Members Josh Savoy Posted July 21, 2003 Members Share Posted July 21, 2003 I've tried some of the Behringer stuff and I've enjoyed it, but I haven't had the opportunity to try anything else. I have a 20 channel mixer which I'll be using as the core of my new PA. Would you reccomend the Behringer power amp and speakers to pair up with this mixer? They're relatively inexpensive, but I don't know if there's a better choice amongst other items in the same price range. I know Yamaha and Peavey have good reputations, but they're just not in my price range (from what I've seen locally). Is the Behringer units on par? This PA will be used live and in my practice studio once built. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted July 21, 2003 CMS Author Share Posted July 21, 2003 Let us know your actual budget, and the number of people you plan to play to. It's impossible to guess these things with any accuracy. And no, the Behringer are not on par with Yammy or Peavey. And there are some pretty decent low-priced Peavey units, so lets us know the bad news (budget) and let's see what can be done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Josh Savoy Posted July 21, 2003 Author Members Share Posted July 21, 2003 We play MANY venues from 50 people all the way to 500 right now. We're on vacation now, but when we all return we're going to finish our first CD and start some serious gigging and I expect that our crowds may get bigger. My budget... well, I think I'll have $750 to spend. I REALLY like the mixer I have now, so I'd like to keep that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted July 21, 2003 CMS Author Share Posted July 21, 2003 Originally posted by Josh Savoy We play MANY venues from 50 people all the way to 500 right now. We're on vacation now, but when we all return we're going to finish our first CD and start some serious gigging and I expect that our crowds may get bigger.My budget... well, I think I'll have $750 to spend. I REALLY like the mixer I have now, so I'd like to keep that. I'm sorry, but even with Behringer you can't assemble a set of mid-highs, a pair of subs, a crossover, and a power amp on this budget. If you were to spend the extra to get these components, they might do okay for 50-100 people with minimal bass and kick drum in the mix. A good useful setup for up to 200 people would be a pair of Yamaha club 12's, a pair of their 18" subs, and a CP2000 power amp. Add on a decent crossover and you've got a nice small system for $1,500. For the 500-person shows, rent a professional sound man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Josh Savoy Posted July 21, 2003 Author Members Share Posted July 21, 2003 Well what I was asking was not what I needed for a PA, but is the Behringer sound quality on par with bigger name brands? At what level would you put these products at? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dirtyragamuffin Posted July 21, 2003 Members Share Posted July 21, 2003 Behringer is the cheapest of the cheap and there are only a couple of brands that are maybe even lower in quality. They're a solid notch below Yamaha, PV, Sonic, etc. $750 will you enough mediocre PA for an audience of about a hundred. It won't sound all that great so you'll be taken less seriously. The audience WILL notice a poor sounding PA rig, despite what you may have heard. A serious band looking for the setup you're describing sould expect to spend at *least* a few thousand, if yo'ure good at sniffing out deals. Iin my opinion, Behringer's mixers are the best thing they have going for them, and that's mainly because they're cheap. Sounds harsh, but that's how it is. Hopefully this answers your qustions.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted July 21, 2003 CMS Author Share Posted July 21, 2003 Originally posted by Josh Savoy Well what I was asking was not what I needed for a PA, but is the Behringer sound quality on par with bigger name brands?At what level would you put these products at? Then I answered your question in my first reply, no? Quite simply, "you get what you pay for" applies just as much here as everywhere else. I'd have no problems using Behringer for a practice rig, but would not gig with it unless it was a last resort. Much safer to rent decent equipment until I'd built a following and had sufficient gig income to afford MI- or Pro-level equipment. As for relative level, it's in the same neighborhood as Nady, Phonic, most Samson, Kustom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeffsfrey Posted July 21, 2003 Members Share Posted July 21, 2003 Originally posted by Josh Savoy My budget... well, I think I'll have $750 to spend. I REALLY like the mixer I have now, so I'd like to keep that. You should be able to get a half decent setup on the USED market for that price. A decent used power amp would be around $350 and a decent pair of used speakers would be about the same. Avoid Behringer regardless of how pleased you are with the mixer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted July 21, 2003 CMS Author Share Posted July 21, 2003 Originally posted by jeffsfrey You should be able to get a half decent setup on the USED market for that price. A decent used power amp would be around $350 and a decent pair of used speakers would be about the same. Avoid Behringer regardless of how pleased you are with the mixer. What scared me (for him) was the quote of number of people....a couple of small boxes of any brand simply won't cut it for a 500-person venue. Yeah, I'll be accused of being all grmpy like Audiopile, but he's completely right about setting a reasonable expectation for how your gear will perform. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members donovanlg Posted July 21, 2003 Members Share Posted July 21, 2003 Okay, I was just about to order a pair of Behringer B300 powered speakers, but this thread has sort of changed my mind. I'm doing acoustic gigs with just keyboard, acoustic guitar and vocals (no percussion/drums) and am looking for clean sound - tons of volume not necessary. I have a Behringer (non-powered) mixer which seems to be okay. Should I go for a different pair of powered speakers? I can spend about $1000... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members J the D Posted July 22, 2003 Members Share Posted July 22, 2003 Originally posted by donovanlg . Should I go for a different pair of powered speakers? I can spend about $1000... Look for a pair of Yorkville NX-20Ps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members strangegrey Posted July 22, 2003 Members Share Posted July 22, 2003 The Behringer mixers are fine...some will argue otherwise, but Behringer has been ripping off Mackie for some time now, in the mixer department....so I guess they know what they're doing there.... I use one myself, in the same situations you make mention of..... However, the Behringer bins leave ALOT to be desired....I bought two Behringer 1800X subs a few weeks ago....I haven't even plugged them in.....but they're going back...of the 2 bins, all but one corner protector was destroyed in transit....there was a noticable shimmy in one of them, when you leaned against it.....they were just plain old made poorly.... Here's another thing to consider.....The Behringer subs that I purchased are 200 bucks.....go ahead and look up how much it costs for an 18" driver???....but a fairly good one, with good power specs....and you're looking at anywhere from 140 - 175 for just the driver!!!! That doesn't leave much of a profit margin for Uli Behringer when all is said and done.... You can't help but consider, that the drivers in the behringer speakers aren't very good ones.... When it comes to speakers, I gotta say, that's almost the most important thing....I don't know what the pros will say in here...I'm in your boat, I'm a musician that is getting forced into being the PA guy out of necessity.....But the speakers are the first thing that your audience hears... Buying stuff that's made poorly with crap components isn't going to help you in the end... However, having said that, your budget is probably in the ballpark of Behringer gear, given that you mentioned it....so I'm NOT going to tell you to get a pair of Yorkvilles. They are considered to be the best of the inexpensive stuff......but there's a huge curve in that range... look at Yamaha s115's, Peavey's....I recently got a set of EV Force i's with matching subs.....and in my opinion, they blow away the yamaha s115s at the same price. Good luck.... -F Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted July 22, 2003 CMS Author Share Posted July 22, 2003 Strangegrey, if you use a Peavey SP118X as an example, you'd pay $409 for it retail, and a replacement BWX 18" is $149. Using the same speaker/total cab pricing the Behringer would have a $75 driver. If anyone can point out a decent $75 18" driver, please let us know. When you factor in the tiny box and its shoddy construction (if it can't survive the journey to your house, how many gigs would it last?), you've got a component that's cheap, but not a good value. "Bang for the Buck" assumes that you've got something that's useable for more than a few months of light use. I don't blame you for returning it. Regarding EV, I'm really impressed by the Eliminator i Series 15" and Sub. I've got a quote of $389 and $432 respectively, and after seeing that I really can't afford JBL SR's, I may go with these....very natural sound, in fact close to what I expect from good 'audiophile' home speakers. I'll have to arrange a shootout between these and some Peavey SP2X and JBL Mpro 200 and 400 series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members strangegrey Posted July 22, 2003 Members Share Posted July 22, 2003 Originally posted by Craigv Regarding EV, I'm really impressed by the Eliminator i Series 15" and Sub. I've got a quote of $389 and $432 respectively, and after seeing that I really can't afford JBL SR's, I may go with these....very natural sound, in fact close to what I expect from good 'audiophile' home speakers. I'll have to arrange a shootout between these and some Peavey SP2X and JBL Mpro 200 and 400 series. Add the Force i into the shootout as well.....The Force i blew me away....even against the Eliminator series, which is supposed to be a step up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members whsjosh Posted July 22, 2003 Members Share Posted July 22, 2003 A local club newly opened 6 month ago has installed 6 Behringer speaker box for their monitors. I think the boxes were B1520s and F1220s. They blew 4 boxes in 3 month with proper power rating with proper operation. The venue engineer (friend of mine) had to open the boxes to fix them, and what he'd found was crappy crossover and crappy drivers. "Just like a toy" he said. I've played there twice as a guitarist before I'd heard this story. And what I was feeling on the stage was "Oh! What a bad sound... ". The only reason this club installed these boxes was "budget". And now they are seriously planning to upgrade the monitor speaker system. I personally don't dislike Behringer products. Some of them are nice. But for the SR speakers I wouldn't recommand. Try find some decent used speakers! Yoshi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted July 22, 2003 CMS Author Share Posted July 22, 2003 Originally posted by strangegrey Add the Force i into the shootout as well.....The Force i blew me away....even against the Eliminator series, which is supposed to be a step up... Yeah that would be interesting and great. I'm also looking into using JBL SR4725X's w/o subs until I can scrape up the additional money. At $999 apiece....they better be excellent! That's been my problem...deciding whether the extra cost justifies whatever sound improvement I get. I'm willing to spend the money and wait, but if it costs double, it better be a significant upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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