My bizarre relationship with Behringer came to an abrupt end yesterday - followed by a huge sigh of relief.

After several years and two Behringer Xenyx-1832 mixers later, I was fortunate that my music dealer had no more of these damn things in stock! Rudi Behringer or whatever the hell his name is, puts out a good spin about his Chinese-produced junk - specifically his mixers.

I had guessed, after the second of two mixers bit the dust much too soon, that all was not right in the garden of Behringer. What astounded me was that there was remarkably little in the way of comments, feedback and criticism about Behringer on the Net.

My new Mackie-1642-VLZ4 arrived via courier yesterday and I was soon ready for a sound check. I could not believe what a difference there was between the two brands. Like night and day. The old adage about "getting the best tools you can afford" went through my mind many times. Crisp, clear audio. No detectable noise. Superbly strong build. Stacks of headroom, well thought out and a pleasure to use. Amazing audio! Why oh why didn't I take the Red Pill! I was a stupid sucker, twice. A hard lesson. Bye Bye Behringer.

 

The only Behringer product that I can say I like is their cable tester. Never have liked their speakers or mixers. Mackie usually makes pretty decent stuff. They are one of those companies that can say: "very good for the price range" about a lot of their products. I use their Thump series speakers in my live PA set up.

 

The only good things about behringer are those that don't pass audio. I'm very happy with my BCF2000. I also have a guitar tuner pedal that does its job ok.

All other things B that I've owned over the years have let me down one way or another.

Second thought. To be fair, I have an 8-channel rack-mount headphone amplifier that is yet to fail after two years. Kudos on that one.

 

Behringer manufactures and sells affordable products ! .. thats it.. do not count on reliability or long term with there products, however it gets the job done for the moment
and as far as Mackie TOP NOTCH Stuff Rock Solid Clean Mixers Lass Lifetime 1st Choice Among Many Live performances ,Bands Ect...

 

Urm..
mackie is pretty much in the same region as behringer.

better quality but still the low end of the market.

 

I was prepared to use/buy Behringer for a phantom power supply after testing it didn't interfere with the sound in any way and I use a ultramizer pro for putting the tv and radio through so that the adverts don't blast out and it has a use for listening back to mix's through for a quick test, sometimes I'll stick a track through it occasionally if I want a noticeably digital sound or be happy to bash it up at gigs where not using it would be the greater of two evil's and is passable without having to invest in something similar but not essential to my needs. The cheapest parts available on the planet approach is not something I would want to have in any signal chain for any serious work but I suppose I should be grateful that a cheap approach is available to me for non essential bits of kit which I'd have to do without otherwise.

 

speaking as someone who has worked for many years in the a-v industry, where equipment gets moved around- connected and disconnected - on a daily basis, i can say without a doubt that you are wrong. mackie gear is built like a tank compared to behringer. and their audio quality is far superior. cleaner, lower noise floor and far more headroom.

is it the same as high-end studio gear? no, of course not. but that is not the market they are trying to serve.

 

Thanks realitybytes

Truth-telling from someone like yourself who can speak factually always gives me a warm glow that I haven't been a total ass in choosing Mackie, and that my caution about buying Behringer again was not far wrong. I was a sucker to go anywhere near Behringer in the first place and in my techno-lust ignored the warnings on the net about their money-wasting build quality.

I'm strictly small fry - a failed musician with a tiny frog's penis who cannot afford any of the bigger-dick high-end gear crowed about by some.