Though I pretty much agree with what I think is the intent of your post, I see a few things differently
Behringer gets railed upon so much because of three reasons:
1. It is made in China. Of course a great many name brands now also have their stuff made in China, but Behringer was the first to openly and unashamedly go there. This caused a lot of "PC" animosity.
I think it would be more correct to say that the PC position was to NOT complain about Chinafying gear, even if it meant child labor or prison labor or unfair one sided trade practices, environmental catastrophe. It would be un-PC to complain about these issues
2. It is cheap. ....meaning LESS EXPENSIVE. That means EVERYONE in the music industry is going to automatically bash it because they don't make as much money selling it.
Usually this means you will make more selling it. Its not 1000 units for 1$ vs 1 unit for 1000$, its more like 10,000 units for 10$. Volume of sales has gone thru the roof. EVERYONE has a band/recording studio/record company nowdays
2. It is cheap....meaning very flimsy mechanically. This contributes to its low cost, and reliability can become an issue. But the same holds true for much of the M-Audio gear and numerous other inexpensive products.
Yup, other crap made out of crap parts, with (and here is the important part) total crap quality control, will be crap. It wouldnt surprise me one bit if the maudio stuff, presonus, emu and whatever else werent made at the exact same factory
We have seen for sure how name brand mic companies are rebadging 797 mics. Look at the Telefunken vs APEX thing
http://www.studioreviews.com/m16-460.htm
If you have a properly functioning Behringer, it will sound as good as ANYTHING out there.
Where could I buy a properly functioning behringer? While a lot of the stuff is fine, a lot of it is distorted, noisy, bandlimited crap, which you would easily be able to tell with your so far superior acoustic equipment.
Its funny, but my 10 dollar onboard soundcard can prove these measurments just fine.
Just as completely hash out in the preamp threads, not even the most golden-eared audiophile can reliably distinguish between preamps
Good thing we don't trust audiophiles to pick our mic preamps. Operate a bunch of mic pre's outside of their linear range and you'll be able to tell just fine. There is one glaring area where it absolutely cannot be disputed that the mic pre's are acting different and thats the crossover distortion or lack thereof in Class A biasing vs other methods.
Not saying you need class A mic pre's just saying there is inarguably a difference
In fact, the Ultracurve and Ultracomp DSP units are superior to many competitors, and provide features that no other units provide.
I find this too. Kiler bang for the buck, killer bang for any buck
The 'ethical issue":
How many moral purists were sent into a fit when DBX copied the ART Tube MP ?
First of all, many people are IN music because of ethics, so don't go thinking they are being facetious when they say they oppose behringer on moral grounds.
Saying "its ok DBX does it too" is nothing but a Tu Quoque justification
Furthermore, as far back as 1998, you will see people screaming of how piss poorly the dbx line went when it went cheap. Take a look at threads on the dbx 386
