behringer quality - what's your opinion

[biczmusic]

Hi all.

As we all know behringer sells cheap stuff.
You all know that there is always similar product from behringer for a fraction of the price.

If you sit in a professional studio with tones of work to do coming from every corner - you're loaded
In that case you should and you do buy professional, expensive gear.
But having little home studio where you work only on your projects you count every penny - at least I do.
For me behringer sometimes is the only option.

But maybe it's not that bad

So... what do you think about quality?
Is it worth considering behringer gear?
Or maybe there is other also cheap option?

I know, I know...
There are things which you can not safe pounds on.
(I think mics, preamps)

But other stuff - graphic eq, fx processors, mixers...

What's your opinion?

Thanks a lot!

[Arpangel]

See my thread about compression, the Composer is a good piece of kit at any money, so are the effects units, like the Virtulaizer PRO. But their mixers are on the whole complete unadulterated crap, I had one that sounded good, it was fantastic, I was given a Eurorack 1602, one of the first ones made, it must have been the opposite of of a "Friday afternoon job" but one day it just stopped working ! But I wouldn't go anywhere near their mixers normally, they have a horrible, tacky harsh top end that makes you want to run screaming, besides for not much more cash there are plenty of good alternatives.

Tony.

[Rousseau]

The ADA8000 is a great bit of kit for the money. You'd be surprised at who uses them

Cheers

[Arpangel]

The ADA8000 is a great bit of kit for the money. You'd be surprised at who uses them

Cheers

You naughty thing you ! it actually looks very, very useful, is it cheap ? know what I mean ?

Tony.

[Tomadvent]

There is an amount of snobbery around about Behringer - they have changed the bottom of the market in ways that were unimaginable and made gear accessible to a whole range of project studio users. However there are some products which leap-frog out their intended market into being genuine contenders for excellence. Virtualiser Pro is one example, but a more recent one is the Sonic Exciter - the bass processor feature is musical - it the real deal for creativity and different sounds - haven't really come across anything equivalent and for peanuts too. See
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan08/a ... su9920.htm

[Arpangel]

There is an amount of snobbery around about Behringer - they have changed the bottom of the market in ways that were unimaginable and made gear accessible to a whole range of project studio users. However there are some products which leap-frog out their intended market into being genuine contenders for excellence. Virtualiser Pro is one example, but a more recent one is the Sonic Exciter - the bass processor feature is musical - it the real deal for creativity and different sounds - haven't really come across anything equivalent and for peanuts too. See
<a href="/sos/jan08/articles/behringersx3040su9920.htm" target="_blank">http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan08/a ... 920.htm</a>

I picked-up a Virtualizer Pro for £73 new recently, for that kind of money the quality is astounding.

Tony.

[Parker Fly]

So... what do you think about quality?
Is it worth considering behringer gear?
Or maybe there is other also cheap option?

I've seen/used loads, and there are several items that are very good and at least as good as their respective opposition.

1. ADA8000, as someone else has already pointed out.
2. DDX3126, as pointed out by Paul White.
3. DCX2496, just bought one and it's superb.

[Paul Soundscape]

for the money its good,
its just reliability, and the fact that when it breaks its thrown away not repaired.

[Daniel Drummond]

Their multiple headphone amplifiers are very good and some preamps like the vx2496 are quite acceptable, and a bargain for the price.

[The Elf]

I use:
HA4700 4-channel heaphone amp
DI4000 4-channel DI
2 x ADA8000 ADAT interfaces
...and I'm seriously considering an MDX2600 from what I've heard about it.

The Behringer gear I use all seems perfectly acceptable, though one HA4700 gave up the ghost after 2 or three uses. I've no reason to complain for the price and I've no complaints about sound quality. I'd echo the comments about the Behringer mixers though; I've had limited experience of them, but the EQ is awfully crunchy and there's something in the sound that feels 'thinned-out' in some way.

[MsM]

AFAIK that company now (extensively?) uses others' designs, without regards to intellectual property rights. One example I've seen is a cable tester, where the difference from the Swiss company's design was the color scheme for the paint on the unit. Does anybody have more specific information on this?

I prefer not to buy bootlegs, and I'm still of the opinion that one should pay for music.

[Arpangel]

I prefer not to buy bootlegs, and I'm still of the opinion that one should pay for music.

So am I, but in this age of MP3 downloads thats why I'm sitting here penniless. People expect it for free these days, it's the norm unfortunately. Besides, music has also become a throwaway commodity, its regarded as "art" by very few people.

Tony.

[The Bunk]

AFAIK that company now (extensively?) uses others' designs, without regards to intellectual property rights. One example I've seen is a cable tester, where the difference from the Swiss company's design was the color scheme for the paint on the unit. Does anybody have more specific information on this?

I have heard a similar story from a store where I was buying an...ahem...Behringer compressor. Apparently, allegedly etc etc there was a court case where one of their bits of kit was actually stripped down in the court and was found to be almost identical to the same item of kit as another manufacturer. Having said that, the compressor I've bought has been absolutley fine.

[snipsnip]

i once got a mono eq from the same range as the composer etc and it sounded unbelievably terrible. It seemed to degrate the signal quality even when set at 0.

ive used those composers and they are ok, but I would opt for a decent plug given the chance.

[Arpangel]

i once got a mono eq from the same range as the composer etc and it sounded unbelievably terrible. It seemed to degrate the signal quality even when set at 0.

ive used those composers and they are ok, but I would opt for a decent plug given the chance.

You must never set them at 0, they always sound terrible on that setting. They always sound best on maximum boost at all frequencies !

Tony.

[snipsnip]

Ahhhhh, Learn something new every day.

[Paul Soundscape]

the DI boxes just hiss loads if you use the pad on some of them.
ada8000's are good though.

[duffycolm]

Got the BCR2000 MIDI controller there recently. Does what I want it to do so i'm well happy

[Richie Royale]

Used to use my composer, but it's sat unused for a while. But it does have a usable gate and it does compress as it says on the box! Not really used recently to confirm how well it does the job.

I also have one their Eurorack mixers for some effects returns and other sundries that don't get used much but I dont want to re-plug all the time and it's reasonably quiet (though there is some noticable noise) but the EQ just doesn't really do much, cut or boost. It was approx £120 5/6 years ago for 12 channels. Can't complain at that price.

[grab]

+1 on the DDX3216. It has to be said that the mic preamps aren't very good - although they're comparable to other low-end mixers, they're not great per se. But if you're using line-in, that's not such an issue. And if you use ADAT inputs from a better-quality preamp, there really isn't anywhere else that the DDX3216 can lose you signal quality. (OK, there's the DAC, but realistically the accuracy of a 24-bit DAC is going to be well outside audible range.)

The DEQ2496 is also a useful bit of kit - combined EQ, RTA and compressor/gate/limiter.

As for alternatives - Alesis, Samson and dbx all have various stuff in the same ballpark. And for mics, there's any number of cheap alternatives.

[Parker Fly]

Alesis, Samson and dbx all have various stuff in the same ballpark.

Off topic slightly, but, I use the Samson S.Com 4 compressor with the Samson C-Valve tube pre-amps, in place of the pre's on the DDX3216, and they do an excellent job. The Samson kit always feels well-made, and that's half the battle sometimes.

[. . . Delete This User . . .]

See my thread about compression, the Composer is a good piece of kit at any money, so are the effects units, like the Virtulaizer PRO.
Tony.

i'd agree that the MDX2600 Composer has it's uses, that tube emulation thingy works quite well with electric guitar.... quite apart from any comment on the signal quality, and the actual effects, my issue with every piece of Behringer outboard i've tried , is that the power supplies buzz.. to varying degrees.... it's not an issue perhaps for those not sitting with it only a few feet from their right ear, or for those whose room noise floors are significant... but the majority of rooms i work in are virtually silent , apart from the music/spoken word/noise that's actually supposed to be coming out of the monitors....

so i find their contribution to the environment particularly irritating.

[Guy Johnson]

I've found their DI boxes, the new(ish) feedback suppressors, headphone amp/mixer and four-way compressor fine. They do the job. DIs can be a bit noisy, as mentioned

[Kingbenlucas]

the virtualizer pro is an awful bit of gear, unless you want everything to sound like hiss

[Rabid47]

for the money its good,
its just reliability, and the fact that when it breaks its thrown away not repaired.

A tale of woe : I live in East Kent. (no, that's not it....). I decided to go for a Composer Pro compressor and the nearest retailer was central London. I done ALL my money getting to London by train, buying the goods, and getting back home. Plugged it in, switched on, horrendous crackle from the gain pot on the right channel. No money left to return goods by post or train so I thought I'd have a go at re-soldering the pot myself. As I slid the guts of the unit out of the case, various spring-mounted switches started flying all over the place, never to be seen again. The On/Off button disappeared into the inside of the unit and could'nt be retrieved and the pots are'nt positioned for amatuer repairs anyway. So now I've got a stereo Composer Pro that only works in mono, a huge mains-powered hole in the case that fits my 3 year old nephews fingers like a glove, an invalid guarantee certificate cos' I attempted my own repairs and a goddam' migraine from the stress.

I would seriously consider necrophilia before ever considering Behringer products again.