I do think Uli Behringer is genuine in wanting to
build a lasting company of quality. Convincing audio pros will take a long time. I'd personally want the x32 to be out on the
road for a couple of years before I could consider buying one.
I agree and I think that for many of those people there is definitely a less than stellar legacy to overcome as well as addressing production, marketing, sales and distribution processes that originated to serve the entry
level MI market.
Although not the only manufacturer with such issues, I think you still see vestiges of the latter in Behringer seeming to have difficulty getting products out in a timely manner, ala the X32, S16 and now the ELX series speakers. I understand wanting to create a market in
advance of a product
release but sound providers, consultants, contractors,
etc. have to make commitments in
advance and then live up to those commitments, thus they will support manufacturers that can do the same and avoid those who don't.
A 'to be seen' factor is continuing development and support. The long term viability of firmware and software based products can be very dependent on ongoing development and support and realistically, a lower cost, lower margin product can only justify continued development and support as long as the quantity of units being sold can support the associated costs. This has seemed to kill some otherwise promising products in the past and thus I will be interested to see how this works out for many of the newer, lower cost product offerings.
The same '
return on continued investment' factor also applies to hardware as manufacturers of chips, converters,
etc. often find it increasingly difficult to justify continuing to manufacture components if they have a limited and decreasing market. And while bringing the component manufacturing in-house gives you much greater control, for example continuing a component production long after it might otherwise be financially justified, it also means having to support any component production off just your own sales. That is likely also one reason why it has been hinted that the X32 is just the first, and the flagship, of a series of products to be based around the same core hardware, firmware and software.
I believe the overall challenge is that of taking the advantages that may be derived from a commodity product approach and applying them to more professional products. Others have tried with mixed and often less than stellar results. I do think Behringer is in a unique position, is working on the related issues and has a good start with the X32, but bluntly, there were a lot of issues to
address and some of them will require some time before the results can be judged.