Behringer Gear Quality : Your Experiences

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

Here’s the place to talk about your experiences, your perceptions, and why you feel that way.

As always keep it respectful, and on topic, and factually based. Pictures meant to ridicule, etc, have no place here.

ADDED: Why i started this thread :

It was demand driven. This topic is a frequent post elsewhere, and so like with the Syntakt Trademark thread, i made a place for others to share their opinions. The Syntakt topic was overwhelming the Superbooth 21 thread. So i made a thread for that discussion and the interest that was already there. The same for this topic, the discussion and interest is already present and so i made this thread. Enjoy it.

ADDED NOTE ON THIS THREAD : This is not a substitute for statistical measures of quality. As consumers we can get statistical data on the reliability of cars, and wash machines, but there is no public source for the reliability of synthesizers. All electronic and mechanical systems from all manufacturers have a non-zero rate of failure. The more complex a system, the more likely statistically it is to fail. But good design can minimize failure. Information on other’s experiences is all we have, at present, to measure that.

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Behringer EDGE : semi-modular percussion synth
Behringer EDGE : semi-modular percussion synth
System 15, 35, 55 from Behringer
Behringer Pro-1
#2

Had the Behringer Poly D for a while. I found it to be exceptional in terms of sound and build quality. Wish i still had it.

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#3

Nice honeypot, thanks Jukka.

I’ll still say no.

/mute :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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#4

Every time a new Behringer thread opens, somewhere a moderator dies.

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#5

Behringer Synths are ok for the price. I had a Neutron for a while. The problem with their synths are mostly that design wise they are not thought out until the end. Like on the Neutron the Tuning knobs are such placed that you can easily by mistake change the osc tuning. You must change the knob caps to avoid that.
Also i miss the love in those instruments. But that´s my opinion. I am not interested in any other Behringer synth so far. The bad reputation, may it be reasoned or not, is another story.

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#6

Everytime someone pronounce their name, they clone a new synth !

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#7

Had a Neutron, it wasn’t bad!
I sold it because I like to save a patches.

#8

…THE copycat company of the planet…and since they bough midas know how and call a chinese factory plant their own, well, it remains THE copycat company of the planet more than ever…

it’s a good thing to bring back some old classics that are not really available anymore for cheap bux…

and it’s bad thing to copy stuff that’s actually out there, just more expensive…

where to draw the line?

dunno…
while fact remains…their clones are never better than the real thing…and never too obvious more worse than the originals…and whenever durable builtquality is a factor on a product, their stuff is of course not top notch, since on some products u just can’t achieve that for such pricetags…while on others, with not too many moving parts, it actually can be done…

all i know for real…is…all i’ve ever bought from uli’s copycat universe were some super cheap genelec monitor rip offs…and what can i say…that was almost twenty years ago and they’re still in use whenever i wanna jam out too loud and don’t give a shit if i might destroy them finally now…but, surprisingly, they still don’t sound that good while still do that just jam it louder job…

and once i had some patchbay thing from them…dunno where that is gone…
but never bothered too much…since it was…of ocurse…cheap as fuk…
but hey, also did the job…

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#9

Low effort, for sure.

Edit: was referring to the (imo) lazier copies. Crave, Swing, Edge… Also, OPs original title was, ‘Are B synths low quality?’. :innocent:

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#10

A friend of mine had a brand new Model Poly D.
3 knob caps were broken in a couple of months, but it can be just some bad luck.
This person is very careful with his equipment (that includes today 4 Elektron boxes, a Rev 2, FX, mixer, all in pristine condition).

The Poly D was sold because of its lack of MIDI implementation.
There was also some trouble with osc detuning a bit, but that wasn’t that bad, IMO.

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#11

Reliable, long-life span, good sounding, etc, are important to me, and i spend a lot of time investigating that before I buy something. ( Sometimes i wonder if too much time. ) I own two Behringer synths, the 2600, and the Neutron ( both i researched for their quality ), so a small sample set. I can report both to be exceptional. Definitely higher quality than at least half of the other stuff i own or experience.

That said i will continue closely watching every purchase i make.

Everything i buy has something i wish different, sometimes something very minor. Usually i am aware going in. Part of the reason it will be good to hear about a lemon in this thread.

#12

can you reference this though? for example, what do you deem to be the best built synth you’ve used?

for me, Vermona are the best of currently available synths that I’ve used. literally built like tanks. all the knobs bolted to the front panel. absolutely no wobble in any pot, switch, jack, button, etc. all the jacks positioned perfectly so they all point the same direction. everything you could ask to be perfect is.

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#13

I’ve got a few. In terms of build quality there’s the wobbly octave switch on the Oddy. I dropped my RD8 and banged it into an amp. I bent a couple of pot shafts but they just bent rather than snapped and still work fine. I believe there’s an issue it’s the phase of some of the individual outs or at least they’re different to the mixed output. This has been addressed with the MK2 according to their blurb. Beyond that I’ve had zero issues. They sound good to my ears and sit well in a mix. You could argue that The Cat would benefit from longer throw sliders but the same complaint could be (and has been) levelled against other synths with those short throw sliders. All in all I’m very happy with my B synths.

Edit. I did have an issue with one of the VCOs on the Oddy not being spanned in but the unit was a B stock and only needed a slight tweak. I don’t class that as a fault, more something that slipped through QC. And it’s B stock status reflected that.

#14

I only have the Bonopoly, first batch.
Out of the box, it had a small scratch on the back panel, but everything else is fine so far, half a year in.
Maybe I’ll get two Korg stickers for it, so I can take it out of the studio.

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#15

I actually walked through the three rooms where I have equipment set up and did a “quality” poll in my mind. I also considered age of equipment and compensated for that. I try to be analytical, OK I’m not Spock.

I am not going to list here gear below Behringer in quality. It includes several big names, respected smaller makers and definitely some Kickstarted stuff.

#16

I think out of my collection the Monopoly the best in terms of build quality. If only in terms of heft and solidity.

#17

I can’t speak from experience as I’ve never really had any of their gear, but I have wondered about this question before.

I am super curious to see where things will be at in 10 or 15 years. We have been inundated with new electronic gear over the past 5 years of all price points. It’s easy and obvious to say generally that cheaper roughly means lower quality. Especially Behringer. But what will be standing in 15 years? Or 30 years?
So far it doesn’t seem obvious that the cheaper stuff isn’t holding up as well.

#18

this. and who will repair a failed B synth in 10-15 years? if it is even repairable. my guess: virtually no tech will take it on. out of difficulty of repairing surface mount components, dislike of the brand/gear, or just plenty of other more-repairable synths out there that need service. and even if they did… who would pay $500 to repair a Neutron or Model D?

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#19

Td-3 , seems good
Rd-8 mk1, generally good though instruments are not equal volume (rimzilla) . Firmware took a while
Pro -1 seems good
Ms1 - seems good though glide isn’t like 101 and the sequencer sucks
Td-3 seems fine
Synthtool … does the job I guess but sequencer sucks

Overall , reasonable experience but I’d wish they took a little more care on the finer details. (Midi sync , snappy envelopes etc )

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#20

I agree, but to be fair, this applies to a lot of the more “budget” gear. Who will be able to fix your Microfreak etc.

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