In relation to mixers... i.e. live sound mixers...

If not Behringer, then what and why?

Anything? Because it's not Behringer?

Back in the day I did a show with one of the first MX9000s. It honestly didn't sound too bad, but it's not really a live desk. The build quality was better then, I think. I haven't really heard one since but just look around for reviews. People are constantly getting brand new faulty desks.

Assuming you want to stay on the cheap, it doesn't take much cash to get into an entry level Yamaha or Soundcraft board. It will sound better and definitely stand up to the road better. Plus you won't take as hard of a hit if you want/need to sell it down the road.

Jake

Oh, man, Mackie is light years ahead of B********.

Damn, ANYTHING but Behringer. Are you unaware of their history stealing circuit designs and patents? That practice destroys the integrity of the entire audio industry.

In a mixing perspective, Mackie is a huge step up, but why stop there? What's wrong with Midas Heriage 3000, Yamaha PM5D, DiGiCo D1, Cadac J-type, Soundcraft Series 5, and the list goes on and on and on. If it's a matter of money, tell me what you have to spend, and I'll tell you what you can get, whether it's $5.00 or 500k....

but you don't have to use the B word EVER. EVER!!!

Not Behringer....Why? Because it sounds like **** and is very poor quality. Also not Behringer because as a professional you should take your job seriously and not want to have to rely on the cheapest board available for your work.....Did I mention they sound like **** and have no headroom?

What?- I like DDA's for live sound because they sound very good, are designed well and are great quality for the money. Many would say Yamaha PM3500s and 4000s are the most common live sound boards. Larger budgets bring the Midas or ATI Paragons into play......

But at the very least get something like the Allen & Heath boards.....

Like a lot of guys I used to own Behringer stuff once and made decent recordings with some of it anyhow. Like Max said, Mackie is far and away better.

The only Behringer in my signal chain now is the headphone amp, which ain't a bad piece on the cheap!

War

i will second that headphone amp!

Well to play devils advocate, Mackie was silent about the cable problem that has and continues to plague their mixers.
End users were never notified and many, including me, pulled their hair out trying to fix a bug that Mackie knew about.
FWIW, the bug typically shows up as a dead channel, sub, etc and raising the level of the input tends to make it work. At first glance it looks like a dirty pot, but it is not. It is also highly intermittant which makes things even worse.
It is directly related to bad cables in their mixers and MANY engineers have spent countless hours ripping their rigs apart looking for the problem.

See the Cakewalk audio group for a recent discussion about this.

Quite honestly I have always been a Tapco/Mackie fan, but now that Mackie is made in China, I might as well go Behringer. Hell, I drive a German car so why not go the whole route.

Also, maybe others can hear a difference but I don't hear anything different between a decent Behringer board and a Mackie in the same class.
Mackie USED to be made better, but now?
Who knows.....

The Behringer headphone amps are a great way to spend $100.
Cheap, fairly flexible and useful.
But, I wouldn't put anything by Behringer in my signal chain going to tape... I value the sounds of my recordings.

I like my A&H Mixwizard. Direct outs on every channel - I have them jumpered as PRE EQ and PRE Fader - great for recording and FOH at the same time. Sounds better than Mackie too - two sweepable mids is nice.

Be**ger HP amp -- don't use the switches. Mine broke in nothing flat. Can't fix it because everything is on a single inaccessible pcb. Got rid of it, no more Behr for me.

Steve

2 reasons off the top of my head:

1. Behringer are ethics-less ****** bags

2. They only try to make their equipment LOOK like other more famous brands equipment, not sound like it.

P.S. I also own the headphone amp, and I feel shame when I look at it.

It's all been said but the bottom line is build quality. Assuming you're going to be moving a desk around, it needs to be built to deal with that. The larger Behinger mixers often don't survive their trip from the factory to your door.

That said if you get one that works, it can be a perfectly good desk. Personally I'd rather look at buying something second hand with a known history.

Yamaha


Nick

Behringer rocks!
When it comes to small stuff like headphone amps, headphones, cable testers, patchbays etc etc, it's a brilliant company. Better lay-out and features then most other brands. I don't give a bullocks about stealing designs. Stealing music, or woman for that matter is something different. Stealing recording equipment designs is something for geeks to worry about . no pun intented . Everyone's stealing designs anyway: Soundelux, lawson, Peluso, wagner, BLUE, Fairman, etc etc. I'm sure that if Behringer was in the same league with the prices they have now, nobody would complain about ripping off.
You can spend 50 euros more on a Yves Saint Laurens cable tester if you want, I'll stick to Behringer.

Don't get a Behringer mixer though.