I hear a ton of people bash on Behringer. I have an opportunity to buy an iNuke nu3000dsp for a pretty good price from a buddy of mine. It has served him well and he hasn't had any issues with it. I do need a second amp, and the DSP capabalities are nice. I'm curious to hear what everyones thoughts are on the company.

-Joe

Forget about what everybody else thinks. Who cares? If it works for you, buy it.

A ton of people bash Behringer because they make mostly low-end, bad side of mediocre gear. That doesn't mean you won't run across something by the company that you like. Also, you are probably better off purchasing a used piece of Behringer gear as apposed to paying retail and then taking a big hit when you go to resell.

I usually avoid behriger except for their proven products like their DI box. Their speakers have reps for bad sounding and reliability but due to their acquisition of midas, turbosound, klark teknik, etc, the salesperson of a musicstore i buy things from said that behringer now incorporate tech from those companies into their product. For example, turbo driver on their subs, midas designed pres on m32, etc. So maybe they have improved their quality for their price point (which is low), and that's good. But when u have more money, i think it's better to avoid them not because of their quality, but because of your rental's marketability due to using behringer (because people / event organizer still generally thought that b stuff were cheap and low quality). Anyway, being said before, if it suits you, if u like the way it sound, etc, buy them. It's your own money at the end of the day.

Quality aside, regardless of the product they seem to hit the desired feature set out of the park every time. That takes serious market research.

daft punk uses their midi controllers live

Inside Daft Punk's DJ Booth At The Grammys - DJ TechTools

Personally, I like that they can hit a price point that is within reach. It takes a LOT of gear to put on a show.

Over the years I've had a heap of their gear, and only had one amp channel be DOA (unit was fixed promptly.)

Things I've really liked: X Air mixers, DCX2496 processor, EP and EPQ amps.

I have a couple of tiny B208D speakers and they work but sound pretty average when put next to something good. A $200 speaker doesn't sound like a $2000 speaker. No surprises there...

Ahem, DI-20...

Behringer has upped their game with many products, while many products remain the same bottom feeder quality. I would be highly suspect of everything except their digital mixers and accessories, and I'd give their class D amps a day in court. No need for the analog mixers or rackmount processors anymore anyway. The B212D speaker was a decent light duty main/monitor for the money, the rest I've not enjoyed.

The DI-20 may function well but the BSS AR-116 is way better and can be found used for $50 or less, exact same guts as AR-133.

Isn't this easy when you basically copy what other people spent a lot of time and money to create and market...especially when it's coupled with very cheap, high-mass production with little regard for quality control...?

EVERYONE copies, steals , borrows . ESPECIALLY in the music business. If it was an exact copy , then lawsuits would follow . But if they take a concept and make it affordable to struggling musicians or artists . I'm ok with that.

One thing I strongly dislike about some sound people is the Gear Snobbery. It seems to be more rampant in people that are sound personal 1st and musicians 2nd or 3rd . Because you use a certain brand of gear they consider inferior they look down their nose at you . . Not everyone can afford top of the line gear. Many musicians would not be able to , 1st play out at all or 2, make ANy type of profit from their labors if it were not for Behringer being so budget priced. Not everyone can afford the high end JBL or QSC . I've always considered myself a Musician / sound guy . And look at it from the musician's point of view first and not the gear snobbers

Yep, everybody's doing it so that makes it alright. This argument is totally false of course, but it's as good an argument as any to justify BS...and if it makes you feel better...

I'll remember this the next time someone tries to sell me something cheap....

So less idiots competing for the places to play would be a bad thing? The same losers who can't afford decent gear probably have the latest greatest cell phone and x-boxes or whatever they play now days. If music is important to you you would find away to get what you need.

Sorry if I'm an idiot for wanting to save money. I am by no means a professional, i use this gear for a hobby. An expensive hobby, even on the cheap side. I sure as hell don't require the best gear in the world, especially when I'm dumping thousands of dollars as I enter my 3rd year of engineering school. But I'm an idiot loser who supposedly spends all of his time playing around with an Xbox.

I've made money with low-line and top-line gear over the past 40 years. My qualm about the low-line stuff is that, in my experience, nearly every piece I've purchased has ended up disappointing me via failure or just not sounding good. It is what it is. Wishing a Behringer amp would work as well and as long as an upline QSC or Crest simply won't make it so.

So... I decided I would buy the best used gear I could afford until I could afford to buy new. Ergo, I have about eight QSC amps of various age (1200s, Mx1500s, through PowerLight and RMX, bought used through the years) that still do the job every time they move from storage onto whatever stage I need them. Yes, they're not stylish. They're covered with road rash. They require outboard processing in some cases. But they are still getting the job done.

What about Behringer (now known as "MusicGroup")...? They have absorbed a lot of excellent equipment designers/manufacturers (Midas, Tannoy, KlarkTechnik, etc) and have made serious inroads into midline gear... so much that when my StudioLive gacked last summer, after mixing on both X32 (didn't like it at all) and a M32 (same gig... different stage, and I loved it) I bought a M32. It was $2,000 less than my Soundcraft Series TWO cost 10 years ago, and, in my market segment, will likely see me into my dotage. I'll never mix where SamC mixes... but what Midas brought to the party is serving me very well indeed. If Music Group fails to maintain a decent level of initial quality and support through the life of their "new" products, they'll fail. But if their model allows them to retain and grow their customer base at lower prices than competitors (would there have been a Qu32 or a Soundcraft Expression at similar price points had the X32/M32 not kicked serious boo-tay in the marketplace the past four years?)... well, then.

Still and all, if I was in your situation, I'd still buy a used QSC or Crest long before I'd buy a Nuke. Some memories die hard.

MMV. One old guy's opinion.

HB

I think it boils down to hobby vs profession.

I own a large millwork and door company, and all of my equipment in my shop is extremely heavy duty commercial grade. I have roughly 750,000 just in woodworking machines, not including property, vehicles etc. I can spend that because that is my profession. I don't look for "best bang for the buck, but rather just the best machine that will make me the most money with the least amount of downtime for repairs and maintenance. If it is not running, it is not paying the bills.

As sound for me IS a hobby that I happen to make a bit of cash at, I definitely look for "best bang for the buck". I don't buy trash (qsc kw's, soundcraft si board etc), but I can't justify going to the next level in equipment as it is WAY too much that I will never come close to recouping the cost from.

Behringer cloned some products, but also has improved on some and brought them to the market at a cost that makes it easier for people like me who are musicians first, soundguy and engineer second. The only reason I got into running sound and recording in the first place is because of dealing with so many "professionals" that were atrocious at best.

I wouldn't expect Samc to go out and buy a 10,000 tablesaw when a delta for 1000 for hobby woodworker is more than adequate to do the job, and a quality job at that. The level of equipment you get nowadays for the same money as 10 years ago is mind boggling. I remember the first time I saw a digital board at a live local band show, a yamaha 01v96. I was blown away, and that was the most affordable decent digital going. I still have one, and the thing feels and sounds clunky and ancient compared to the new stuff for less than half the price.

The x32 is a hell of a board for the money. I wouldn't expect a "large venue" professional to necessarily use one, but for small touring acts and local sound guys, they are great. I opted for the soundcraft because I got it for super cheap and it is a good board to rent out as it is pretty robust and very easy for an analog board guy to run.

I for one love all the competition at the low end of the digital spectrum right now. seems like every year some new cool product with a better layout or more features hits the marketplace. Good time to be a gearslut.

I have some really high end gear and I have a few behringer pieces laying around. The Behringer stuff has by and large run fine. A couple of rack mixers for practice p.a. A pair of Behritones that work great for listening to mixes on crappy speakers. If it gets the job done, don't worry so much about the cost and who makes it.
L.

I have tried a few Behringer products. In the end, they were all not usable because the quality sucked (Noisy, bad harmonics, low quality). If Audio passes through it and it says Behringer, I will not use it.

I am speaking about behringer just in their latest products, mostly digital. Years ago I had a compressor, dual 15 band eq, multi fx processor. All of these I bought used and sounded horrible. Used once and went on craigslist the next day. They were cheap, but the problem was they sounded VERY cheap. I have always looked for gear that had excellent sonic qualities for low price tags. AT 40 series mics, japanese fenders, spector euros, 3000 series sonor kits, etc. sonic and build qualities way above their respective price tags. Aluminum faced behringer 1u rack gear....not so much in my experience, but it looks like they are trying to change that. Midas, tubosound, klark technic etc. These guys are no slouches in R&D.

They were exact copies, and lawsuits did follow. Aphex on their exiter, Mackie on their mixers etc. Eventhough Behringer lost the cases, their business was profitable, their company grew to the point that they can now purchase the companies instead of stealing their designs.

They certainly did put out some really, really bad stuff. However... some (not all) of their latest gear is really quite respectable, performs well, and has a good warranty. I do not own any myself currently, but I did have one of the XR-series mixers on test, and have used the X-32. There was nothing to really complain about. I personally did not like the control software, but hey... other people do... on the whole, these are pretty solid products and I would not automatically rule them out these days (as I certainly did until quite recently).

I don't dislike gear because it's cheap, that would be silly, but I stopped buying Behringer gear for two specific reasons. The gear I bought in the early years did not perform as advertised....it neither sounded good nor was it reliable. The other reason was that I also did not want to buy gear from a company that was unethically making profit off the hard work of others...the list is long but the BSS DI box, and the Mackie mixer copies immediately come to mind.

I think it's inappropriate and ridiculous that the company was basically being commended for bad behavior by some people, and the argument that everybody steals from everybody else does not justify this behavior for me.

Maybe they have improved the reliability of their gear, but I agree with Harry, buy good, used gear instead of buying a NUKE.

Well you are not the person whose post I quoted. Maybe you need to find a cheaper hobby.

Thank you for your advice

Very nice analogy. Coincidentally, I woodwork as a hobby as well. I've come to accept the fact that most of the work I have to do by wand with hand tools, regardless of how much I want to invest in all these cool fancy tools!

So it's either spend all your money, or don't do it all? Not sure if you're a star wars fan, but as obi wan said, "only the sith deals in absolutes."

I'm a hobbyist wood worker and you're right, I wouldn't go out and buy the most expensive job saw I can put my hands on....but (for peace of mind and pocket) I would rather buy a good, used, commercial grade machine than buy a machine that is unsafe, unreliable or won't cut true after a couple of uses.

Buying a good, used professional machine is a lot less expensive than the cost of two cheap saws and a finger...

With that being said, any recommendations on dsp amps that can be found used? I wanted the dsp to cross my mains and my subs, then save some money, buy a crossover and bi amp the mains.

You will first have to precisely determine the performance criteria of the amplifier and your budget, but there are several companies that are making power amplifiers with included DSP...Crown, Yamaha, QSC, Powersoft etc.