Behringer Amplifiers

Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

I had a Behringer ACX Acoustic amplifier go dead on me in the middle of a live T.V. show here yesterday. This is the second one in two years. I would not buy another one or recomend this amp to anyone.

Mark Eaton · Posted 24 Jun 2008 6:37 pm

Behringer seems to be one of the budget brands that imitates the higher end, and that being the case I guess it falls under the category of "there's no free lunch."

I remember a few years back checking out a POD XT, and at the music store the guy said "this Behringer unit does everything the POD XT does for $200 (or whatever it was) less."

Immediately the "red flag" went up.
_________________
Mark

Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

Kevin - I ordered one of those amps from American Musical Supply a couple of years ago. Overall, it was a great sounding amp. The problem I had was with the effects. Most of them were very noisy. If you tilted the amp back on the legs (like the old Fender amps), the cooling fan would start making all kinds of noises. Speaking of the legs, after using them a few times they would become very loose and flop around. Eventually, they would just fall off. The only way to tighten them was to pull the chassis out of the cabinet, so you could get to the nuts on the inside.

I sent the amp back to AMS and they shipped me another one. It had all the same "issues". It went back and I got my money refunded.

Blake Hawkins · From: Florida

Once it is out of warranty, don't expect any service from Behringer.
They will not sell you any parts or technical manuals.

Olli Haavisto · From: Jarvenpaa,Finland

I won`t be funding a company that copies designs from other companies and then has them manufactured as cheap as possible.
_________________
Olli Haavisto
Finland

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

The Behringer's are basically a "throwaway" unit. If it fails, in most cases cannot be repaired. I tried to get a schematic and/or a part (a custom pot) for one from them and they don't sell schematics or parts was what they told me.

It's even a "mystery" trying to get a chassis out of some amps. Many chassis are held in by whatever screws you see plus screws from the handle. But you have to pry the top off of the handle cap in order to get access to the screws. I searched all over the web for how to get the handle off until I found it by accident. The one I had apart I put a "regular" handle back on that the mouting screw is visible, no more "mystery" handle mounting.

I have (actually my wife's amp) an accoustic amp that I bought at the Musician's Friend warehouse outlet store in Kansas City, Mo. The pot for the effects mix on the guitar channel had been damaged and they had it out in the outlet for sale. It worked except the effect mix was always at maxium and could not be turned off. I bought the amp for half of the Musician's Friend catalog price ($89.95 in this case) and thought I could fix it. After finding out Behringer sucks and won't sell schematics or parts I got into it and jumpered the bad pot so the effects were always off. It's not a problem as my wife does not use effects with rhythm guitar. If/when the amp fails it will be dumped.

Curtis Alford · From: BastropTexas, USA 78602

This equipment is a litter mate to the Bic lighter. It stutters through it away. Their repair are higher for the bench charges to look at it is greater than the new price on that day most times. They don't want any come backs so that work pretty well for them.

Stu Schulman · From: Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)

A friend of mine just gave me a Behringer Bass amp that needed a resistor or something?I'm always borrowing Bass amps.Anyway I took it to a friend of mine who fixes amps and it was next to impossible to get the head out of the cabinet and like Jack said you cant get any parts for them...So my free Bass amp is about to go for a swim in Katchamak Bay. Laughing

_________________
Steeltronics Z-pickup,Desert Rose S-10 4+5,Desert Rose Keyless S-10 3+5... Mullen G2 S-10 3+5,Telonics 206 pickups,Telonics volume pedal.,Blanton SD -10,Emmons GS_10...Zirctone bar,Bill Groner Bar...any amp that isn't broken.Steel Seat.Com seats...Licking paint chips off of Chinese Toys since 1952.

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Famous quote:

"The cheap pay twice"

With Behringer that should read "thrice" or more. Really they have adequate sounding stuff when it works since they stole many of their designs from hard working design teams from other companies. But they really cut corners in the build process, and their stuff truly has proven to be among the most disposable crap you can waste your money on. You actually wind up spending more with Behringer because the stuff fails so consistently. It's sad how many bands have critical gear fail during a show because they tried to save money on that stuff. One band I was in had a mixer of theirs. It fried on us. No service, out of warranty, total waste of money. What we thought was a money saving move proved later to cost us much more than had we simply gone with a more reputable brand in the first place. If you want affordable stuff that holds up far better, maybe consider Peavey, Carvin, Yamaha, or yes, even Mackie long before Behringer. And this doesn't even address the bad karma associated with giving your dollars to support Behringer's bad ethical practices and the injury they've inflicted on other makers by stealing and undercutting.

Brad

Mike Brown · From: Meridian, Mississippi USA

Please ask questions beforehand about the electronic gear that you lay your hard earned money out for these days as there are some "cheesey" designs that are being sold at low, low prices. Do not always buy "price", buy quality first. As they say, "you get what you pay for".

Another important point. Make sure that you read the warranty policy, as some products now have a 90 day warranty. This is not mentioned much anymore. The warranty on Peavey products varies according to the product, but our amplifiers, mixers, guitars/basses, electronic crossovers and equalizers and speaker enclosures still carry a limited five year warranty. See here for details;
http://www.peavey.com/support/warrantyregistration/warrantytext.cfm

I've experienced the difficulties with "after the sale" warranty support first hand and before I purchase a product, I read the warranty first. Ask for a copy of the warranty policy before you buy any electronic product. You'll be glad that you did.

Also, it doesn't hurt that the manufacturer of the product is accessible, ie; Peavey's Consumer Hotline is toll free at 1-877-732-8391, ext. 1180.

Mike Brown
Peavey USA

Martin Abend · From: Berlin, Germany

I sometimes work as a stage manager for a little festival, and most bands have "Strictly No Behringer Gear" in their riders... go figure.

Martin Abend · From: Berlin, Germany

sorry, double post.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

I bought a Behringer ACX a couple of years ago. Right out of the box it was crap. Can't use the effects because they are so noisy. Can't turn it up more than 1/3 because of the noise. The meter for "warmth" never worked. As I bought it from Elderly Instruments (with only a 2 day approval period), I went past the time allowed to return the unit. It now sits in a corner gathering dust (replaced it with a Fishman Loudbox). I occasionally use it at home for the mic input to sing through.

I have a friend that used a Line 6 modeling amp for a while and replaced it with the Behringer copy of the Line 6 amp. It sounds great (he likes it better).

Brett Crisp · From: NC

I had a Behringer V-AMP Pro a while back that i ran to my session 400. I HATED IT!!!! It took all the good tone away from the 400. To my ears, it sounded like a british type amp. It had a real brassy tone to it.

I bought a Profex not to long ago and it REALLY helped. I just run the FX in the Profex, and let the Session do the rest. I would not reccomend behringer at all as far as stuff for steel. Now, they do make good mixers, power amps, rack effects and stuff like that. But DO NOT go and get stuff for your steel. You get what you pay for, ya know?

My cousin had one just like mine and he noticed the brassy tone like i did. Hes a guitar player, and he went back to using his Fender amps. To help somebody out that may read this; The VAMP Pro will run you about $165.00.

Go spend the extra little bit of money and get Peavey, Fender, Mesa Boogie, or one of Brad Sarno's Rev. Tube amps. That's just my two cents worth...Hope it helps someone in the future.. Oh Well

David Barker · From: Washington, USA

I've got a 32 channel Behringer that I use as the main PA mixer for live performances. It has been working great for several years. No issues at all so far.

I also use a Behringer crossover for the mains and subs and it also seems to be doing a great job.

Could be that the dependability issues with Behringer lie only with the guitar and bass amplification and FX equipment....
_________________
FoxMod-NV112,Boss DD6, [Guitars] PRS, Fender, Martin, Ovation [Keys] Hammond, Yamaha, Korg, Roland [Sound] Mackie, Crown, TC Helicon, Behringer, JBL, Alesis

Twayn Williams · From: Portland, OR

There are 2 pieces of Behringer gear that I like and use:

A 16 track mixer and a DI box with cabinet emulation.

Yes, Behringer is a parasitic company, and I usually won't buy their gear, but I was in the market for a mixer quick and the Behringer was the only one I could afford at the time. It sounds good and does what it's supposed to do. The DI is a great-sounding simple piece of gear and was (I believe) developed in house, not stealing from other designs (too much!)
_________________
Primitive Utility Steel

Bryan Daste · From: Portland, Oregon, USA

Agreed...most Behringer gear is, well, cheap crap. Their DI's are pretty good though.

Cartwright Thompson · Posted 2 Jul 2008 1:40 am

I used one of their cheapo 8 channel mixers for years and it worked just fine. Recently I found that I needed a few more channels and bought a Peavey 14 channel mixer. The improvement in sound quality with the Peavey was immense. You get what you pay for.

Bob Bowden · From: Vancouver, BC, Canada * R.I.P.

I bought a Behringer DR100 digital reverb a while ago. It sounds decent and works fine for home use. The case and overall build is flimsy so I doubt it would survive very long on stage, but for $35new it makes a fine home reverb.

Bill Creller · From: Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)

I did some repairs on Behringer bass amp last year. The head was a problem alright. I did get it fixed, but figured it was a cheapie. It was heavy as hell too.

I usually don't work on solid state stuff, but it was a favor.

Dennis Wallis · From: Arkansas

Two words that do not go together : GOOD and CHEAP !
Very Happy

Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

Dennis, you got that right. I should have stuck with my Peavey acoustic amp. My fault. You get what you paid for.

Eric Jaeger · From: Oakland, California, USA

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

Behringer , like Jack states above is a disposable brand. I do not think they were intended to ever reach the vintage category . Smile

Ray Uhl · From: Riverside, Missouri, USA

FWIW: I recall reading sometime back, when a major electronics firm had a lawsuit stating Behringer had copied their product. For my PA system I use all Mackie products, but purchased a Peavey Equalizer because of the light up function denoting feedback. (Necessary for dumbies like me Very Happy

), I love it. However, Behringer also has this function on a Power Mixer. If this is legal, I'm sure a lot of other manufacturers, i.e., Mackie, would have used it also. They may by now, but didn't several years ago.

Forum Index > Electronics		Next oldest topic :: Next newest topic