I lost my head! Now what?

jps · Post by **jps** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:17 pm

AFAIAC, Behringer does not have an original bone in it's body. They rip off everyone; there was a big lawsuit with Mackie over Behringer's mixers a couple years ago.

jnbass · Post by **jnbass** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:27 pm

Battle of the Clones!

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 7:29 pm

Ahh! Hence the low price, no design engineers, probably no engineers period. 200 bucks for a 300 watt amp is dirt cheap.

edski · Post by **edski** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 3:01 am

AFAIAC, Behringer does not have an original bone in it's body

That may very well be true, but in a lot of ways MicroSoft can be accused of the same thing. Maybe not to the same extent, but in a qualitative way...

For all the "blatent" rip offs Behringer supposedly does, there's only been a couple of serious infrigement claims against them AFIK. Not that I would know anymore than anyone else, and I certainly don't search out dirt. By all accounts Behringer is a cheap knockoff company that has hit a pretty good price point.

I don't think they are devoid of engineers, or even any original ideas if you really get picky. The BX3000 head doesn't really look like any I've seen, but it is pretty generic. The gimmick "vintage" VU meter to "precisely control your input" is a bad joke, but it does give the unit a "faux vintage" look...a little bit. It is funtionally useless - well maybe not entirely, since it DOES indicate the strength of the signal coming in through the pre-gain pot.

Supposedly Behringer boast their own twist to the circuitry - the "dynamizer" which as I understood it reading the manual was kind of an "on-demand" compression...not sure I buy that it's really there, really original, or barring those two possibilities, really effeective.

incubus2432 · Post by **incubus2432** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 3:28 am

Well, I would guess that Behringer would need engineers to "reverse engineer" the products that they knock off. My curiosity got the better of me a few times and I tried out some of their stuff and I wasn't too impressed. It is not that they were horrible....just not very good. I haven't checked out the BX3000 so I can't really comment on it. I can say that even if I was in the market for a new head I would not buy a Behringer ("ethical" reasons).

I am not saying that nobody else should buy their stuff or even that they don't make anything original or of quality....I don't know their whole product line. Just their business model of copying existing successful products and selling them for far below that of the original is unfair and could force companies that actually develop new ideas and solid products out of business or make them disinterested in creating new products. I'd rather wait to get the original than get a "hacked" version and save a few bucks. As far as if they have anything original....it was finances on blood money from their ripoffs that paid for development so I'll pass om that also.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 3:28 am

Microsoft got rich selling 3d rate software and stealing and lying ...

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 6:15 am

I think by it's own definition all compression is "on demand" depending on where the setting is set, maybe they left off the level control and it only has one internal pre set, haha!

edski · Post by **edski** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 6:32 am

Not sure...again, I'd have to dig around to find the users manual, and then suffer through their horrible english translation. As I understood it, the "dynamizer" was supposed to act like a compressor, but only when you needed it. Almost like it was suposed to read your mind.

I guess you're kind of saying that any compressor is supposed to behave that way!

SInce there is no control of it per se on the amp, then I guess it is probably a "one setting" compressor, for whatever that is worth.

jnbass · Post by **jnbass** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 7:10 am

The original "Dynamizer"

highway_star · Post by **highway_star** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 7:10 am

Note the visual similarities between the Ashdown MAG series and the Behringer BX3000.

edski · Post by **edski** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 7:16 am

OK...point taken, Ron!

Lyin' cheatin' copyin' bastages...

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:17 am

Now those are some cool looking duds!