The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Someone on this forum once commented, in jest I think, "Friends don't let friends use Behringer..."

    I have two of the Xenyx Behringer mixers and to be honest one is periodically a little wonky. So my question here is whether or not Behringers are reliable, solid mixers or are they unreliable things to spend money on.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    I would not gig with a behringer power amp as I’ve seen them break down. A mixer is less risky, if one channel fails you can use another.


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  4. #3

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    "Friends don't let friends use Behringer..." I would think that's more about their business practices than the quality of their products. Whether the claims are fair or accurate or not is up for debate, but there are claims on the internet. Behringer responds to reports, defends reverse engineering - CDM Create Digital Music

  5. #4

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    "Friends don't let friends use Behringer..." They're the house amp for Sam Ash, and the jacks on their bass amps were welded on to the front sound board. When the students in my jazz ensemble would invariably screw up the jacks, the whole sound board would cut out!
    I even took it to the legendary Jess Oliver for a repair, and that lasted for less than a month.
    "Friends don't let friends use Behringer..."

  6. #5

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    Behringer makes gear that sounds great but by and large kind of flakey. I had a pair of powered speakers and one of them lost the bass. Either the bass portion of the amp or the crossover was to blame. Other speaker still works but I don’t gig with it at all. I have used their larger mixers and they seem okay, but I certainly wouldn’t tour with one. That said, Glenn from Spectre on YouTube likes the older Behringer mixer for guitar - overheads I think.

  7. #6

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    At one point, pro sound guys routinely disparaged Behringer.

    Later on, I heard that they improved, but I still get the impression it's a lower quality product. That said, I know people who use some of their stuff and rely on it without difficulty.

    When I have to buy a product I don't really know much about, I lean toward Yamaha. I've never seen anything from Yamaha (amp, guitar, motorcyle, piano) that wasn't good quality at the price point.

  8. #7

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    I used a 1000 watt power amp for a couple years before switching to powered cabinets and it worked flawlessly. I do think their stuff is a little 'chintzy', though.

  9. #8

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    I've watched helplessly as two Behringer mixers blew up on gigs. I only use them at home now, because when they work, they're fine. Yamaha small mixers also tend towards unreliability, in my experience, a shame, since they do sound good.

  10. #9

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    Lawson, my experience is, you get what you pay for. Very inexpensive for such a feature packed piece of equipment. I suspect because they use inexpensive parts..
    I had a Behringer mixer back in my Gibson L7c days. I might still have it packed away somewhere. From what I remember It was very noisy. Too noisy to record with. It hummed and crackled.
    For a few dollars more I should have bought the Yamaha.
    Joe D

  11. #10

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    Yeah, their mixers are really cheaply made and not sturdy. A much better inexpensive, small mixer would be a used Mackie. (The ones Behrenger copied, badly)

  12. #11

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    A used Mackie or Yamaha would probably fetch a similar price to a new Behringer and be of more substantial quality. I’ve had a couple of Behringers that were decent for a few years before developing output inconsistencies. However, my little Mackie sub mixer is as good as new and I’ve had it since ‘03-‘04.

  13. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    At one point, pro sound guys routinely disparaged Behringer.

    Later on, I heard that they improved, but I still get the impression it's a lower quality product. That said, I know people who use some of their stuff and rely on it without difficulty.

    When I have to buy a product I don't really know much about, I lean toward Yamaha. I've never seen anything from Yamaha (amp, guitar, motorcyle, piano) that wasn't good quality at the price point.
    Indeed Yamaha is often underrated as it’s understated. Especially their speakers. But my StagePass is junk. (Except that the little 8” speakers outperform cheap Chinese 12”.)


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  14. #13

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    In my experience the Behringer products all sound good/useable and give you great bang for the buck. HOWEVER, when it comes to road-worthyness I have strong doubts that these would hold up long enough. If you have it sitting at home in a rack/on a shelf etc. and don't have to haul it around then go for it and save some $$$

  15. #14

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    Mine works and sounds great in my home studio. BUT if you are a Mac user and plan on using the USB version into the Mac, you could be in for a headache.

    See my post below from the Recording Subforum:


    I *could* use the usb mixer to go direct into the Mac mini, I've tried, but the Behringer does *not* play well with Mac OS and it is problematic. See here:

    [Solved] Behringer USB Audio Mixer with Mac OS X Not Working "The selected device has no input controls" - Pupuweb

    I suppose I could get a different mixer. <shrug>
    Last edited by Woody Sound; 10-22-2020 at 08:30 AM.

  16. #15

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    Lot's of FUD here as always when there is Behringer talk.

    I've been on the road for 25+ years with more than 200 gigs in some years, most of them done with Behringer mixers, didn't let me down a single time.

    Bought a fancy Soundcraft (UK company) mixer one day, guess who blew up immediately before a live-on-the-air radio gig?

    No affiliation here BTW.

  17. #16

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    I have an 8 channel Behringer mixer I bought used that I use for my home studio. It sounds good and I haven't had a problem with it in quite a few years. I'm not sure I'd trust it for gigging though.

  18. #17

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    For home use maybe ok but I use Mackies, they're more reliable and worth the extra $ especially for gigs

  19. #18

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    Behringer has not a good reputation but of course there is satisfied users too. I have avoided the brand but I ain’t a massive consumer of mixers. (And I have tried to avoid gigantic Thomann that sells Behringer and buy my things from local shops instead.)

    The JHS pedal maker Josh Scott wrote interesting things about the story behind the brand in his blog:

    Behringer started in 1989 with a guy named Uli Behringer. Since then, the Behringer gear company has grown tremendously and is now underneath a larger umbrella corporation called Music Tribe. Music Tribe also covers other companies that Uli either acquired or started including TC Electronic, Turbosound, Midas, Clark Technic, and many more. The company has grown to the point that they actually have their own city in China called Behringer City.** They not only manufacture products but in most cases they actually make the components used in those products. For a company in the audio industry, this is extremely unique historically.”

    What's the Deal with Behringer? — The JHS Show

  20. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by Woody Sound
    Mine works and sounds great in my home studio. BUT if you are a Mac user and plan on using the USB version into the Mac, you could be in for a headache.

    See my post below from the Recording Subforum:


    I *could* use the usb mixer to go direct into the Mac mini, I've tried, but the Behringer does *not* play well with Mac OS and it is problematic. See here:

    [Solved] Behringer USB Audio Mixer with Mac OS X Not Working "The selected device has no input controls" - Pupuweb

    I suppose I could get a different mixer. <shrug>
    Interesting. I have had absolutely no problem with the Mac and the USB connection. There is a button on the mixer that needs to be "up" to send sound to the mac, but otherwise it works very well. My problem is that the Channel 1 input sometimes seems to get the audio signal, but it does not get past there to the rest of the channel controls. Other times, the input panned hard left still comes through both L/R channels, Then other times, it's fine.

    So it seems the inputs and controls are somehow wonky.

  21. #20

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    I’ve found behringer to be either the absolute best stuff or the worst. There’s often no way of telling till you’ve used it in your rig. It’s good stuff is great though.


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