What exactly is wrong with Behringer brand mixers?

[Electrofan]

I am in the process of building a home studio. I had a Behringer mixer that I used to use for live recording and worked well.
Unfortunately, it was not going to be enough for my future studio set up. So I thought I was doing the right thing by sticking with a brand that
I had a good history with. So, I picked up a brand new Behringer Zenyx X 2442 USB mixer that has all the right connections for what I want to do.
Suddenly, all my friends who have experience in this realm but use other brand mixers, are talking like I bought an electronic trash can of sorts. I am new to home recording, yes that's true. But I have had nothing but positive experiences with Behringer mixers for years. So, I want to ask all of you experienced folks on here, What exactly is wrong with Behringer mixers? The way I see it, every brand has some problems at some point. Am I really going to get that much better quality with a mackie or yamaha brand to justify the price difference? I paid about $315 out the door for my brand new mixer during a black Friday sale! The mixer seems to be working fine so far.

Thanks in advance for your input!

Manny

[Massive Master]

Other than being the absolute cheapest possible option made in the cheapest possible fashion with the cheapest possible componentry with the lowest quality control I've ever known, there's always the excessive noise...

[Electrofan]

Ok, what in YOUR experience then is the brand with the best overall value, componentry,quality control, and least or lowest noise level then?

[bouldersoundguy]

I've used a number of Behringer boards, and I own a number of other products from them. There are some products they make that are decent but the majority aren't especially good sounding or reliable. I used an MX3282 and found it passable but a bit lacking in headroom. A friend got one of those tiny mixers with one mic input and a couple of line inputs and things started going wrong with it within a couple months. In my years of doing sound in clubs I haven't found one of their active direct boxes that made it through a set without failing in some way. Of the four dual 1/3 octave graphic eqs I've had access to none worked.

A few of their products are more worthwhile. Their PA speaker processor is pretty useful, reasonably reliably and decent sounding. I've found the Feedback Destroyers to be handy when used as manually set parametric eqs.

Personally I wouldn't want everything to depend on a Behringer mixer. Other gear can be removed from the signal path but the console is the "Jesus nut" of the studio.

I don't think you need the "best", but a step or two up might be helpful. The Mackie Onyx series sounds better and is more reliable. There are many other choices out there, but you won't get them for $315. You've got your Xenyx so maybe just use it until you outgrow it or it breaks and then upgrade.

[Electrofan]

I think you hit on a good point! I have already made the purchase, too late to return it as it has been more more than 30 days.
As you have pointed out, I am starting out. I will take your advise and use this mixer as long as it works well (so far so good)
or I outgrow it. The thing is, feature for feature, I cannot find any other mixer that has what this one has. I have not had any of the issues
I have read about. I have gone through all the channels individually and checked them out thoroughly, since my friends started berating this brand.
No hum, static,noise, ground issues. Maybe it's because the mixer is young, I don't know! So far it's pretty clean. The recordings are good, the inputs and outputs
are solid, sliders and buttons are good no loose parts! The audio out to my KRK Rokit 8s is very nice even at a high volume. Maybe I just got lucky ! LOL...

[gecko zzed]

I cannot find any other mixer that has what this one has.

The main selling point that Behringer has is that you get extremely good value for the money you pay. Chinese quality control, though, hasn't been a string point, and that has created the issue of reliability.

[grimtraveller]

I haven't had any issues for the 4 years that I've been using my Behringer UB1832FX mixer. I do think that there can be a fusion of snobbery and "acquired" bias regarding certain companies / brands, in the same way that you get that with certain bands in certain circles, you know how certain writers are about say, Oasis or Status Quo, no matter how many millions like them. Behringer are similar.
From a purely logical level, they can't be bad or no one would keep on buying their stuff, no matter how cheap they are.
I'd go with Boulder's advice ~ keep using it until it kaputs or you outgrow it and need to upgrade.

[Lt. Bob]

I think you hit on a good point! I have already made the purchase, too late to return it as it has been more more than 30 days.
As you have pointed out, I am starting out. I will take your advise and use this mixer as long as it works well (so far so good)
or I outgrow it. The thing is, feature for feature, I cannot find any other mixer that has what this one has. I have not had any of the issues
I have read about. I have gone through all the channels individually and checked them out thoroughly, since my friends started berating this brand.
No hum, static,noise, ground issues. Maybe it's because the mixer is young, I don't know! So far it's pretty clean. The recordings are good, the inputs and outputs
are solid, sliders and buttons are good no loose parts! The audio out to my KRK Rokit 8s is very nice even at a high volume. Maybe I just got lucky ! LOL...

don't let the naysayers bother you.
Yes .... Behringer is one of the cheaper brands ( although not always the cheapest) and you will alomst surely want to upgrade as you learn.
But a Beri mixer will get you started just fine and if you watch levels carefully you can get good recordings out of them.
Do make sure not to drop it however!

[Farview]

There is nothing wrong with Behry stuff that wouldn't be a problem with anything at that price point. You will outgrow it, but you will have to take a relatively big leap price-wise to get much better.

[Lt. Bob]

There is nothing wrong with Behry stuff that wouldn't be a problem with anything at that price point. You will outgrow it, but you will have to take a relatively big leap price-wise to get much better.

^^^^^ this ^^^^^^ I don't think anyone that's new to anything should start out with expensive gear. Learn the activity first and then when you do spend the money ..... you'll know enough to know what you want. If you don't know anything it's easy to spend money on unneeded or inapropriate gear.