I am thinking of getting two Behringer products; the DEQ2496 EQ and an active crossover. I've read about so many early Behringer failures (sometimes spectacular in nature) that I'm getting nervous about Behringer products. There are alternatives to crossovers, like ART, but I haven't seen anything that competes with the DEQ2496 anywhere near $300.
What do you think?
What do you think?
I have used several of the DEQs and DCXs and have not had any problem. They are a very good value for the money. Not much else will match the features at even 2 or 3 times the price. They are also easy to modify if you are so inclined, The weakest link is the analog output section. There are several options for modifying this.
I would buy them new and not used and make sure the vendor has a good return policy if it is defective out of the box.
If you are using these in a commercial environment, then I would worry about reliability.
Beware that when others recommend alternatives to the Behringer, the prices will sky rocket.
I would buy them new and not used and make sure the vendor has a good return policy if it is defective out of the box.
If you are using these in a commercial environment, then I would worry about reliability.
Beware that when others recommend alternatives to the Behringer, the prices will sky rocket.
BBE DS48 ~$300
DBX Driverack PA ~$425
Worth the extra $$$ if they have the features you want. Granted I use them in a commercial environment, but I don't think I've ever met a piece of Behringer gear that didn't--in some way--fail prematurely. Its always been odd to me that some people will go buy $5000 in amps and a $5000 pair of speakers and run the whole shebang through one of these.
FWIW
DBX Driverack PA ~$425
Worth the extra $$$ if they have the features you want. Granted I use them in a commercial environment, but I don't think I've ever met a piece of Behringer gear that didn't--in some way--fail prematurely. Its always been odd to me that some people will go buy $5000 in amps and a $5000 pair of speakers and run the whole shebang through one of these.
FWIW
A lot of different viewpoints. Thanks for them all and any others that may follow.
I should have mentioned that this is home use, not commercial, and the issues are not as critical. There are enough alternates for the XO that I probably will go another direction there. 24dB/oct is plenty and 18 would be fine for that matter. I think that some are only 2nd order, though (PylePro? I'm not sure).
I think I'm left with few alternatives for DEQ2496. Apparently it's luck of the draw with Behringer. Maybe one option would be to just get an extended warranty, if anybody dares sell them. Maybe that's what I'll do. Even $300 was a stretch for me, so anything more is not an option, unfortunately, although it's a lot of fun to look at some that high-end stuff. I do have a $30 Behringer UCA202 USB DAC interface which is now velcro'd to the lid of my laptop and I like a lot. It hasn't exploded yet...
I've been looking at the MiniDSP line of DIY boards which look promising and would fill the need. Problem with these is that they have to programmed through a PC and don't have the nice interface and display, etc, so are not very flexible.
Any other suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks
I should have mentioned that this is home use, not commercial, and the issues are not as critical. There are enough alternates for the XO that I probably will go another direction there. 24dB/oct is plenty and 18 would be fine for that matter. I think that some are only 2nd order, though (PylePro? I'm not sure).
I think I'm left with few alternatives for DEQ2496. Apparently it's luck of the draw with Behringer. Maybe one option would be to just get an extended warranty, if anybody dares sell them. Maybe that's what I'll do. Even $300 was a stretch for me, so anything more is not an option, unfortunately, although it's a lot of fun to look at some that high-end stuff. I do have a $30 Behringer UCA202 USB DAC interface which is now velcro'd to the lid of my laptop and I like a lot. It hasn't exploded yet...
I've been looking at the MiniDSP line of DIY boards which look promising and would fill the need. Problem with these is that they have to programmed through a PC and don't have the nice interface and display, etc, so are not very flexible.
Any other suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks
Last edited:
Yeah I'm pretty much Galileo all the way...I like pretty pictures and buttons. DBX 4820 is a nice unit for a lot less $$$$.
Here is the deal with Behringer: they basically copy other people's designs and build them with cheaper components. They got into some hot water in pro audio circles a few years back and many pro audio types won't use their stuff just on principle, functioning or not.
Here is an interesting one: open up a QSC RMX amplifier, which is really just a chinese made version of the old MX series(old school Winchester technology a-la Crown MA or Crest x001 series). Now open a Behringer EX, and lo-and-behold, its the SAME amp. A QSC rep even told me they were built in the same factory. What is different is the transformer in the QSC is about twice the size, and the components are supposedly of a higher quality(according to my electronics guys). Whats funny is when you hook both amps up to a big beefy load, say a 2x18 sub in bridge mode, the QSC will absolutely smoke the Behringer, and often the Behringer will just thermal out in a few minutes.
I don't believe in $8000 speaker cables or $800 IEC cables, and frankly I've run McIntosh amps and high quality pro amps in my home setup, and none of my golden ears friends or myself can objectively tell them apart. But--to a point--you definitely get what you pay for.
Here is the deal with Behringer: they basically copy other people's designs and build them with cheaper components. They got into some hot water in pro audio circles a few years back and many pro audio types won't use their stuff just on principle, functioning or not.
Here is an interesting one: open up a QSC RMX amplifier, which is really just a chinese made version of the old MX series(old school Winchester technology a-la Crown MA or Crest x001 series). Now open a Behringer EX, and lo-and-behold, its the SAME amp. A QSC rep even told me they were built in the same factory. What is different is the transformer in the QSC is about twice the size, and the components are supposedly of a higher quality(according to my electronics guys). Whats funny is when you hook both amps up to a big beefy load, say a 2x18 sub in bridge mode, the QSC will absolutely smoke the Behringer, and often the Behringer will just thermal out in a few minutes.
I don't believe in $8000 speaker cables or $800 IEC cables, and frankly I've run McIntosh amps and high quality pro amps in my home setup, and none of my golden ears friends or myself can objectively tell them apart. But--to a point--you definitely get what you pay for.
One more satisfied user :
Since 3 years that I use a DCX, no trouble yet. I did a lot of tweaks, some of them quite dirty with sparks and white smoke, but never blown something in the main card. For a digital device, I can say that it is really strong. OTOH, tweaking is very easy (modular structure) and very efficient.
Ok for home use, it's a bargain, but paradoxically not for pro PA with SPDIF...The Bug...
Since 3 years that I use a DCX, no trouble yet. I did a lot of tweaks, some of them quite dirty with sparks and white smoke, but never blown something in the main card. For a digital device, I can say that it is really strong. OTOH, tweaking is very easy (modular structure) and very efficient.
Ok for home use, it's a bargain, but paradoxically not for pro PA with SPDIF...The Bug...
I wonder if I even need the DEQ. What I ultimately need minimally is a two-way variable crossover at least 3rd order, plus an EQ that I can use for general system and room EQ. The EQ should be digital mostly because I want to have several switchable settings programmed for different music and situations. I think parametric-only would be okay, although the 1/3 octave graphic is certainly nice, but frankly, I don't understand how they work well enough to judge what is adequate for me.
Will the DCX or a similarly priced alternative do all that adequately for home purposes? I'd also like to use REW or similar to sweep the room, but I am willing to manually input the suggested settings to the EQ.
Sorry Galileo people, unless you want to loan me the $3200, that one is out...
Do my questions make sense? I'm really new to this stuff.
Thanks
Will the DCX or a similarly priced alternative do all that adequately for home purposes? I'd also like to use REW or similar to sweep the room, but I am willing to manually input the suggested settings to the EQ.
Sorry Galileo people, unless you want to loan me the $3200, that one is out...
Do my questions make sense? I'm really new to this stuff.
Thanks
sorry to spoil the fun
Behringer , DBX, LEM, all of those cheap DEQ and signal processors are crap.
You can't expect a good signal processor for $400.
Yes they all work, but none of them sounds good.
- No headroom
- 48db slopes? (anyone ever saw what happened with the phase?)
- Crapy build quality
- cheap electronics.
As someone above allready mentioned, the real processors starts with:
- Dolby Lake
- Klark Teknik 9848
- Meyer Galileo
- Electrovoice Netmax
- XTA
The Xilica is a good competitor but not yet at the level of the above processors.
If we are talking about HIFI who the **** is going to downgrade their system with a cheapass behringer crossover?
It doesn´t make sense to me at all!
Behringer , DBX, LEM, all of those cheap DEQ and signal processors are crap.
You can't expect a good signal processor for $400.
Yes they all work, but none of them sounds good.
- No headroom
- 48db slopes? (anyone ever saw what happened with the phase?)
- Crapy build quality
- cheap electronics.
As someone above allready mentioned, the real processors starts with:
- Dolby Lake
- Klark Teknik 9848
- Meyer Galileo
- Electrovoice Netmax
- XTA
The Xilica is a good competitor but not yet at the level of the above processors.
If we are talking about HIFI who the **** is going to downgrade their system with a cheapass behringer crossover?
It doesn´t make sense to me at all!
I agree that the CS 8420 is a flawed design, but there's a good medication for that.
But nobody can reasonably say that the AK 4393 fitted in standard in behringer cheap line is the worse DAC in the market.
Have to explain too in what the 48 dB slopes of a Klark Teknikn for example, are less shifting the phase (Klark 9848 is not FIR)...
Could it be an effect of the 5000$ price ?
But nobody can reasonably say that the AK 4393 fitted in standard in behringer cheap line is the worse DAC in the market.
Have to explain too in what the 48 dB slopes of a Klark Teknikn for example, are less shifting the phase (Klark 9848 is not FIR)...
Could it be an effect of the 5000$ price ?
Can't agree about the quality of Behringer being crap, I've had one of the first generation (version 1.x) DEQ2496 since about 2003, and I've been using it on a daily basis for active speaker equalization. (Mainly the Parametric EQ and Graphic EQ, but I occasionally use the Compressor when watching movies late at night )
I'm using the analogue inputs and outputs in the line level signal processor loop of my amplifier, (not the lower level pre-main loop after the volume control) and have never used the digital inputs/outputs. I've seen a lot of articles about modifying the analogue circuits for "better" quality, but I'm a bit sceptical that such modifications are needed or provide any real benefit. (If it was so easy to modify, why didn't the manufacturer do it themselves ?)
I've used it with a variety of speakers and amps and at no time have I ever felt that it was introducing any loss of quality, I've always found the quality exceptional in fact, especially compared to any analogue equalizers that it replaced. (I always run it in 24bit 96Khz mode)
Admittedly I have had one break down, after about 3 years it blew the power supply. It turned out that a loose screw on the main signal board had fallen out and got wedged under the power supply board shorting the power rails, blowing up the power supply.
It was out of warranty by then so I fixed the power supply myself (blown rectifier diodes) and it has been fine the 4 years since then, so I think this is more a freak occurrence than an indication of low quality.
For the price or even twice it's price I think it's really hard to beat. My only complaints with it would be:
* Minimum step size for GEQ and PEQ amplitude is 0.5dB - sounds small, but when you're experimenting with "voicing" of speakers, especially shelving adjustments, 0.5dB is really a bit too large of a step, 0.25dB would have been nice.
* Room Auto-EQ mode is nearly useless, as it attempts to make naive narrow band GEQ corrections based on steady state pink noise measured at the listening position, something doomed to failure in a normal home listening environment as it ends up equalizing the speaker/room power response instead of the on-axis response. I never use this mode.
* I've found a couple of minor bugs in the UI, one relating to the GEQ mode where in some circumstances the amplitude of the 16Khz band of the GEQ is not exactly what is visibly set. As mine is a first generation unit there are no firmware updates beyond 1.4 for it - it might be fixed in the 2.x firmware updates for the 2nd generation unit.
* Updating firmware is a bit fiddly - you need a MIDI interface cable, and a 3rd party program to upload a midi sysex file, not exactly user friendly. Only one firmware update ever came out for my first generation model (1.4) but I believe there have been 2 or 3 releases for the 2.x devices.
* In theory the device is fully remote controllable via the midi interface, however unlike some of their other units Behringer have not provided any software to do this. I have only seen one free Windows program which attempts to exploit this functionality (discussed on this forum in fact) but it's very buggy and incomplete to the point where I didn't find it usable. Pity, remote control from a laptop would have been very handy for making adjustments while at the listening position.
* Some of the features aren't useful in a home environment, for example the feedback suppressor, and the analogue inputs/outputs are XLR, although they do support unbalanced operation with the appropriate cables with a link wire at the XLR end.
Minor niggles really, I'm very happy with it in other ways
)I'm using the analogue inputs and outputs in the line level signal processor loop of my amplifier, (not the lower level pre-main loop after the volume control) and have never used the digital inputs/outputs. I've seen a lot of articles about modifying the analogue circuits for "better" quality, but I'm a bit sceptical that such modifications are needed or provide any real benefit. (If it was so easy to modify, why didn't the manufacturer do it themselves ?)
I've used it with a variety of speakers and amps and at no time have I ever felt that it was introducing any loss of quality, I've always found the quality exceptional in fact, especially compared to any analogue equalizers that it replaced. (I always run it in 24bit 96Khz mode)
Admittedly I have had one break down, after about 3 years it blew the power supply. It turned out that a loose screw on the main signal board had fallen out and got wedged under the power supply board shorting the power rails, blowing up the power supply.
It was out of warranty by then so I fixed the power supply myself (blown rectifier diodes) and it has been fine the 4 years since then, so I think this is more a freak occurrence than an indication of low quality.
For the price or even twice it's price I think it's really hard to beat. My only complaints with it would be:
* Minimum step size for GEQ and PEQ amplitude is 0.5dB - sounds small, but when you're experimenting with "voicing" of speakers, especially shelving adjustments, 0.5dB is really a bit too large of a step, 0.25dB would have been nice.
* Room Auto-EQ mode is nearly useless, as it attempts to make naive narrow band GEQ corrections based on steady state pink noise measured at the listening position, something doomed to failure in a normal home listening environment as it ends up equalizing the speaker/room power response instead of the on-axis response. I never use this mode.
* I've found a couple of minor bugs in the UI, one relating to the GEQ mode where in some circumstances the amplitude of the 16Khz band of the GEQ is not exactly what is visibly set. As mine is a first generation unit there are no firmware updates beyond 1.4 for it - it might be fixed in the 2.x firmware updates for the 2nd generation unit.
* Updating firmware is a bit fiddly - you need a MIDI interface cable, and a 3rd party program to upload a midi sysex file, not exactly user friendly. Only one firmware update ever came out for my first generation model (1.4) but I believe there have been 2 or 3 releases for the 2.x devices.
* In theory the device is fully remote controllable via the midi interface, however unlike some of their other units Behringer have not provided any software to do this. I have only seen one free Windows program which attempts to exploit this functionality (discussed on this forum in fact) but it's very buggy and incomplete to the point where I didn't find it usable. Pity, remote control from a laptop would have been very handy for making adjustments while at the listening position.
* Some of the features aren't useful in a home environment, for example the feedback suppressor, and the analogue inputs/outputs are XLR, although they do support unbalanced operation with the appropriate cables with a link wire at the XLR end.
Minor niggles really, I'm very happy with it in other ways
I'd say either get the BBE DS48 or take a chance on the Behringer. The BBE will do whatever you want to do; I have a friend that uses them for small church installs and I don't believe he has ever had one go down. Maybe Behringer has cleaned up their act on these after all; these testimonials are counter to my experience but I haven't bought one in a while.
Thank you guys for a very instructive discussion. I think I have a much better feel for what I need now. Thanks for the heads up on the BBE line. Sounds like a good alternative. I'll be studying up on this stuff some more and decide.
I wonder if a lot of the Behringer problems stem from loose hardware. I've seen a lot of descriptions of failures that sound like physical problems such as screws causing shorts, etc. If I did get a Behringer, I think I'd want to take the cover off and just look around. Or would that void the warranty? Odd dilemma.
I appreciate that you get more for $3000, but if you just plain don't have it, I would bet that a $300 device is a whole lot better than no device.
I wonder if a lot of the Behringer problems stem from loose hardware. I've seen a lot of descriptions of failures that sound like physical problems such as screws causing shorts, etc. If I did get a Behringer, I think I'd want to take the cover off and just look around. Or would that void the warranty? Odd dilemma.
I appreciate that you get more for $3000, but if you just plain don't have it, I would bet that a $300 device is a whole lot better than no device.
You got the word !!!
And with this crappy piece of gear, you will soon discover that before it, you knew nothing about filters and finally speaker optimization.
People traditionally are splitting hairs for the relative performance of different models.
BUT 90% of the difference between crap or great results will come from YOU. I mean how skilled you are for measuring, setting up the EQ, the Fc, their slopes, the time alignment and finally listening analytically what you have done.
He He, and if you become perfectionist, except the FIR brickwall, a stoopid DCX can emulate almost any filter topology, including the substractive delay ones...
I've used the DEQ and DCX at home for years and they're fine for that use.
However, the finish was not good.
On the DCX the input output fittings were not screwed down properly and introduced a rumbling sound. On the DEQ the circuit board was shorting out on the case and so it wasn't getting beyond initialization - I fixed that by sliding a thin piece of card between case and board. No problems since.
So, yes examine the device really carefully when you get it. If you don't scratch the screws who's to know if you ever took the case off?
However, the finish was not good.
On the DCX the input output fittings were not screwed down properly and introduced a rumbling sound. On the DEQ the circuit board was shorting out on the case and so it wasn't getting beyond initialization - I fixed that by sliding a thin piece of card between case and board. No problems since.
So, yes examine the device really carefully when you get it. If you don't scratch the screws who's to know if you ever took the case off?
I'm thinking that if you can provide the basic functional construction for $400, then another few dollars might make the hardware decent sounding (not the best, but decent), if it isn't already. Other than that the cost of the development can be amortized away for a high volume product such as the Behringer boxes.
Isn't headroom in practice up to how the user chooses to gain stage the setup? Of course, the meters may or may not show correct absolute values. If the digital interfaces are used there's no actual headroom in that part of the signal chain anyway.
The DEQ2496 uses phase linear FIRs, if I'm not mistaken. Would it not be possible that it sounds good, having no phase anomalies, if using digital IO or making the appropriate modifications to the analogue electronics?
This is where I feel Behringer is a let down. As I've mentioned elsewhere, my units have been plagued by mains hum (and one DOA) to the point where they're not usable. Others are not reporting any problems with the analogue sound. Possibly very inconsistent then (but is it the boxes or the users?
). Something like the DEQ2496 could be pretty sweet out of the box if another one hundred dollars or so were thrown at the electronics. Software and feature wise I reckon it's pretty sweet already, i.e. the digital aspects of it - apart from the ultra expensive boxes out there, I can't really find anything else to match it. Thus it's seems to be a good case for DIY mods.DJ
--
For high power amps - Behringer is hard to go wrong with. For everything else - not so much. We've used the Drive Rack, BBE DS48, and DCX 2496. The only one that's given us trouble has been the DCX2496. A Google search on problems with this unit pretty much tells the story - everything from boards shorting out on the chassis to poor soldering issues. The DBX and BBE units, while not as "full featured" as some of the other more expensive alternatives, are at least reliable and produce excellent sound. The Behringer sounds great too - when it's not busy crashing.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.