Behringer A500 - Any Thoughts?

[chrism]

Seen this one come up a few times in the past and wondered if anyone has given the relatively low cost B A500 amp ago? I am interested in if it can realistically compete with more expensive offerings and what modifications could be done to improve it's weaknesses i.e. removing the pots etc.

Can it be made to beat my Avondale A260 I wonder?

Regards

Chris

[Beobloke]

I'd give it a miss if I were you. Decently powerful and good specs on paper but sounds fairly unpleasant across the mid and treble.

Other than to drive the bass end of things in a tri-wired setup, I wouldn't put one into a hi-fi system.

[icehockeyboy]

I'd give it a miss if I were you. Decently powerful and good specs on paper but sounds fairly unpleasant across the mid and treble.

Other than to drive the bass end of things in a tri-wired setup, I wouldn't put one into a hi-fi system.

Wot 'e sed!

Add to that a reputation in commercial use anyway, of blowing up!

[chrism]

Thanks guys,

Have you tried one or is this what you have found out. I am interested in anyones findings after having a dabble with one inparticular. If anyone has one to sell I would be interested and would use it for a spot of wintertime modding :donk:.

Regards

Chris

[The Grand Wazoo]

I may be wrong, but I think Jerry had a brief flirtation with these.

[Haselsh1]

:(I bought one of these from Digital Village back in maybe 2005. The sound was truly awful but I put that down to a fault or possible fault and sent it back. Trying to get a refund from DV was another story alltogether as I almost had to take them to court and had to seek the advice of consumer groups.

The amplifier only likes to be used with a preamp as, as soon as you lower the front pots, the sound starts to break up significantly. It is all but unusable. There is no way I could recommend one of these from first hand experience.

[The Grand Wazoo]

A quick search reveals some of Jerry's thoughts, which are rather different to what everyone else has been saying about these:

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?p=171520&highlight=Behringer+A500#post171520

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?p=72135&highlight=Behringer+A500#post72135

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=9417&highlight=Behringer+A500

[twelvebears]

I may be wrong, but I think Jerry had a brief flirtation with these.

I think you'll find that Jerry has flirted with most audio products at one time or another... :lolsign:

[jandl100]

I think you'll find that Jerry has flirted with most audio products at one time or another... :lolsign:

Hi Steve!! :wave:

I've more than flirted with the Behringer A500 - I've fallen madly, deeply in lurv with them!

I positively, totally, utterly disagree with those who diss this amp.

I think it's fab ... you should have heard it drive my old Infinity RS2.5 ribbon hybrids - totally yummy.

Get two and bi-amp. I did. Fabulous.

A Wammer bought one on my recommendation to drive his power hungry Apogee big ribbon speakers - most amps wimp out - he was delighted with the A500. It did a more than creditable job.

Too cheap for some folks, I reckon. Their loss! :lol:

[Macca]

I have two of them I bought off Jerry ages back, not really had a chance to have a proper play with them, one is still in the box, one is earmarked to drive my home built subwoofer. On a brief listen I would be inclined to agree with Adam's comments however if it were truly that bad they would not have sold any so I suspect it is fussy about speaker loads and pre-amps.

As for them blowing up in studios I would imagine that is down to monoblocking them into low impedence loads and then thrashing them, something the manual specifically advises against.

[jandl100]

A quick search reveals some of Jerry's thoughts, which are rather different to what everyone else has been saying about these:

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?p=171520&highlight=Behringer+A500#post171520

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?p=72135&highlight=Behringer+A500#post72135

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=9417&highlight=Behringer+A500

Ah - just noticed the links that Chris kindly gave.

Words of Wisdom :eyebrows:

[Chunky70]

I use two of these bridged as monoblocks and i absolutely love them. Really opened up my tannoy floorstanders, they now sing! There clean powerful and transparent too my ears, i can't fault them. In the 12 months i've had them they have never let me down and at £320 for two what's not to like!
Just make sure you have the gains up full and control from preamp (i had to use xlr attenuators as gain too much from my preamp).
There are loads of tweaks that can be done with this amp i'm sure. Replacing gain controls for a start. Check what this guy has done.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/linux-works/2640387307/

[jandl100]

I use two of these bridged as monoblocks and i absolutely love them. Really opened up my tannoy floorstanders, they now sing! There clean powerful and transparent too my ears, i can't fault them. In the 12 months i've had them they have never let me down and at £320 for two what's not to like!

Aha! Nice to hear from you, Ian!

I thought I was alone in my madness. :lol:

[twelvebears]

Hi Jerry. :)

As another 'cheap thrills' option for bi-amping or mono-block fun, you could also have a look around for second hand Rotel RB-980s.

'Back in the day' (when I had a part-time 'beer money' Saturday job in a hi-fi shop) I was a big fan of these amps. In fact I frequently used to sell the Rotel pre/power combo over the then ubiquitous Audiolab pairing, as being slightly warmer and more musical but also with serious welly.

Add a second RB-980 and your had stacks of power on tap for tiny money, so if you can find a pair now they'd probably be dirt cheap.

Reliable too. Mine survived life in a house shared with frends who loved and respected my system but not our neighbours :o and never batted and eye, no-matter what abuse they got.

[chrism]

Thanks again to everyone.

Regarding the gain point. I was hoping to use a "passive mod" Caiman as a preamp and thought about removing the A500 pots. Not sure if the impedance matches though.

Had a look at the Rotel RB-980's and the build quality does look very good compared to the A500. Not seen any around for sale though so could prove to be quite rare.

Regards

[jandl100]

Hi Jerry. :)

As another 'cheap thrills' option for bi-amping or mono-block fun, you could also have a look around for second hand Rotel RB-980s.


Who me? Nah - I'm settled with my Parasound Halo A21 power amp. :)

That Rotel does look interesting, though!
I had a NAD 2700THX power amp a while back - you can get them for £100 or a bit more - another excellent budget choice. 150wpc of surprisingly controlled power - a bit of a different sound to the Behringer A500. The A500 is on the dry side, the NAD a bit plumper and fuller in the mids and bass and not quite as detailed and transparent.

[twelvebears]

Who me? Nah - I'm settled with my Parasound Halo A21 power amp. :)

:eek: *staggers around feeling slightly light-headed, leans on wall for support*

Jerry, say it aint so?! What will the rest of us do without having you work your way through every amplifier on the planet?? :lolsign:

Nice amp though!

[jandl100]

:eek: *staggers around feeling slightly light-headed, leans on wall for support*

Jerry, say it aint so?! What will the rest of us do without having you work your way through every amplifier on the planet?? :lolsign:



Hmmm. :( Yes, I know. Awful, isn't it. What's a boxswapper to do? :scratch: I bought the Parasound on a whim several months ago, and it works so well with the MBLs that I've not even looked at other power amps since getting the A21. :(

I've still got pre-amps and CDPs and DACs and cables and my vinyl rig to boxswap with though! :carrot: