to a dealer - few hundred miles away - don't even want to imagine the down time!

[OnWithTheShow]

I like behringer equipment. While it is not anywhere near the level it used to be (what is?) it is still in the top 5 audio equipment manufacturers in my book.

[rgsw]

yeah relieved to here that as i have been impressed with its price and features but NOT WITH CUSTOMER SERVICE OR DELIVERY!

[fosstech]

I'm not a fan of Behringer at all. Their gear is noisy, and it tends to be made with cheap components that will go bad. Their support is anything but stellar. They mass produce all their equipment in batches of thousands in China, and the quality control is basically nil. You'd be lucky to not have at least one product dead out of the box.

Bottom line, you get what you pay for in most cases. Behringer isn't an exception. A better board choice would have been a Mackie SR24-4VLZ-PRO, an A&H PA28, or a Soundcraft (not cheap!) LX7. Your best bet in terms of price would be the Mackie, but if you are in Europe (which it looks like you are), it really is a dead heat between the two brands. I have a preference toward Mackie because I like the layout and build quality of their mixers. Their active speakers sound fantastic, also.

[DMXtools]

Behringer gear is good if you're on a really tight budget. It generally offers a lot of features for a relatively low price.

But to achieve that low price, they cut corners. Their quality control is suspect and service, when you can get it, is slow.

I have a couple of their compressors and a reverb. They work, but there's not a lot of headroom on the compressors - the limiters are too hard (more like clippers). The controls on the reverb aren't very intuitive and the owner's manual seems like it was written by somebody who must really hate sound people.

Bottom line - if it's all you can afford, you can learn to live with or work around the gear's limitations, but if you can afford better, go for it.

John

[halojen]

early last year we got a Ringer MX3242X for school.
i left at the end of the year but while i was there we had no problem with hiss or noise that i can remember. it did most things we wanted it to.
the only problem was that it would occasionally stop working and teh lights would do crazy things. but that was a known problem with the power supply and they replaced teh PSU for free.

my mate has Ringer UB1204FX-PRO hooked up between his computer and his amp to the speakers. and with that everyday use it has not failed him in all of the year or so that he has had it. the only problem is that the digital FX module is really hissy. but he got it for cheap so he just gets over it.

having said all that, we would have got a spirit if we could afford it.
and on allen and heith, well ive never used one but i heard of poeple that call them allen and hiss...

[RelativeMischief]

As to Behringer, I'll repeat whats already been said: you get what you pay for. They make a great cable tester though.

To the A&H sounding hissy, I think the person you heard from either had a problem with his board, didn't know what an signal to noise ratio was, or had recently eaten a hallucigen. I've had nothing but good experiences from A&H.

[blsmn]

Allen & Heath's hissy? I've had A&H consoles for 6 years now - started with a 16 channel MixWiz, went to a 24 channel GL2200, and just last week got a 32 channel GL4000 and never once have I encountered any hiss. Of course, that is assuming all channel gain structures are properly set as well as any outboard gear. A $100,000 Midas console can have hiss if used with improper gain structure and crappy outboard gear.

I am also not a huge fan of Behringer for the same reasons already given - but as already also stated, you do what you can with what you can afford. Make sure you have the correct channel gain structure set up, use decent EQ's, compressors, effects units and crossovers/system controllers with the right cabling, and it should work OK - providing the amps and speakers are also of good quality and you have an isolated AC power source for the system. See where I'm going here? It's not a given that a higher priced console will make your system sound better or that a lower priced unit will make it sound worse. Putting the blame for hiss solely on a sound console is just plain misguided.

[dj_illusions]

I have a behringer mixer and a 32 channel eq that I use on small PA systems and party rigs and whatever else, just to give an overall eq and whatever.

I have never had any problems with behringer equipment, as everyone has said you get what you pay for, and for value for money the behringer gear isnt bad.

I would recommend it if you are on a tight budget...

[PATech]

Behringer gear isn't that bad. In my school theater we have a digital processing unit from Behringer. It does what it's supposed to. It EQ's and delays the balcony fills. I also keep a measurement mic permanently patched into it and it makes a fine real time analyzer. Is it top notch? No. Is it cheap? Yes. Does it work for those who are on a budget? Yes.

That having been said, I've worked with several Berhinger mixers that have infuriated me. They've all been small (a 12 and a 16 channel if I remember correctly). Unfortunately they've been plagued with crosstalk at higher levels. And yes the gain structure was solid. As far as reliability goes, I haven't worked enough with the Behringer mixers to experience any real problems. I've had a Mackie 1604 give up the ghost on me when its power supply died unexpectedly during an open dress rehearsal (that incident proved which actors were using the body mics as a crutch), but never anything with the Behringers. My personal favorite mixers are the two Crest Audio X-rack 20's we have in my school's mainstage theater. They're rock solid and they sound great. That's all I have to say on Behringer.