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behringer equipment
- Thread starter jimmy ray
- Start date
Yes but cheap fender clones have always been a stop-gap to buying the real thing eventually. Fender, or one of the upmarket counterparts, still get their sale. The difference is no-one is buying Behringer desks and thinking "it wll do for now I'll buy an A&H later".
BTW, Fender is not travelling as well as everyone thinks.
BTW, Fender is not travelling as well as everyone thinks.
It's not alleged. Behringer has lost two rather large lawsuits to Mackie and BSS, as well as numerous smaller ones, costing them millions of dollars in penalties as well as forcing them to drop or reengineer some of their products. Their older series of "studio" mixers was a literal copy of the Mackie 8*bus design, specifically of the Mackie mic pre, which is patented.
I have a problem with them only because they have a history of stealing other peoples work and caliming it for themselves. As an engineer who spends his time developing things which get patented, that really hits home.
-dave
It's the other way around for me.
I started with the real Fenders guitar in 1965, then the Fender Precision fretless in 1967. Then another Fender fretted P, then a Fender J. Then, a couple of Gibsons.
Now. I'm only buying clones. And I don't feel the recent, better, inexpensive asian clones are really lacking in anything, in most respects.
Nothing that can't be fixed with a good set-up, or just a few dollars worth of better strings and control pots, but that's totally optional, and according to your own personal tastes and preferences.
And some, in total stock forms, are even beating the heck out of most Fender MIM, and some Fender USA, Gibson/Epi as well.
Oh. I love the Behringer's stuff. In fact. I bought a second Behringer mixer yesterday. My 5th Behringer purchases.
Some designs are just based on a few identical designs.
Like the wheel of the car. The wheel thing was first appeared several thousand years ago in Asia. Way before the history of western civilisation had even began.
Same with paper making and printing. Paper was first invented in China in the year 105 A.D. Then, printing shorting after. According to recorded history.
Same with toilet tissues! ??Can you imagine living without toilet tissues??? :0
Then why nobody is complaining about ripping the chinese and asians off!
Behringer is producing some of the best value for the dollar equipment there is today. Their new Ultradrive and Ultracurve are proof of that, seeing as they are being pickup and used by PRO live audio people. The new EP1500 poweramp is a killer, the Bass Vamp Pro is great as well. I (up until just recently) ran a sound system that was using an Eurorack 3242x mixer, dead quiet, with strong preamps and a very diverse EQ.
I would take one of their new UB series mixers over a Mackie anyday. Mackie (IMO) are over priced crap, and poorly built at that. You want noisy pre's? Get a Mackie. (of course Mackie is now getting ready to start having a lot of their stuff produced in Asia, maybe the quality will improve)
All of my Behinger gear has proved to be of very good quality and well worth the $$ spent.Also, friend of mine had a Mackie mixer that took a crap on em, so while they were getting it repaired, they bought one of the 3242x's which they kept using after they got the Mackie back..
I would take one of their new UB series mixers over a Mackie anyday. Mackie (IMO) are over priced crap, and poorly built at that. You want noisy pre's? Get a Mackie. (of course Mackie is now getting ready to start having a lot of their stuff produced in Asia, maybe the quality will improve)
All of my Behinger gear has proved to be of very good quality and well worth the $$ spent.Also, friend of mine had a Mackie mixer that took a crap on em, so while they were getting it repaired, they bought one of the 3242x's which they kept using after they got the Mackie back..
Here's an update to my own post, it looks like our one year old behringer mixer is in the process of dying, so I replaced it with an Allen and Heath GL2200-32.
I can't think of any reason I would even consider buying, anything, that said Behringer on it!
Treena
Treena
It's not that black and white. They are by no means "top of the line" and the "pro's" wouldn't think there worth bananas but the have some usable equipment. I got a mixer for my headphones and monitors and it does seem a little flimsy. No worse than the 1604vlz pro though. Actually, the mic pre's are easily as good or better than the ones on the Mackie. I've also A/B genelecs 1029's with sub and behringer monitors, and the behringers hold up rather well considering the price difference. I had heard they are a complete Mackie rip off though. I have a compressor for my live rig that works great as well. I've heard the complaint that they are noisy, and yes setting it up wrong does make it noisy. I set it up so it's quiet. The theft thing bugs me though, I hadn't heard about the lawsuits. Any links to that info? 
The quality definitely varies according to the products. Following are ones I own / have owned / used:
Composer Pro XL compressor - really quite good. Even the Behri haters over at homerecording.com acknowledge they are good for the price.
Mixers - dreadful. Absolutely horrible. If you are buying a budget mixer, I think the Yamaha MG range is the only game in town. I bought an MG12/4 recently and it is a fantastic piece of kit.
Bass combo's - Well the BX1200 is rated at 120 watts. Our drummer can't hear it; he can hear my GK Backline 110 (70 watts) over his kit perfectly well. Go figure.
Feedback Destroyer - Mixed. If you use it with a multi band EQ you get some very unwelcome results. Works OK in our home, mini PA setup, but it's rather slow to catch things.
Composer Pro XL compressor - really quite good. Even the Behri haters over at homerecording.com acknowledge they are good for the price.
Mixers - dreadful. Absolutely horrible. If you are buying a budget mixer, I think the Yamaha MG range is the only game in town. I bought an MG12/4 recently and it is a fantastic piece of kit.
Bass combo's - Well the BX1200 is rated at 120 watts. Our drummer can't hear it; he can hear my GK Backline 110 (70 watts) over his kit perfectly well. Go figure.
Feedback Destroyer - Mixed. If you use it with a multi band EQ you get some very unwelcome results. Works OK in our home, mini PA setup, but it's rather slow to catch things.
Originally posted by Treena Foster
I can't think of any reason I would even consider buying, anything, that said Behringer on it!
Indeed.
Originally posted by Blisshead
It's not that black and white. They are by no means "top of the line" and the "pro's" wouldn't think there worth bananas but the have some usable equipment. I got a mixer for my headphones and monitors and it does seem a little flimsy. No worse than the 1604vlz pro though. Actually, the mic pre's are easily as good or better than the ones on the Mackie. I've also A/B genelecs 1029's with sub and behringer monitors, and the behringers hold up rather well considering the price difference. I had heard they are a complete Mackie rip off though. I have a compressor for my live rig that works great as well. I've heard the complaint that they are noisy, and yes setting it up wrong does make it noisy. I set it up so it's quiet. The theft thing bugs me though, I hadn't heard about the lawsuits. Any links to that info?
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http://www.sweetwater.com/insync/06/24/1997/
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Treena
Thanks! They have seen my last dime then.
edit: soundcraft or yamaha mixers for me then I guess.
As with many Asian made products. It depends on who is running the QC. If the QC is doing their job properly. Asians can made a lot of very fine products.
Most of China's technologies are from the West, especially from Germany, since Mao's time. Many are educated in Germany, as well as the U.K. and the US.
Also. Most of the infrastructures are brand new. Most factories in western Europe and the US are ancient, by comparision.
As for "slave labor". It's more of a myth than the whole true. Yes, pay is much lower than American or European's standards. But so is the living standards over there. They also pay a very low income tax.
One can live a yuppie life style in China with $2000USD - $3000USD annual income. According to one of my neighbor, who is an upper managment in a US company, and was sent to work in China for the past 5 years. The workers can even afford to go clubing several times a week after work. China also has the highest percentage of cell phone owners per capita in the world. Their high tech toys are about 5 years ahead of the US.
You'd be better off if you make $2000USD annually in China than you make $25000USD annually in the US.
Look at the Walmart's news here. That's truly slave labor practice.
Now about music. I saw it on tv a few years ago. China even has a music school moded after Berklee. And have sponsored many top notch jazz musicians to performed in many jazz festivals.
You'll learn a lot more about the rest of the world, if you get the news from other than CNN.
BBC is a good alternative to start.
I have the BX300. A super recording/practice amp.
Never trust any wattage output ratings. Especially when the ratings are into 4 ohms.
All amps should list the current ratings instead, and into a real reactive speaker load. Not some lab resistor set up.
Behringer gears are fine, in general. Especially the newer ones. I have several pieces of their gears, I also have Yamaha and Roland's gears. I have 2 Behringer mixers. One was noisy, but was replaced with no question asked.
Support is decent. Depends on who you get, just like any other company. I got very good to excellent email replies within 2 days or less 80% of the time.
Maybe I've been lucky.
No complain with the sound quality either. The price-performance ratio is just unbeatable.
They might not last 10 years, but at their selling prices, they're almost disposible. Get their latest offerings every couple of years. And you are still spending less than the majority of the other brands.
Why is it so bad in what Behringer have been doing? Why nobody complain when Shadowsky and such are cloning the basic Fender designs?
The feeling that I'm getting is, it's okay to rip off any designs, and sell at a very high price. If you're American brand name - the so called boutique brands. But definately not okay if you're a non US company.
Double standards?
If you don't want to buy asian made stuff, then, you may as well stop buying anything electronics.All electronics have asian parts. Regardless of brand name.
And stop flying and driving as well. Even Boeing, as well as US auto manufacturers, have already set up shops in China and other parts of Asia and Latin America.
Even Levi's jeans are now 100% imported. It just shut down its last US facility in Texas.
This is the results of golbolization.
Go read some financial news. The writing is stone crafted in the granite face on Mt. Rushmore already.
According to the Feb. 2003 guideline. $24680 per annual is the proverty level for a household of six. Source: Link Removed
It was on the news. If you work at Walmart's kinds of pay scale, and living in southern California. Your family need 3 full time jobs just to pay the rent for a typical 2 bedrooms apartment, not counting utilities or grocery money! The San Francisco Bay area is even more expensive.
I am from SF bay area.
I own my home, no mortgage payments just taxes and that's enough.
I am a LCSW on top of playing music and owning a commercial recording facility.
I'm married and my husband also works the studio, so we get by just fine!
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Treena
Treena,
I am not trying to change your position here.
But I'm sure a lot of musicians can still play music, and have enough money left for housing and food, because of affordable musical gears from companies like Behringer, and other inexpensive clones. And to allow many young kids to get into music as well.
In a perfect world. Everybody will have enough money to live like J-Lo. Or Michael J (Oh no!!! :-|)But unfortunately, the reality is very much different for the most of us.
Companies like Behringer does serve its purposes. It wouldn't even had exsisted if there's not a good reason why it should be exsisted at all.
I know the Bay Area extremely well.
You're one of the fortunated ones. But not everybody is as fortunate as you are though.
