Behringer ep1500/2500

[postman]

Has anyone actually used either one of these amps, i just want to know if theyre really as bad as some people seem to say.

I live in australia and i can get the ep2500 for around AU$700 and it supposedly puts out 750rms each side into 4ohms or 2400 bridged at 4ohms.

This seems to be the best amp in regards to price/output.

Ive considered ordering from the parts express, but even a modest crown ce1000 will come out to be around AU$850 or more once i pay for shipping to australia and us/aus dollar conversion.

I ask this because im looking to buy an amp to power my 2 15" brahmas (they seem to need alot of power to get going).

If i have any other good options id like to hear from you

[trwh]

If the amp is for home use, the CE1000 has proportional speed fans which will cause as little noise as possible. I believe that the fans on the B*******r run continuously.

I have not used the B*******r amps myself, but they received very bad press on the old LAB (Live Audio Board), on account of their poor reliablility.

Hope this helps,
Tim.

[postman]

Ah yeah ill have to check out the lab boards, pretty much everyone sez theyre bad, but wouldnt home use be completely different to uses at gigs etc ?

And yeah its for home use only.

[trwh]

Hi

While home use will almost certainly be less physically demanding for the amps, I would still buy a quality brand name unit.

One B*******r mode of failure involved the speaker protection relays 'sticking' closed, which lead to switching transients being fed to the speakers - not good.

Buy the CE1000 if low fan noise is important. If price is an issue the QSC RMX line may be cheaper, and they include a fixed high pass filter that may be useful. Also, amps like the Peavey CS and Yamaha models show up on Ebay all the time.

Hope this helps,
Tim.

[sympartysant]

The 24V Fan in the Behringer EP2500 runs with 14 Volt in normal state (I was measuring from room temperature to about 70 degrees Celsius @ the heatsink). The Behringer Support says it only switches to 24V when it gets really very very hot. (Dont know why they never come out with exact numbers, so it must be somewhere over 70 degrees Celsius :-) )

IMHO with that EP2500 you get a lot of amp for few bucks.

[sympartysant]

What I would propose for modding the EP2500 is:

1. Turning that Fan round, so that it blows out instead of in. You will need to lengthen the aluminium heatsink a few centimeters to do so. (Or else the cooling will be less efficient) This will tremendously reduce the amount of dust coming in the housing. The EP2500 has something like a dust filter @ the front of the housing. If you have turned round the Fan, this will then act as entrance for the airflow. (Instead of preventing the dust to be blown outside the housing if the Fan blows in the original direction)
I dont know for what reason they could have it assembled that way.

[sympartysant]

2. Connect a few Zener Diodes into the circuit of the Fan so that the Voltage is reduced to ~9 Volts in normal state. Connect an additional bimetallic switch (for low DC Application) to the heatsink, that short cuts the Zener Diodes when the Temperature rises to ~60 degrees Celcius and above.

IMHO when used for home cinema subwoofer application, 9V for the Fan is still enough. The heatsink does only warm up a few degrees more than room temperature.

[sympartysant]

sry I need still a few posts to be able to send emails

[sympartysant]

ah, and take a look at this test: (german)

http://www.altoproaudio.de/images/on...tmacro2400.pdf

several amps, including the Behringer EP2500, have been tested.

Greetz from the "Behringer"-Country
(or is that rather china...)

[AudioSystemsEng]

Behringer stuff is pretty sucky - The quality control is not good :-(

for some reason, the cicuit used in the EP series also appers in several different amps from different manufacturers - i dont know why.

the EP2500 is also a QSC RMX2450 - same circuit - same board layout even!
but the QSC uses better quality components, (the Behringer uses a lot of SMD parts).

look for my other post in the tread about C-Mark / Audiohead to see more.