Wow, why did I never see this thread before!? I would fit in perfectly
I "went cheap" for a lot of things, but in a different way... buying used gear off ebay meant I could get fairly decent stuff that I would never have otherwise been able to afford in order to get me going with recording. Second hand gear depreciates a lot more slowly - this meant I could try things out and sell on the gear I didn't need without a making a loss. Several times I bought an interface, got a bit of use out of it, and then sold it on for the same price I bought it for (by which time I would have enough cash together to add in to get a better one).
It was only once I had settled into things and gathered some knowledge/understanding/experience, I could then start to make some more costly investments; Sonar, some new mics, and recently a new pair of monitors. If I had jumped straight into it at the start and tried to buy everything from new, I probably wouldn't have been able to afford even the cheapest Behringer gear.
As for Behringer gear itself... there are a few units (mainly the older ones) that I don't mind in specific situations; the ADA8000 and the original digital Ultracurve being two of them. The majority of the newer stuff is fairly naff though I'm sure there are a few bargain gems hiding in their product range somewhere! The newer Ultracurve isn't too bad either (DEQ2496). I've found the quality isn't altogether bad, its just it is fairly hit-and-miss... you either get a unit that works really well, or you get one that fails within a few months. So its not all that bad, you just have to be careful
Just as an observation: I have used many many Behringer mixers, yet I've never ever once come across one that didn't have bent or scratchy faders (including one that I unwrapped new out of a sealed box), and I've come across very few that (after a few months of use) still had a fully working set of faders and pots.
