Looking for comments on the quality of Behringer PA systems

Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:56 pm

Anyone with experience or working knowledge of Behringer PAs, let me know how you rate the brand. How would you compare it to other brands like Yamaha, Mackie, for rock bands gigging in small clubs.

Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:11 pm

Stay far, far away. The last behringer PA I used sounded worse than the drunks vomiting in the back.

Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:22 pm

Why do you use the words "behringer" and "Quality" in the same post, Without mentioning "BAD!"?

Behringer some times RIP OFF/Copy some products that are usable.
The BEHRINGER SPEAKERS B215A is usable as a low low budget monitor. nothing else.
They also made a compressor for like.. 5-8 years ago that was usable.

Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:50 pm

Unfortunately, many of us have some "experience or working knowledge" of Behringer products. It goes along with experience and working knowledge of cheap gin, cars sold by men with white vinyl shoes, and girls who would agree to date me in high school. My experience is that Behringer's only design goal is low price. Sometimes - through no fault of their own - they stumble upon usable components at the price they want and make a reasonable product. Their designs are the best that reverse engineering can provide. Bought it. Learned my lesson. Sold it. I'm in the business of providing education for a few. Hope yours is cheaper. Good luck.

Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:23 pm

Thanks guys. I'll stay away from Behringer.

Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:32 pm

Another soul saved.

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 12:02 am

For the price, they are adequate for a small act in a small club for a small amount of time. They are only horrible if you are horrible. Don't bother having them repaired as they are disposable. So take care of them and be gentle. It would not be my first pick but if that's all the money I had for what I needed, I'd get it.

A user not abuser
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 11:09 am

The ONLY good thing I can say about Behringer is their cheap line of headset amps. I don't know which particular brand they ripped off to create these, but I can't believe for a minute that it's an original design. I could find nothing else in this price range (although the Sansom stuff was close), so I reluctantly bought a few for big orchestral session click track/single earpiece work.

Still, they're a good bang for the buck: cheap, dispoable, and good for click tracks. That's all.

I thought they learned their lesson with all the lawsuits years ago, but apparantly not. Their "Xenyx" line of mixers is another Mackie ripofff.

There's plenty of great BUDGET stuff out there, you don't need to reward Behringer for their unethical business practices if you don't have to. I'd go with Yamaha's low end, or Mackie's powered stuff. Hell, even Carvin or Kustom before I'd buy Behringer. You just don't need to do it, son. Thumbs Up

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:58 am

Interestingly enough, I have headed the same warnings and still have not (and probably never will) bought berhinger equipment.

I do sound for a local acapella group and just recently they asked my opinion about ideas for live sound equipment. I priced out multiple options, none of which included berhinger. So they took the info I gave them and came back a week later and asked me about Berhinger, with the "its so cheap!" argument. I told them what I have heard time and time again from every person I have worked with or know in my local audio community and they have headed the same "Stay Away" sign as described here. Well, voiding my advice, and taking advice from a friend of a friend that "Loves berhinger", they bought a berhinger live board. I am not sure the exact model as I have yet to work with it.

So, a couple questions:

As I am bound to work with it since I run sound for them, should I be afraid to work with it? What are some expectations I should have walking into the dreaded inferno of berhinger?

Since I have never used berhinger before I know not what the headed warnings mean, I have just followed them. So that posses an other question: How many of you out there have actually used berhinger and realized how much you disliked it or had a bad experience with it, versus those of you like me that have been told to stay away but have never experienced it first hand? (Perhaps these 2 questions need a poll? Very Happy

)

All input is appreciated. Thanks!

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 11:52 am

The gear will probably work just fine for you. I don't think that's the issue, and it's not the beef I have with them. (As I mentioned above, the HP amps work just fine for me....)

It's what they do in bringing their products (errrr....OTHER people's products, perhaps it would be better to say?) to market.

Not unlike buying hot goods off the back of a truck, or ripped CDs, or bootlegged DVDs from a vendor on the sidewalk, you're simply rewarding bad behavior. If no one bought the stuff, it wouldn't sell, and they'd go away.

You can buy fake "Coach" designer bags for the women in your life, and all kinds of fake sports equipment, with "Look-alike" branding. It's about the same thing. Do you want the real stuff, or are you ok with a knock-off?

You may want to put something in writing that you don't recommend the gear should it break down or not perform up to their expectations, but it might be overkill. For now, grin and bear it, and learn from it for the next time your advice isn't heeded. Wink

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:01 pm

Along with what Joe said, be very gentle with the board - durability is one of my main issues with the Behringer stuff. If it's gonna be trucked around town be careful and make sure you do a thorough check every time you fire it up before show!

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:02 pm

One warning in addition to the less than stellar sound; most of their mixer designs are all top controls on one "motherboard" and everything else on a daughterboard; which makes them hard to work on for a tech. On a lot of the older and more durable designs every control has a knob and nut that must be removed before the "mb" can be removed from the chassis for servicing. Contrary to popular belief they are repairable to some degree. However they are far from easy to fix from a disassembly and where the heck do I find this wierd looking pc mount pot standpoint.

The weakest point of any "motherboard" mixer is physical damage to the pots and push switches on top of the mixer and physical damage to the jack field on the daughter board. When someone trips on cables, spills a drink on top, drops something on the top surface, is sloppy when moving the unit or bangs the top cover into the controls when reattaching the road case lid, you are in for trouble and a big repair bill!

So if you're stuck with one handle it with kid gloves and it may last for a while.

BTW I own several of thier products; DDX3216 mixer, ADA8000 and HA8000 and when I win the lotto plan on replacing all of them with units costing many thousands more. But right now I'm diggin on them in my foolish state of middleclass poverty.

cheers and for gosh sakes don't spill that beer!

gb Wink

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