Behringer. Too good to be true, or not.

[Black Coffee]

I am looking to buy an amp. Dont mind if its combo or head and cab and one of the most financially viable options is looking to be behringer. Are they the real deal with bells and whistles you get or will they not stand the test of time. Any opinions on the 300 watt ultrabass combo or the 550 watt head and cab?
Thanks.

Edited October 28, 2012 by bassman344

[Lozz196]

Well I don`t know what model it is, but local band I go to see, the bassist has a Behringer amp & 410 - may well be the Ultrabass. He sounds amazing - uses a 77 Jazz through it - and they are a regularly gigging punk-type band, so it gets put through its paces. He told me it bought it, unheard, from Thomann, and has been very pleased with it.

I know some slate Behringer, but I`m yet to use a piece of their kit that I don`t like. For me, I reckon a lot of it may be the old cheap has to equal rubbish syndrome.

[0175westwood29]

A friend has a 210 and 115 drivin by a ultrabass sounds very nice!!

[ThomBassmonkey]

Some behringer stuff is brilliant, I don't have a bad word to say about their cheap studio gear.

I don't like their amps though, they're very hit and miss and unreliable from what I've heard.

[chrismuzz]

I used to have an Ultrabass 4x10 combo and I really hated it. Very muddy without really any way of getting rid of it. I have shared a bill a couple of times with another band where the bassist used an Ultrabass head through my Markbass cab one time, and an Ampeg cab the second, and I though he sounded brilliant both times!

So maybe get the Behringer head, and buy a second hand cab from somebody here?

[barkin]

A rehearsal room that we use has a Behringer head of some sort. Not sure which one, but I've found it sounds OK whenever I've used it. Not great, but OK.

Personally, I'd go for something like [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/184889-hartke-ha2500-gator-6u-flightcase-korg-dtr1-xl-series-115-cab/"]this[/url] instead.

[JTUK]

Don't like what I've come across..desks, for example are poor, but you would surprised what other kit uses the same sort of innards.

IMO..........cheap tat but if you can get it repaired cheaply then it may do the job for you over a period of time.

[JPJ]

Horses for courses. Behringer gear is pretty good for what it is (a clone of something else) at a very attractive price point. I bought a pair of their PA tops (clones of a Mackie SRM450 from what I can tell) and they performed brilliantly considering that the pair cost less than one of the Mackies.

Some of their stuff is a little to 'noisy' to use to record with, but other than that, I'd say they are pretty good value for money.

[JapanAxe]

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1351439471' post='1851191']
Don't like what I've come across..desks, for example are poor, but you would surprised what other kit uses the same sort of innards.

IMO..........cheap tat but if you can get it repaired cheaply then it may do the job for you over a period of time.
[/quote]

That's the problem - Behringer is the Timex of amps! I have a few of their outboard devices and an analog delay pedal and they're great value and work well. But I have always been underwhelmed by their 'go louder' kit because it is painfully obvious that serious corners have been cut. A guy I know is on his third mixer amp, the other two having expired in relatively short order!

[VTypeV4]

Much like the others on here, I've never used one of their bass amps but the rack stuff is cool. Whilst not up there with Drawmer, TC, TL Audio etc, the Behringer stuff offers great performance reletave to cost. The only item I didn't like was their desk, I don't remember which model, Euromix or something...

I would say bang for buck is the key phrase to use. I'm sure it will work fine, just don't expect it to be up to Trace/Ampeg etc..

[paul_5]

+1. I've used a couple of their pedals and some of their rack stuff - the pedals are essentially Boss rip-offs, and the footswitches can feel like they're held in with cake, but they sound really good for the money. Same with the rack stuff - the power switches tend to spring off if you're not careful, but they perform well enough - and relative to cost they do really well.

[longtimefred]

i have only used a few bits, one was the Bugera 8x10 for recording with and it sounded great but wieghed more than my house!! not a patch on an ampeg or my old trace but much better than expected. Also i had to run through a little 300w 15" combo that looked like a rip off of a Hartke amp. Sounded good enough for a little combo but sounded killer when i ran the sansamp through it. not a clue on reliability as i have only used them not owned them.

[Ian Savage]

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1351439471' post='1851191']
IMO..........cheap tat but if you can get it repaired cheaply then it may do the job for you over a period of time.
[/quote]

Therein lies the problem; Behringer gear (like much of the Far Eastern mass-produced electronics stuff now) is practically impossible to repair if it goes wrong. Sadly it's almost always a 'chuck it in the bin and buy a new one' job, since the surface-mount components are incredibly difficult to solder by hand and the construction of much of the hardware means you'll probably break it trying to dismantle it.

[thumperbob 2002]

Our band have a Behringer Mixer- 24 channel- 4 auxilliaries- inbuilt effects- miles better than the Yamaha one we had at half the price- with twice the facilities!! Looks fragile but we have been using this four times a week with no problems- not flightcased either- kept in a suitcase!! Sounds great.

Something to be said for scale.

[JTUK]

[quote name='JPJ' timestamp='1351457358' post='1851453']
Horses for courses. Behringer gear is pretty good for what it is (a clone of something else) at a very attractive price point. I bought a pair of their PA tops (clones of a Mackie SRM450 from what I can tell) and they performed brilliantly considering that the pair cost less than one of the Mackies.

Some of their stuff is a little to 'noisy' to use to record with, but other than that, I'd say they are pretty good value for money.
[/quote]

Mackie and Belringer are very very close to being the same stuff...

[Doddy]

I've got an UltraBass 1200 knocking around. I bought it because I needed a small amp quickly and it was the
right money at the time. It did the job well and was very similar to the Hartke Kickbacks. I used it with both electric and
upright and never had any problems-I did quite a lot of gigs with it with no problems.I don't use it anymore though.
On the other hand,I've heard guys use the UltraBass head with the 4x10 and sound awful...in fact,one of my former
students paired the Behringer 4x10 with an Ampeg B series head and blew the cab in a couple of weeks.

[paul_5]

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1351532152' post='1852271']
Mackie and Belringer are very very close to being the same stuff...
[/quote]

Mackie tried to sue Behringer over copyright/design infringement and the case was dismissed by US courts. Mainly due to Behringer agreeing to settle out of court - one would assume that Behringer accepted some degree of culpability in this case...

[dincz]

[quote name='Ian Savage' timestamp='1351506277' post='1851789']
Therein lies the problem; Behringer gear (like much of the Far Eastern mass-produced electronics stuff now) is practically impossible to repair if it goes wrong. Sadly it's almost always a 'chuck it in the bin and buy a new one' job, since the surface-mount components are incredibly difficult to solder by hand and the construction of much of the hardware means you'll probably break it trying to dismantle it.
[/quote]

That's what I'd expect, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that my new Behringer power amp is old school construction with axial lead components throughout. No surface mount to be seen. Maybe this is still the norm in high power stuff as opposed to preamps and processors.

[KingBollock]

I have the Behringer rack mount V-Amp Pro and one of their Xenyx 802 mixers. I like 'em both and had no problems with either. At some point I'm going to get one of their Ultragraph rack mount EQs too.

So, yeah, a +1 from me.

[JTUK]

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1351536640' post='1852351']
Mackie tried to sue Behringer over copyright/design infringement and the case was dismissed by US courts. Mainly due to Behringer agreeing to settle out of court - one would assume that Behringer accepted some degree of culpability in this case...
[/quote]

I noticed this similarity when I went to pick up a mates amp from repair... I think it was an LD or something. The tech said the innards were the same as you would see in a lot of amps around that price point. He even mentioned the name of this common component..and he said he saw many amps through his repair business ..wont mention them here but you'll know most of them, for sure, use them.

[VTypeV4]

I've used a couple of the Ultragraphs, both the normal old-school dual 15 band EQs and also the newer 1U digital 2496 Ultragraph. The latter is a very comprehensive with many facilities including multi-band fully parametric EQ, normal dual channel 31 band EQ, dynamic EQ, multi featured compression and limters, meters for in and out and a calibrated SPL facility.

As for the lawsuit, I understand there was something similar with Drawmer about the original line of Gates and Compressors..

[mcnach]

[quote name='bassman344' timestamp='1351412100' post='1850832']
I am looking to buy an amp. Dont mind if its combo or head and cab and one of the most financially viable options is looking to be behringer. Are they the real deal with bells and whistles you get or will they not stand the test of time. Any opinions on the 300 watt ultrabass combo or the 550 watt head and cab?
Thanks.
[/quote]


I haven't tried that amp you mention, but I used to have a BX3000 head (300W). They also have a 450W version (BX4500). They go for very little money, £100 or less... I bought my BX3000 plus a Behringer 2x10 cabinet for £100. That was my first rig. The speaker cabs are not amazing, but the heads I actually like. Pair them with a decent cab and you can get a cheap rig that sounds good. If weight is no problem, I'd look for a Peavey TX410 cab. Heavy, but solid and reasonable sounding. They are usually around £75-100 depending on condition etc.

Edited October 29, 2012 by mcnach

[mrtcat]

They do some crap and some excellent stuff. PA wise the dcx2496 and deq2496 are two items id have in the rack any day. I once owned a 2x10 bass cab and it was pants. My experience is that some batches can have recurring faults. I had to send two eqs back from a batch with the same fault. Third time i got lucky with one from another batch - no problems. Thomann is a good place to buy online tho.

[barkin]

[quote name='Ian Savage' timestamp='1351506277' post='1851789']

...the construction of much of the hardware means you'll probably break it trying to dismantle it.

[/quote]

I've a Behringer BLE100 Limiter/Enhancer that feels like it's going to break every time I open it up to change the battery. But despite my ham-fisted efforts it's still in one piece, and it works very much better than its price and apparent fragility would suggest.

[DarkHeart]

I killed a BXL 3000 combo at the weekend but that might have been my fault for leaving it in the car boot for a fortnight on the otherhand i practice through a BXL 1200 and have had no problem with it ive also got the vamp pro and a few pedals and theyre no bother whatsoever.