johnny h wrote:Quite, you have to question your morality if you are prepared to support Behringer after they attempted to...
I think everyone has to question their morality over virtually every decision they make... But it is
their decision to make.
As for the anti-Behringer bandwagon, jump on it if it makes you feel superior on a faux high ground, but it would be hugely naive to think other large companies and corporations dont indulge in similar behind the scenes bullying, reverse engineering competitors' products, dubious business practices, sharp accounting, and all the rest. They do. I know of -- and have even been on the receiving end of -- many such instances. The difference is they are mostly less blatant and dont tend to get caught out and called out quite so easily or often.
The fact is that behringer does have some very good designers and engineers working for the global company, and they are producing some very good products with no real viable competition. At the same time, the global company is also producing some less impressive and rather unimaginative stuff and it would be good, IMHO, if they failed to sell any of it...
Personally, I'm not interested in any of the company's low-rent stuff, or any of its clones of products currently being manufactured by legitimate IP holders. And Behringer's pointless public spats, litigation and shoddy 'marketing' are all self-defeating and hugely self-damaging in exactly the way they deserve to be -- as your post demonstrates perfectly.
But if Behringer is prepared to invest in redesigning, from scratch, the unique circuity required to make something that sounds and performs exactly like a CS80 -- a machine that is unaffordable and largely unserviceable now, and which Yamaha has shown no interest at all in revisiting -- then I would be prepared to evaluate it on an open-minded basis.
If I strictly took the moral high ground, knowing what I know, there are very, very, few companies' products that would get room in my studio... And while that might make me feel morally superior, it wouldn't be very helpful, productive, or realistic.
The world is in shades of grey, not black and white.