Behringer
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BEHRINGER Spezielle Studiotechnik GmbH (Behringer) is a German company, founded in its present form in 1989, that manufactures and sells professional (or studio) audio equipment, DJ products, electric pianos and event lighting equipment. The company began outsourcing manufacturing to China before it was common among other manufacturers in this field. By doing this the company has become a significant player in the low cost segment of such equipment. Behringer has been able to provide products with many of the same features at a lower cost compared to their competitors, most notably Mackie & Roland (Boss).
Products
Pronounced bey-rin-jer, the company designs and manufactures a line of audio products for musicians, DJs and sound engineers as well as event & stage lighting. Their products include mixing consoles, analog and digital signal processors, guitar amplifiers, studio reference monitors, digital pianos, microphones, MIDI controllers, power amplifiers, public address enclosures and Guitar and Bass Guitar amplifiers, ranging from cheap 15 watt practice amps to expensive tube technology amps. The company recently introduced a large number of products including around 35 stompboxes and even more recently a line of digital pianos. Behringer products have been used in many live venues and recording studios around the world. Their range of MULTICOM/COMPOSER/AUTOCOM Pro-XL Compressors offer a quality that competes and is comparable with competitors products, at times at lower purchase price.
Criticism
Behringer have been criticised for what appears to be lower quality and therefore short life span for their products, most notably mixing desks. Power supply failure of desks and random failure are among the various criticisms of Behringer products. For this reason, certain products that are subject to less wear-and-tear are more popular with professionals eg. compressor units.
Copyright Controversy
Many users and industry professionals claim that the designs and features of Behringer products copy that of other manufacturer's. Behringer president and founder Uli Behringer resents this, however, claiming that all of his company's products were designed by themselves.[1] Many are of the opinion that companies like Mackie, BOSS, Samson Audio, Peavey Electronics, and Yamaha have seemingly had their product designs copied. [1]
It is also known that the Behringer company has infringed on the property rights of other companies, notibly Aphex, who prevailed against Behringer and was awarded a mid-six-figure judgement by a European court.
Behringer have now faced several in and out-of court settlements with various comptitors over the design of many of their products. Behringer have been accused of doing virtually none of their own R&D and of copying the image or look of many products; compare below.
Compare: http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/03/behringer-sued-by-roland-over-boss.html
Another example:
