Behringer Cabs???

[phatbassdude]

What is the bassing contingent's view on Behringer cabs and amps???

They seem cheap and with a lot of bang for your buck - but does this affect their quality of sound?

Models of interest are the BB410 or BB210 and the BB115.

I would ideally have the 410 and 115 matched to my Hartke HA550.

Many thanks.

[Dood]

I played a BA410 (The 'alu' coned cabs) the other day actually. Had a good 3 hours to mess around with em. The sound of the speakers wasnt bad at all for the price. The bottom end was *there* - not massive and a little too 'diet' for me. Obviously, you look at these cabs and you naturally have a thought about Hartke.. we know how good *they* sound.

The thing that really put me off though, was the tweeter. Every note I played had a 'note' added from the tweeter. a 'ring' or 'resonance' if you will. I do like the sound of good tweeters.. but I couldnt get on with this one. For the price of the cab, I'd be happy to upgrade the tweeter straight away.

To be honest though, I would whole heartedly say, if you fancy an 'alu' cab.. save your pennies and get the Hartke 4.5XL.

That aside, you are talking about the normal paper cones 'BB' type.. which could be a whole different story (except for the tweeters, of course)

[Russ]

The cabs with the paper cone speakers aren't too bad - a bit lacking in low-end wallop, but you can't expect everything at that price. Their 8x10" is quite impressive though - plenty of punch and low end, and better sounding than some more expensive cabs. Basically, their cabs are a lot better than their amps.

[DaBassMonsta]

Funnily enough, I'm looking at the BA115 myself. I've played on a mate's and it seems pretty decent but I'm really quite a novice in this department. Are the alu ones bad then?

It's not as if I can wait and save for it or go much more expensive as I'll be shelling out for a lot of things in one hit. I'm already in trouble for increasing my budget on the new bass.

Help!?!?!

[rodl2005]

I've seen the ALU ones blow to pieces!!!! IME- there's a guy around my town that has a Behr. 300w head & 4x10cab seems OK. BUT I've heard of SO MANY that have broken pretty soon after warranty runs out. THAT seems 2 be the problem- I think they build 'em NOT to last. IMHO- better off buying a 2nd hand Hartke amp- if poss. one with tube & s.s. pre amp- These seem pretty good & ARE RELIABLE!!!!!!! VERY!!!!! & also a Hartke cab- the one above-4.5XL- I've heard GOOD things about! With Hartke U R pretty much guaranteed to have a rig that'll LAST AND SOUND GOOD. Behr.- may sound OK But AFAIK will NOT last!!!!!

[stewblack]

[quote name='phatbassdude' post='10153' date='May 31 2007, 08:32 PM']What is the bassing contingent's view on Behringer cabs and amps???

They seem cheap and with a lot of bang for your buck - but does this affect their quality of sound?

Models of interest are the BB410 or BB210 and the BB115.

I would ideally have the 410 and 115 matched to my Hartke HA550.

Many thanks.[/quote]

They are fantastic value for money. Mine have conspicuously failed to explode or sound sh*te no matter how often people who won't use Behringer say they will.
I use the BA115 and the BA410 but the 15 is 8ohm so I don't get the best out of it. I recommend the 410 more . Very big sound. I use mine either in a stereo set up with a behringer 450 amp and an eden nemesis 650 or just the two together with the nemesis. I wish I'd gone for two 410 instead now as that would suit the impedence of my amps better and they have a bigger sound.
They are solid, nicely carpeted and have cunningly concealed wheel arrangement. As far as I'm concerned at the price they go for they could be as sh*t as people who never use Behringer say they are and still be worth it!

Oh and while I think of it, my guitarist is so impressed with my rig that last night he said he wished he'd saved his money and tried Behringer before he spent a fortune on Marshall. For one thing the sheer solidity and build quality impressed him as he hauled his disintegrating overpriced 4X12 out of my car last night. Now missing another castor!!

Edited June 1, 2007 by stewblack

[Dood]

I've not heard any stories of the Behri' cabs 'blowing up' or anything. I would totally agree with how well the cabs appear to be built. Effort has gone into the little details that make cabs good. The wheels, side handles and a decent from grill make for a good package. Like stew says.. for the price, you really cant go wrong. Think how many of these cabs you could buy in comparison to other 'more expensive' makes.

I guess it depends on what sort of sound you want and how deep your pockets are too.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

[quote name='dood' post='10478' date='Jun 1 2007, 07:45 AM']I've not heard any stories of the Behri' cabs 'blowing up' or anything.[/quote]
I have, many times. Behringer electronics tend to be quite good, but they cut corners on everything mechanical, which includes switches, jacks, pots, and drivers.

[phatbassdude]

Thanks guys really useful. So the alu' cones are more highly recommended than paper? What are the crucial differences?

Edited June 1, 2007 by phatbassdude

[pete.young]

In the interests of balanced reporting ...

I'm not going to comment on the cabs, but I'd avoid the amps like the plague. My son bought one (despite me telling him not to!) and I'm less than impressed. It is incredibly noisy (loud hiss, not mains hum) and unbelievably cheaply made - pots soldered straight on to the PCB, etc.

He was lifting it out of the car one day and just snagged one of the tone controls, and the knob flew off, having sheared the
pot shaft clean off. This time we got lucky with superglue, but these things are so fragile that they shouldn't be taken out of the house.

[stewblack]

[quote name='pete.young' post='10653' date='Jun 1 2007, 05:06 PM']In the interests of balanced reporting ...

I'm not going to comment on the cabs, but I'd avoid the amps like the plague. My son bought one (despite me telling him not to!) and I'm less than impressed. It is incredibly noisy (loud hiss, not mains hum) and unbelievably cheaply made - pots soldered straight on to the PCB, etc.

He was lifting it out of the car one day and just snagged one of the tone controls, and the knob flew off, having sheared the
pot shaft clean off. This time we got lucky with superglue, but these things are so fragile that they shouldn't be taken out of the house.[/quote]

Not my experience. Sorry to disagree, but I use a Behringer 4500 head which is solid as a rock and we use a powered mixer at our venue 2 -3 times a week which is also solid, and treated with anything but kid gloves. The problem is individual experiences differ. As I say my mate hates his Marshall because of the flimsy build but I know someone else who's had Marshall for donkey's years without a problem, and swears by them. I bought a Nemesis - highly recommended then I hear some people have reliability issues with them. Trace Elliot has a great rep but the one I had was noisy and kept breaking down - not in the same league as the Behringer for reliability. It's such a lottery in some ways isn't it?

[Dread Bass]

Hi

im selling a behringer stack

4x10 wit alu cones
a 300 watt head

I never had a problem with either it sounds good. i only replaced mine for something smaller.

I am happy with mine nothing to complain about.

no problems with reliability

I do know what dood means about the tweeter but i found with a bit of fiddling you cud lessen the problem and some of the time i turn mine off and dont miss it at all.

its got enough top end without it imo


come and get a go and decide for your self ill put the kettle on.

[tylerlangan]

At the practise rooms I use they have the 'alu' speaker type cabs, the 4x10 ones and I don't think they're too bad at all to be fair.

I was pretty impressed with the sound and they held up really well even though the behringer head that it was paired up with had a faulty ac adapter and kept blowing the power to the whole building every few minutes which leads me to believe that they must be built with at least some competence!

In my own experience though everything that I've owned or that the college I go to has owned that's been Behringer has broken after about a year

I myself have gone through 6 of their tuning pedals... which might seem ridiculous but the shop I bought the original from kept replacing them for free lol

I've also destroyed one their usb mixers by simply turning off the phantom power and seen a friend do the same to the model without the usb adapter, their large diaphragm condenser seems to disentegrate under any kind of heavy SPL rendering it useless for all but acoustic instruments..

Whilst I'm staying away from the company because of this, I've heard others give glowing reports so I guess that stew's right when he said that it 's a lottery... I guess our numbers all have to come up eventually =)

(god, that was cheesy)

[stewblack]

Just played a wedding, used two Behringer cabs and as they'd only provided a vocal PA had to fill a relatively large room with bass - they held up really well and sounded great! I promise to keep you informed should anything blow up on me in the future.

Edited June 3, 2007 by stewblack

[woolleydick]

Hi
I have a BB210 and a BB115
I use them bi-amped by my SWR SM500S head.
I find them pretty good if a little inefficient.
They made it out to Libya on the back of a truck from UK fine in their original packaging and have been thrown around in the back of various pickup trucks for the last two years with apparently no serious problems doing about 1 or 2 gigs per month, and there are still no marks on the carpets either!
The tweeter is atrocious on both cabs, but as you can switch it off that is not terminally problematic.
Bit heavy for the size maybe.
Front grill on the 115 is now a bit loose on one corner, but nothing a woodscrew or self tapper cannot sort out, which I should do as it buzzes sometimes.

For the price I would be insane to complain. However I am now upgrading to a 1x18 plus 4x10 peavey setup and will let you all know if there is a big difference in sound quality.

Oh btw if I sell them it will be pick up only from Libya due to excessive postage costs :-)

Cheers

[barneythedog]

Have had a BX1200 120 Watt combo (paper cone) for the last couple of years.

Has held up ok but only really been used for practice (and two small gigs). My normal gig rig is a Warwick ProFet 5.1 + Warwick 410 and to be honest there is no comparison in the sound quality stakes - The Behringer makes bass(ish) noises, thats about as far as it goes. But then again the Behringer is much smaller and [u]much[/u] cheaper.

So all I can say is - my Behringer has proved reliable enough. Wouldn't buy one again but it works.

[AdamWoodBass]

Ok I'm preparing to be slated here but I'm just giving my opinion with reference to personal experience. I had a behri alu 4x10, and on paper it was fantastic with its 1000 watts rms etc. In reality it was the heaviest thing in the world and when I used a warwick 400 watt hybrid amp through it ("protube IV", solid state with a 2 tube valve channel) I blew a cone to pieces on its first gig second song in (and no I wasn't driving the arse off it either, spec wise the cab should have been able to handle it but alas no). My opinion is that yes behri stuff is cheap but I'd recommend to anyone who wants their gear to last and be reliable then don't skimp on it. At the end of the day its an investment so save your money until you can afford to buy something you know will be worthwhile however I know its not always that easy. I did consider another cheap cab but i figured I should push more money into it and so I'm now using Warwick Neo cabs and I've never had a problem with them in about 3 or so years. At the end of the day I'm a big believer in "you get what you pay for" so please don't hate me.

Adam

[stewblack]

[quote name='AdamWoodBass' post='12025' date='Jun 4 2007, 07:42 PM']Ok I'm preparing to be slated here but I'm just giving my opinion with reference to personal experience. I had a behri alu 4x10, and on paper it was fantastic with its 1000 watts rms etc. In reality it was the heaviest thing in the world and when I used a warwick 400 watt hybrid amp through it ("protube IV", solid state with a 2 tube valve channel) I blew a cone to pieces on its first gig second song in (and no I wasn't driving the arse off it either, spec wise the cab should have been able to handle it but alas no). My opinion is that yes behri stuff is cheap but I'd recommend to anyone who wants their gear to last and be reliable then don't skimp on it. At the end of the day its an investment so save your money until you can afford to buy something you know will be worthwhile however I know its not always that easy. I did consider another cheap cab but i figured I should push more money into it and so I'm now using Warwick Neo cabs and I've never had a problem with them in about 3 or so years. At the end of the day I'm a big believer in "you get what you pay for" so please don't hate me.

Adam[/quote]

I for one won't slate you - it backs up what I think about the lottery. A couple of posts back a Behringer user who'd bounced them around the desert for two years with no problems (paraphrasing I know!) and now one who's blown one up second song in.
The trouble is we never know, whatever the make, until we've bought it and used it by which time it's too late!

Edited June 4, 2007 by stewblack

[woolleydick]

[quote name='stewblack' post='12085' date='Jun 4 2007, 11:29 PM']I for one won't slate you - it backs up what I think about the lottery. A couple of posts back a Behringer user who'd bounced them around the desert for two years with no problems (paraphrasing I know!) and now one who's blown one up second song in.
The trouble is we never know, whatever the make, until we've bought it and used it by which time it's too late![/quote]

Even as a Behringer fan, one has to be fair and look at the number of people who have had personal bad experiences (not just heard of them).
There do seem to be a disproportionate number of failures, but then again is the case that the number of failures per 100 units sold is high?
We will probably never know as there are not going to be reliable statistics published across the manufacturers.

At the end of the day, one more often than not gets what one pays for and what one is paying for Behringer stuff is very small money (relatively speakering).
If I have been lucky then I am glad, but difficult to be accurate.

[woolleydick]

Ok so first rehearsal with peavey 4x10 + 1x18 black widow compared to Behringer bb210 + bb115
Yes I know not a direct comparison but best I can do.

In summary, the peaveys sound much better and much much louder.
Tighter response, cleaner bottom end
However, more difficult to get a growl out of them, but that should not really be their job in the system (should it?)
Maybe the peaveys are not reproducing my growl as well as the behringers?
Anyway I will get used to them and find my sound in time.

conclusion
Instead of buying new behringers, better to buy secondhand better brands for similar price

I will be keeping the Behringers as a home setup to be used with my crate powerblock for those particularly wildly loud jam sessions that annoy my neighbours at one in the morning.....!

[Oxblood]

You're quite right: adding growl shouldn't be the role of the speaker - at least not if you want it to have a long and useful life. The growl you're getting from the Behringer is probably the drivers getting a tad overstretched.

Peavey gear is SO under-appreciated, especially in the States. Superb value for money: in terms of quality it's in a whole different league from Behringer. Every piece of Peavey I've ever used has been built like a tank and has nailed me to the wall - especially the 18" Black Widow. Holy sh*t, what a beast!

Edited June 7, 2007 by Oxblood

[rodl2005]

Good Idea Wooly.... Best use I can think of for 'em.

[woolleydick]

[quote name='Oxblood' post='13457' date='Jun 7 2007, 11:20 AM']You're quite right: adding growl shouldn't be the role of the speaker - at least not if you want it to have a long and useful life. The growl you're getting from the Behringer is probably the drivers getting a tad overstretched.[/quote]

Actually it is not that sort of growl, and they are certainly not being stretched at the volume/input levels we are talking about.

However it has just occured to me that the reason could be that I had to turn down my amp so much compared to using the Behringers that this is the likely source of the change - had to turn down due to drowning out the rest of the band in its entirety at the previous settings. Thus I guess my amp is idling somewhat compared to before, just going to have to get a bigger PA I suppose (any excuse)

[Russ]

Most of what we hear as "growl" is in the midrange frequencies, and, from my experience, Peavey cabs with the 10" speakers and tweeters are quite midrange-shy.

Apparently the newer TVX cabs are a lot better in this regard, but I seem to recall reading about a mod you can do to the TX cabs where you can liberate some more mids by changing the crossover frequency for the tweeter.

[bassbluestew]

You want a killer cab sub £300, search out Basson, I have one otheir B210B cabs, which I use with my MesaBoogie 400+ and it is killer ( ain't it Ped ). I just couldn't believe how cheap these cabs are at the mo' , I think they are jsut trying to break the UK market so grab a bargain.
It's easily the loudest 2x10 cab I have EVER hear. It's also the heaviest. The magnets in each of the speakers weigh in at a massive 200oz's
specs are -
2x10" BS1075 Driver
Horn with OFF/ON switch
500 watts rms
101dB / max 125dB
4 ohms
28Hz - 20 kHz
Frequency Response:
12 dB - LP
18 dB - HP
Crossover Point for the horn is at 3.5K
24 1/4" x 18 1/4" x 33 1/4"
110 lbs

Website is www.bassonsound.com

Stunning
S