Behringer ADA8000

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taperocket

New member
I just got one of these through an Ebay purchase today and while I know Behringer is known for making crap, I have to say, I'm really impressed with this unit. The pres sound much better, dare I say warmer, than those on my digi 002 and for the price this thing can't be beat! Any other owners have any opinions?
 
taperocket said:
I just got one of these through an Ebay purchase today and while I know Behringer is known for making crap, I have to say, I'm really impressed with this unit. The pres sound much better, dare I say warmer, than those on my digi 002 and for the price this thing can't be beat! Any other owners have any opinions?
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It's a decent unit because Behringer reverse-engineered it from really good design. I can't remember what unit it is based on, but I do know that some people who were trying to modify their ADA-8000's were able to use the circuit diagrams from this other company's unit :eek:.
 
sile, If you could find out what company/unit it was modeled after I'd be interested. Anyone know of this mod he speaks of?
 
I think it was the Alesis AI-3 AD-DA converter. Obviously the ADA8000 has preamps while the AI-3 doesn't, but if I'm remembering correctly, the ADA8000's AD-DA converter is almost circuit-for-circuit a copy of the AI-3. As to the mod, they were changing something in the preamp section but I don't remember what it was.
 
They probably swapped out the op-amps for Burr Browns or something. Has anyone tried changing the op amps on the ADA8000 with good results?
 
I'm not sure what mods you can do to the ada8000 but I can say that I too like the pre's. IMO they're a bit tinny compared to the 002r pre's, I almost feel like I'm hearing more digital distortion from these compared to the 002r's. For the money I don't think this thing can really be beat. I upgraded to the presonus digimax lt and honestly there isn't a huge difference and I think I use the presonus more because its set up for one, but mainly because I spent like 4 times the money for it vs. the ada8000.
 
Really? Hm, I thought just the opposite, that the digi pre's sounding tinny and more digital by comparison. Maybe this has something to do with the cable connection? I'm using a monster cable and it the pre's sound pretty warm.
 
taperocket said:
I just got one of these through an Ebay purchase today and while I know Behringer is known for making crap, I have to say, I'm really impressed with this unit. The pres sound much better, dare I say warmer, than those on my digi 002 and for the price this thing can't be beat! Any other owners have any opinions?
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I like the pres of the ADA, but I would lie if I said I heared a big difference with my Digi ones...
 
I had an ADA-8000, but sold it after about a year. The pre-amps sounded ok, but not really any better than what was in my fostex board. I hated that there was no monitor or headphone out. Behringer always leaves out a detail or two that causes the product to just miss the mark.
 
Well I think the point is, at least for me, is that you get 8 extra pre amps, that are definitely decent, for such a low price! I'm quite pleased with that.
 
I believe I've read of a mod where they managed to bypass the actual preamps of the unit, making it a decent AD instead. The discussion was that the unit is basically useless as a front end due to the lack of, for example, linelevel inputs. I don't have any experiance with the ada8000 myself, and mod as I recall it was pretty hard to do (to me that is :) )
 
I just got this preamp a few days ago, and I was suprised with how much better the quality is, in comparison to other Behringer products I've had experience with. The hardest part was setting it up with my recording program. But in the end, a good purchase. I wish it would have came with the fiber optical cable, I had to go to Radio Shack and spend some more money on one.
 
ragata said:
I believe I've read of a mod where they managed to bypass the actual preamps of the unit, making it a decent AD instead. The discussion was that the unit is basically useless as a front end due to the lack of, for example, linelevel inputs. I don't have any experiance with the ada8000 myself, and mod as I recall it was pretty hard to do (to me that is :) )
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I'm assuming by this last statement that they don't, but does anyone know for sure if the line inputs bypass the pres?. I've looked through the documentation and it's not clear on that.
 
Yeah, that's something that really bothers me with low end gear, it doesn't seem like it would be that expensive just to have the line ins bypass the pre's. Maybe someone could offer that mod to the public??
 
ragata said:
I believe I've read of a mod where they managed to bypass the actual preamps of the unit, making it a decent AD instead. The discussion was that the unit is basically useless as a front end due to the lack of, for example, linelevel inputs. I don't have any experiance with the ada8000 myself, and mod as I recall it was pretty hard to do (to me that is :) )
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Oh boy, you've never heard the ADA8000 in action and yet you're capable of judging how well the unit suits for a particular task. Why not do yourself and all others a favour by actually using a piece of gear before spreading this kind of disinformation. For the price ADA8000 is an amazing piece of gear even with all of its "shortcomings" and what you really should be asking is why no other manufacturer hasn't been able to come up with anything comparable to ADA8000 in the same price range.
 
I use my ADA8000 mostly fed by my various synths...K2500, Roland XV-3080, a Proteus PK-6, and some of my oldies-but-goodies. I'd be lying if I got even 17 bits worth of dynamic range out of the line ins, but they're fine sounding regardless. I've certainly had no complaints from any of my clients that I do soundtracks for.
 
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