thoughts of the behringer MX8000

[Taunton-Audio]

I've just purchased one of these desks but from what I have heard others dont think much of them, I dont see much of a problem with it but that might be becasue I am going from a yamaha EMX5000 and anything has got to be better then that right? I paid a very low price for it on ebay and it is alot of desk from what I can see for what I paid for it, I just use it for simple set ups with a few mics and a laptop only using about 12 channels on a gig so I dont know if it was worth buying all those other channels if I dont use them but it came around at the right price, I am only 16 yet I have already owned a few other desks(yamaha EMX5000, Midas Venice 320,and because I already work for a company I have acsess to other desks which I have used in the past) I rather like the desk but before I start using this desk as my main FOH desk rather then my midas I want to know any problems you have come across with this desk

 

cheers,

 

p.s: I have already had somebody pour a drink over it so have just had that repaired,

[Bobbsy]

Well, the MX8000 is one of the better mixers ever made by Behringer. However, it's an old design that hasn't been made for several years and Behringer gear is certainly not known for it's longevity. Behringer make inexpensive gear at the budget end of the market where price is a bigger issue than sound or build quality. Their stuff is decent value for the money it costs--but never forget how little their stuff costs.

 

Frankly, the EMX5000 is probably a far better built mixer but it's hard to compare them since it's a powered mixer with fewer inputs and without the busses.

 

However, the Midas Venice is in a different league entirely. I'm not a fan of the Venice--I consider them over priced for what they are (and hate the 60mm faders) but in terms of sound quality and the way they're built there's no comparison with the Behringer. Put it this way--the Behringer is a ten year old Lada estate car, the Venice is a small BMW. Both have their places in the market for cars but they don't tend to compete for the same market. (Oh, and the Yamaha is a Ford Fiesta.)

 

What can go wrong with the Behringer? From what I've heard, the most common thing to die is the power supply, followed closely by the internal cabling which can corrode or just fall off the connectors, causing clicks, pops and loss of channels.

 

If it's working and has the facilities you need (and since you got a good deal) by all means use it until it dies. However, once you start playing with the EQ or hearing the output on a high quality PA, you may miss your Midas.

 

Bob

[MarkPAman]

I've just looked at your website, & it seems that you have a monitor engineer but no monitor desk! So your next purchase needs to be a method of splitting signal so that you can use the Midas FOH & the Behringer on stage (or the other way round if you want).

[SimonTheSoundMan]

MX8000 is a Mackie copy with inferior components. Behringer even copied it down to having the same serial number printed on the PCBs.

[Bobbsy]

Sigh. It's been a good few years since that urban myth last surfaced--I really hoped we were done with it.

 

Two facts: first, both Mackie and Behringer made cheap low end gear. I wouldn't write home about the quality of either.

 

Second, Mackie attempted a lawsuit against Behringer and lost. If you search the web you can find lots of the documents pertaining to this.

 

I'm not a big fan of either manufacturer but the "Behringer ripped off Mackie" myth has been circulating for well over a decade and it's not more true today than when it started (and Mackie lost their claim).

 

Bob

[Taunton-Audio]

I've just looked at your website, & it seems that you have a monitor engineer but no monitor desk! So your next purchase needs to be a method of splitting signal so that you can use the Midas FOH & the Behringer on stage (or the other way round if you want).

 

thanks for viewing my website, ive literally just started branching away from the main people around where I live, I quite liked the idea of starting my own company type thing( just a business name when I do gigs it looks a lot more professional and yes I am trying to get funds together for a monitor desk but at the moment I cant decide what is needed for what we do(we hardly use monitors but for the odd live band we mix for it would be good ) its either that or I run mons off the AUX sends on my FOH desk, I know you dont get as much control on them and FOH its hard to get them right but thats just one of those things,

 

to everyone who posts, I really appreciate your posts they really help me from getting from a one man mixer to a whole crew with kit at hand whenever needed, its much appreciated

 

MX8000 is a Mackie copy with inferior components. Behringer even copied it down to having the same serial number printed on the PCBs.

 

 

I agree but like bob says don't start that old one again or we will be here forever, thanks

 

 

[paulears]

I had one of those desks in the 90s and I was actually very pleased with it - and for what I paid, I got my money's worth - and then got a fair amount back when I sold it to buy a newer one.

 

Faults wise - one channel became 'difficult' raising the fader produced no sound, until is would suddenly come on at a near the top of the scale level. Solution, spend a long time removing the boards - or don't use it? I didn't use it. The insides are 3 big main boards, linked with ribbon connectors and lots of gunge over the connectors. I never had issues, but asome people found they needed to remove the gunge, push the connectors home and refix - usually vibration wiggles them gradually off.

 

Pre-amps were pretty good really - perhaps a little noisier than the Soundcraft I replaced it with, but never a problem.

 

My biggest annoyance was that the thick power supply cable has a plastic connector, which isn't too strong - and I broke mine. I had problems getting another - and actually found a complete power supply on ebay for £40 - which solved the problem without raising sweat!

 

It is, however, really a recording mixer - many features are clearly pointed towards recording. Each channel has two sections, one with simple eq and gain facilities, and the other has the full ones - intended to get tracks back in from a recorder. As a consequence, the 6 auxes are really 4 - the others are in the return path, for headphone monitoring in the studio. If you can live with this, they're fine. There are 8 groups - but each one has 3 outputs 1,9,17 on the rear panel, again for connection to a recorder.

 

Behringer did base it on the Mackie, no doubts whatsoever. I've no real opinion on the legalities - high price lawyers did that, but price for price, I was very pleased with it - get a meter bridge if you can find one - EXTREMELY handy.

 

I was using this mixer before some people commenting on it were at High School - it's very easy to comment on equipment you have heard about. Sound on Sound Magazine were pretty impressed with it when it came out - and some much more expensive desks at that time were far less reliable - I had one of those too.