Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

For everything after the recording stage: hardware/software and how you use it.

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by sc1460 »

Well I couldnt wait to track down one Mixcube (only pairs) so I ordered x1 C50a for a bargain price. REVELATION. So thats why producers used auratones and NS10s - but how could they listen to them for any length of time?

Basically my first reaction to putting on a track I was mixing was "it will burn out my ears" - basically if you've overcooked your mid-range it will tell you in no uncertain terms. Mixes that sounded clear on my near-fields sounded messy on the C5a. But it was nice to hear my carefully layered kick drums cut through.

I cant believe I have done without a full range speaker for so long! Frankly if yr mixing for the iTunes generation, this is way more useful than a nearfield. But after 15 minutes my ears had had enough exposure I had to turn back to the lush sound of the nearfields!

I listened to commercial tracks - N-Dubz Against All Odds sounded harsh and bright; Adele sounded good but her voice sounded over EQed; Katie Perry TGIF - hardly any bass whatsoever, voice cut through it is so BRIGHT! Clearly some people arent checking their mixes with a grotbox enough? ;-) Its not LOUDNESS thats now the problem in pop, its brightness - all these songs were mixed way too bright for me.

And it was Mike Senior that got me to take notice of full range speakers - thanks Mike!

Well recommended and for the price of a single speaker that is less than 2 petrol refills in a saloon.
sc1460
Regular
Posts: 170 Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2001 12:00 am

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by Raynorshyn »

Well... I am still liking the mono mixcube. It does tell me things nothing else I have will.

But I'm a little concerned or nitpicky, over what may be nothing... but it seems like the middle button (waveguide?) of the speaker cone is glued on askew and pointing slightly left. Is this going to make a noticeable difference in their accuracy and reproduction?

Thanks
Raynorshyn
Poster
Posts: 26 Joined: Sun Apr 01, 2007 12:00 am

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by Mike Senior »

Had a suspiciously high level of background noise coming from my C5A yesterday evening. Seems alright this morning, but I'm looking at it askance. It's been up and running for the last couple of months without problems, and I'd be disappointed if it went down. Anyone had any reliability problems with theirs at all so far?
User avatar
Mike Senior
Frequent Poster
Posts: 1085 Joined: Fri Aug 08, 2003 12:00 am Location: Cambridge, UK

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by phybeau »

Mike Senior wrote:.... Anyone had any reliability problems with theirs at all so far?

I've one C50A running for two months now, without any problems so far.
Took a while getting used to, but I like it better every time.

Regards,
Phybeau
User avatar
phybeau
New here
Posts: 4 Joined: Thu May 20, 2010 12:00 am

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by Mike Senior »

Typical.

You wait weeks for a single C50 to turn up, and then two get delivered within a few hours of each other. Still, at least I can get on with reviewing them properly now...

Looks like the noise problem with the C5A might have been a dodgy cable.
User avatar
Mike Senior
Frequent Poster
Posts: 1085 Joined: Fri Aug 08, 2003 12:00 am Location: Cambridge, UK

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by Freuman »

Mike Senior wrote:Looks like the noise problem with the C5A might have been a dodgy cable.

Great! This was the one thing holding me back. I'll be interested in the comparison between the two models now.
User avatar
Freuman
Regular
Posts: 417 Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2008 12:00 am Location: Southend-On-Sea, Essex, UK
11011110110010101111 - 110000001111111111101110 - 101110101101 Hexadecimal binary coding anyone?

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by Shambolic Charm »

....worth noting that thomann are doing the Behris in pairs for not much more than a single one over here
User avatar
Shambolic Charm
Frequent Poster
Posts: 671 Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:00 am

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by timoc »

Mike Senior wrote:Typical.

You wait weeks for a single C50 to turn up, and then two get delivered within a few hours of each other. Still, at least I can get on with reviewing them properly now...

Looks like the noise problem with the C5A might have been a dodgy cable.

Looking forward to that review!
User avatar
timoc
Regular
Posts: 100 Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2007 12:00 am Location: Antwerp, Belgium

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by sambrox »

For my Danish friends :

I've bugged 4Sound (Aage) the last few weeks, and they've finally ordered a batch of C50s. København get them tomorrow and they can be bought singularly for 649,- DKK. They're apparently up on their website; vare nr. 7044
User avatar
sambrox
Regular
Posts: 232 Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 12:00 am Location: Denmark

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by timoc »

You know, as far as I can tell, it still is not possible to buy the Avantone active mixcubes as single units here on the mainland Europe websites (the two big German ones don't do it).
User avatar
timoc
Regular
Posts: 100 Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2007 12:00 am Location: Antwerp, Belgium

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by sambrox »

I've had so much trouble locating a single Avantone that I've bought a Behringer C50a instead. So far I'm very pleased with the results. Having had no experience with the Avantone, I can't compare build quality, but the Behringer does exactly what I need it to without any trouble (so far!).
User avatar
sambrox
Regular
Posts: 232 Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 12:00 am Location: Denmark

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by SafeandSound Mastering »

I cannot help but think the Behringer is overpriced for what it is.

£250.00 (I think this is a single as well at Studiospares) for a 5 inch driver, 30 watt amp assembled in China, these things should surely be £79.99 a pop ?

Is it improving end results ?

SafeandSound

User avatar
SafeandSound Mastering
Frequent Poster
Posts: 1633 Joined: Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:00 am Location: South
Mastering: 1T £30.00 | 4T EP £112.00 | 10-12T Album £230.00 | Stem mastering £56.00 (up to 14 stems) masteringmastering.co.uk

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by ezza »

They cost 155 euros a pair at Thomanns
ezza
Regular
Posts: 233 Joined: Fri Nov 19, 2004 12:00 am

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by Shambolic Charm »

Got the Behringers from Thomann myself and I've got to say they have helped no end. It is so much easier to get a well balanced mix when using these.
User avatar
Shambolic Charm
Frequent Poster
Posts: 671 Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:00 am

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by SafeandSound Mastering »

I wonder why the price difference is so large.
That seems more sensible.

SafeandSound Mastering
User avatar
SafeandSound Mastering
Frequent Poster
Posts: 1633 Joined: Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:00 am Location: South
Mastering: 1T £30.00 | 4T EP £112.00 | 10-12T Album £230.00 | Stem mastering £56.00 (up to 14 stems) masteringmastering.co.uk

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by Cardinen »

Any news about C50 vs Avantone ??
Cardinen
Posts: 1 Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2011 12:00 am

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by Mike Senior »

Cardinen wrote:Any news about C50 vs Avantone ??

I delivered a review of the C5A & C50A (versus the Avantone and Canford Diecast) for the mag, so hopefully it should be out in an issue pretty soon. Without giving the game away too much, I think it's safe to say that the C50A is the more serious contender of the two Behritones, although I have some significant reservations about both of them.
User avatar
Mike Senior
Frequent Poster
Posts: 1085 Joined: Fri Aug 08, 2003 12:00 am Location: Cambridge, UK

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by timoc »

Looking forward to reading it! Given that it still seems to be impossible to get a single avantone I may have to go for the Behringer for that reason alone.
User avatar
timoc
Regular
Posts: 100 Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2007 12:00 am Location: Antwerp, Belgium

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by cane creek »

timoc wrote:Looking forward to reading it! Given that it still seems to be impossible to get a single avantone I may have to go for the Behringer for that reason alone.

I bought a single Avantone mixcube from Kmraudio.com a few weeks ago.
cane creek
New here
Posts: 7 Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 12:00 am

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by timoc »

message from Glen:

Hi Timo,

Thank you for your email.
I have had several people contact me about this in the past week. I contacted Thomann's distributor, (SCV-London), who has notified Thomann that Mono Active MixCubes are part of the MixCube line (as are Mono Passive MixCubes). Thomann should be selling those "sku's" or are simply waiting on theirs to arrive.. I did not know about MusicStore but I will immediately follow up with their distributor on that also.

Because the selling of Mono MixCubes is really a very recent "thing" in Europe, we can't completely blame the distributor(s) or the stores. For years, MONO MixCubes have been available in the US, but not until the Avantone Pro transition of Avantone back in July was the decision to make the product line the same world-wide, (which I completely agree with). I've been with Avantone since 2006.

At any rate, just so you know, and in case you want to get this info to the good folks back at the SOS forum; here are the current versions of MixCubes with a description:

*MixCubes - 8 Models

Passive Non-Powered MixCubes - Butter Cream Color - (pair)
Passive Black Non-Powered MixCubes - NEW BLACK COLOR - (pair) THIS VERSION IS EXPECTED TO ARRIVE LATE JANUARY 2012
Passive Mono Non-Powered Mono MixCube- Butter Cream Color - (1 unit)
Passive Mono Black Non-Powered Mono MixCube - NEW BLACK COLOR - (1 unit) THIS VERSION IS EXPECTED TO ARRIVE LATE JANUARY 2012

Actives Active MixCubes- Butter Cream Color - (pair)
Actives Black Active MixCubes - Black Color - (pair)
Active Mono Active Mono MixCube - Butter Cream Color - (1 unit)
Active Mono Black Active Mono MixCube - Black Color - (1 unit)

*ALL MIXCUBES ARE EXACTLY THE SAME IN TERMS OF PERFORMANCE WITHIN THEIR CATEGORY. I.E. ALL PASSIVES ARE THE SAME WHETHER STEREO OR MONO! LIKEWISE, ALL ACTIVES ARE THE SAME WHETHER STEREO OR MONO UNITS! :-)

Thanks,
Glen Heffner
User avatar
timoc
Regular
Posts: 100 Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2007 12:00 am Location: Antwerp, Belgium

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by timoc »

cane creek wrote: I bought a single Avantone mixcube from Kmraudio.com a few weeks ago.

Ok, will look into it, but at first glance it looks like that's at least 40 euros more than half of a pair on the German websites.
User avatar
timoc
Regular
Posts: 100 Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2007 12:00 am Location: Antwerp, Belgium

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by ConcertinaChap »

timoc wrote: LIKEWISE, ALL ACTIVES ARE THE SAME WHETHER STEREO OR MONO UNITS! :-)

So pairing up to buy like Jaminem and I did is a perfectly good strategy. The speakers actually come in their own boxes within a large outer sleeve, which makes them easy to divvy up.

CC
User avatar
ConcertinaChap
Jedi Poster
Posts: 14659 Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2005 12:00 am Location: Bradford on Avon
Mr Punch's Studio
If a tune's worth playing it's worth playing lots!

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by Seccione »

Hi,

I received my pair of C50A's today, played with them couple of hours and must say I'm quite happy right now.

I'm working with Chicago-style house tracks, small budget basement studio with synths and processors from the 90's, mixing with Yamaha MG166c and using Mackie MR8's as my primary monitors.
These Behringer's little beasts has already really helped me to notice some bad behaving transients, over-loud percussions and weird stuff in my basses within my current project.

I started by listening few songs from reference track collection - and noticed some exaggerated higher-mid-frequencies - maybe my reference material was not mixed against grot-boxes! ;)

Then I switched to my project mix, with them Mackies turned off all the time, and oh boy did I find things to fix!

The sound of C50A is quite 'snappy', much tighter than of MR8's. Maybe they need some breaking in, but the transients sound much more emphasized than any sh*tty-car-stereo-setup (or cheapo consumer sound-set) I've ever heard - but I kind of like it. These big soap boxes helped me also realize some of the shortcomings of the Mackies.

While writing this I'm tweaking the project to sound bearable with Behritones, and after that the plan is to return to Mackies, and try to understand what went wrong in the first place.

Just wanted to share that (for me) C50A's are probably worth the money - I have learned a lot in really short time!
Disclaimer: I haven't heard real Auratone or similar, this is my first grot-box setup.
Seccione
Poster
Posts: 29 Joined: Sat Dec 24, 2011 12:00 am

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by timoc »

Thomann will allow me a special customer order of a single Avantone active mixcube. Hurray! :D
User avatar
timoc
Regular
Posts: 100 Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2007 12:00 am Location: Antwerp, Belgium

Re: Behringer C5A or C50A Behritone vs Avantone Mixcube Active

Post by sc1460 »

I've noticed that i need to continually switch back and forth between my C50 and my nearfields. If I listen only with the C50 and get the mix to sound as good as possible I can sometimes tame the mid-range so much that it sounds bland on other speaker systems. Perhaps for MOR, ballads, disco this is OK, but for rock and pop I find that over-taming the mid-range reduces the feel of excitement and energy. On the other hand ignoring the C50 completely has the opposite effect, I end up with an overblown midrange and a powerful bass that is ok on good speakers but sounds harsh and bass disappears on ipods and mobile phones.

So nearly 2 months on the C50 is working fine, though as I said you have to mix with regular breaks as it very easily fatigues the ear!

As a last test I listen to the mix using the standard earbuds that come with an ipod, OMG is that a bad listening experience, how does the punter put up with it???
sc1460
Regular
Posts: 170 Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2001 12:00 am
Post Reply