Behringer A500 Amplifier: Objective Test Results

[nhpm510]

A-500 and music

Anyone care to comment whether or not their music sounds different (better or worse) with the A-500, versus other amps? I've read the thread and so far it has all been about POWER only.

I am looking at my first amp to run w/my Denon AVR-2805 as the pre.

Thanks for the education

 

[jeffsg4mac]

There is going to be little or no difference in sound quality between well designed amps. The advantages of more power are for dynamics at louder levels. The only accurate statement that I could say is that my behringers sound better than my RXV 2600 only when pushed to louder levels, and even that difference is not a huge one. It is one of the reasons that amps like the behringers are so attractive to some of us, as we could never justify spending the many thousands more for a krell, levinson, etc. for the small difference that we are getting. Spending 600-1200 for that difference is a little easier to handle.

 

[nhpm510]

Sound quality differences

Thanks for confirming what I had deduced from reading of the thread.
I am up in the air on getting the A-500 verus and old Carver TFM-35. Anyone care to share an opinion on the merits of going with the A-500 over the old Carver, other than I can get two A-500 versus a TFM-35?
My speakers are 8 ohm/rated at 200 wpc.
Thks again to all.

 

[krabapple]

It does Sound exceptionally powerful, but musical. I dont, and did not expect to ever pay this money and get nowhere near the performance of my much more expensive former eqpt. The A500 sounded clearer, and so much more refined, and less cold and analitical as the Samson,(and, beppe had more weight) it was very musical.

Peter Aczel might weep to read what his nice little review has wrought.

 

[beppe61]

It would be very interesting to hear comments from anyone who have tested IT in a so-called high end stereo only system in place of a multi $$$ power amp.
In absolute terms I still find IT a little light in the lower part of the audio range (let's say under 100 Hz) and a little harsh in the midrange.
Voices have no body. Pipe organ has no grunt. Piano sounds more like an harpsichord.
In absolute terms, I mean.
My friend's Audible Illusions S120 (an old 5000$ power amp) is evidently better in any parameter.
But it should with a 1kVA toroid and 4 huge Mallory caps.
I think this could be due to a too much limited capacitance in the power supply because the toroid looks quite powerful.
I am even thinking of adding some more capacitance.
Could it be a wise move ?

Thank you very much and have a nice day !

beppe

 

[mulester7]

a little harsh in the midrange. Voices have no body. Pipe organ has no grunt. Piano sounds more like an harpsichord. In absolute terms, I mean.

.....Beppe, I forget, what are you using as a pre-amp?....I believe that's where most, if not almost all, of the problems you've mentioned would come from if you're in fact getting a quality source signal....what are you using for a CD player and DVD player?....and lastly, have you used your friend's Audible Illusions S120 amp with your system as the only variable to the A500 being used?.....

 

[beppe61]

Dear Sirs,

Reading again my own words I really think I have been too hard with the A500.
When I say - Voices have no body. Pipe organ has no grunt. Piano sounds more like an harpsichord - please replace "no" with little.
Piano still sounds light.
And this is unfortunate because I truly think that with a little more effort in the power supply the result could have been amazing. Now it is just remarkable.
All in all a great amp considering its price.
Please excuse again my ramblings.

Thank you and regards,

beppe

 

[beppe61]

.....Beppe, I forget, what are you using as a pre-amp?....
I believe that's where most, if not almost all, of the problems you've mentioned would come from if you're in fact getting a quality source signal....what are you using for a CD player and DVD player?....
and lastly, have you used your friend's Audible Illusions S120 amp with your system as the only variable to the A500 being used?.....

Dear Sir,

thank you so much for your always kind, valuable and welcome advice.
That is why I am asking if anyone has tested IT in very top system.
My line pre is a Bryston .4B and the source is digital being a Pioneer DV-717 dvd player (not bad even with CDs I think).
By the way the sensation of effortless power with amps like the Audible Illusions, sporting a huge power supply, must be heard to be appreciated I think.
The sound becomes sumptuous and very very nice (please excuse my rude English).
Also the midband is very refined.
We did tested the A500 in my friend's rig in place of the S120.
The sound was smaller, a little more harsh in the mid.
In the end less involving. No pain but no complete pleasure as well.
But it must be.
The power supply in the S120 is very much bigger than that in the A500.

Thank you very much indeed.
Kind regards,

beppe

P.S. Nevertheless, as the A500 was brand new when tested against the S120, we have decided to repeat the test after some weeks.
I will report our comments at the end of the next month, more or less.

 

[WmAx]

Question - when using a pro amp to drive a home audio system (maybe something more than the A500), which (and why) would you use here? Is this just a "given" when using pro amps with home equipment? Any truth to the quote below?

http://www.music123.com/Rolls-MB15--Promatch-i11845.music

http://www.samash.com/catalog/showitem.asp?ItemID=31161&DepartmentID=6&ovchn=GGL&ovcpn=ART&ovcrn=Art+CleanBOX&ovtac=PPC&gclid=CJbZl8m7hocCFQaKIgod8janZg

I got this off Crownaudio.com's site:

It just depends on the amplifier. If the amplifier ONLY has low sensitivity intended for pro audio voltages, and you are feeding is low voltage consumer level voltages, then you need to use a conversion box transformer such as you linked, because what Crown described is applicable. If the amplifier has variable sensitivity, then it is irrelevant.

-Chris

 

[ehurnie]

Would this amp work with the av123 LMC-1 in terms of the input and output impedance and sensitivity. I tried to find this info on the LMC-1 but this is all I could find.
Input Sensitivity Line In: 125mV for 0.5V output from source unit
Input Impedance Line In: 47K Ohm +/-5%
Signal-to-Noise Ratio (rel 2V out): Analog = 97dB, Digital = 105dB
Distortion: <0.1% 20Hz-20kHz with 80kHz measurement bandwidth
Frequency Response (+/-0.5dB): 20Hz- 20 KHz / 0dB ref
Line Out Freq. Response (-3dB): 20Hz- 20 KHz / 0dB ref (except LFE, which
is 20-160Hz)
Channel Separation @ 1kHz: >70dB
Tone Control: Bass = +/- 10dB, Treble = +/- 10dB

 

[majorloser]

For Lack of a Golden Ear...

It would be very interesting to hear comments from anyone who have tested IT in a so-called high end stereo only system in place of a multi $$$ power amp.
In absolute terms I still find IT a little light in the lower part of the audio range (let's say under 100 Hz) and a little harsh in the midrange.
Voices have no body. Pipe organ has no grunt. Piano sounds more like an harpsichord.
In absolute terms, I mean.
My friend's Audible Illusions S120 (an old 5000$ power amp) is evidently better in any parameter.
But it should with a 1kVA toroid and 4 huge Mallory caps.
I think this could be due to a too much limited capacitance in the power supply because the toroid looks quite powerful.
I am even thinking of adding some more capacitance.
Could it be a wise move ?

Thank you very much and have a nice day !

beppe

The very first thing I hit my amps with was a couple Telarc pipe organ CD's at HIGH volumes. In no way did they let me down (Nothing like a little Bach to let the neighbors know I'm still awake). I've also hit them with some of my favorite test materials including female vocals, DTS demo discs, rock music and classical. Also not letting me down.

Maybe my previous B&K 7270 amp was also not up to your standard since the seven A500's are an improvement. But then again, my speakers aren't high end either.

I guess the extra available power running the A500's bridged is where I gain.
Who am I to say. I don't have "golden ears".

 

[beppe61]

The very first thing I hit my amps with was a couple Telarc pipe organ CD's at HIGH volumes. In no way did they let me down (Nothing like a little Bach to let the neighbors know I'm still awake).
I've also hit them with some of my favorite test materials including female vocals, DTS demo discs, rock music and classical. Also not letting me down.
Maybe my previous B&K 7270 amp was also not up to your standard since the seven A500's are an improvement.
But then again, my speakers aren't high end either.
I guess the extra available power running the A500's bridged is where I gain.
Who am I to say. I don't have "golden ears".

Thank you very much for your kind and valuable reply.
Maybe it has been just unfair to compare a single A500 against a much more expensive (I think about 10 times) power amp like the S120.
Surely bridging two A500s in order to get a stereo system should provide a nice improvement.
I will be testing another DIY line stage (Bride of Zen) with my A500 in the weekend.
I am very curious about this test as the BOZ is very good at reproducing a nice soundstage and voices.

Kind regards,

beppe

 

[mulester7]

My line pre is a Bryston .4B

.....Beppe, is this Bryston .4B pre-amp and the BOZ pre-amp you mentioned in a later post line-stage pre-amps?....my only experience with a line-stage pre-amp was a Placette, which was reputed to add NO color at all....does your Bryston .4B carry the same reputation of adding no color at all?....same question for the BOZ....is it reputed to add no color at all?......

.....edit....and another thing, Beppe....please stop being so apologetic over your English....our speaking Italian doesn't even exist....we're all linked together by the universal language, music, and that's all that matters here......

 

[Sleestack]

BOZ preamp?

The only BOZ product I know of is the TACT BOZ 216/2200 amps.

 

[nhpm510]

At the risk of being tarred and feathered...1st impressions

I got my hands on a new A500 and a Rotel 1070. Did some initial listening using a old Nakamichi Reciever, KEF Reference 104/3 and an older Nak CD player.

I gotta say I liked the sound of the Rotel better as it seemed richer and fuller. As Beppe alluded to, the voices sounded a little "thin" with the A500 versus other amps.

Now, is it fair to compare a $700 amp with the A500? Probably not, but will I more than likey go for a used Rotel over a new A-500. Probably so..more unscientific testing hopefully over the weekend.

FWIW, I was rooting for the A500 as you can't beat the price. (And I even like the little blue light and light meter).

Still looking to test a Carver TFM-35x against the two others. If anyone has one in No. VA area, let me know.

Rgds,
PM

 

[mtrycrafts]

At the risk of being tarred and feathered...
Well, you came to the right place for it

Now, is it fair to compare a $700 amp with the A500?

It is more than fair to do so, if it is fairly compared though
Here is a $300 integrated compared to $15K unit

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.audio.opinion/browse_frm/thread/664b8681ab141263/3fd91bcb6a1522a0?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&rnum=1&prev=/groups?q=sunshine+stereo+yamaha+abx+nousaine&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=501fl6%24ac3%40oxy.rust.net&rnum=1#3fd91bcb6a1522a0


..more unscientific testing hopefully over the weekend.

Well, just be careful of the results

 

[beppe61]

..Beppe, is this Bryston .4B pre-amp and the BOZ pre-amp you mentioned in a later post line-stage pre-amps?....

Yes. I use only digital source (Pioneer DV-717).

my only experience with a line-stage pre-amp was a Placette, which was reputed to add NO color at all....does your Bryston .4B carry the same reputation of adding no color at all?....same question for the BOZ....is it reputed to add no color at all?......

I am sure the Placette is much better than my preamps.
It is very difficult to beat a passive preamp.
I agree that if you have tested the A500 with the Placette your opinion is more dependable than mine.
We have only put the A500 in comparison in my friend's rig with the Audible Illusions S120 (10 times more expensive).
But we intend to repeat the test as the A500 was brand new.

.....edit....and another thing, Beppe....please stop being so apologetic over your English....our speaking Italian doesn't even exist....we're all linked together by the universal language, music, and that's all that matters here......

Message received. All right.
Thank you and kind regards,

beppe

 

[vlad335]

I have a problem with my amp rack and wonder if anyone can help. After listening to my system for an extended period of time and turning it off, the breaker for the amps is always tripped when I go back to turn them on.

It doesn't shut down while the system is playing and it doesn't matter if I am playing the system loud or not. I have a dedicated 20 amp circut just installed for the amps. ( 3 behringer A500's and a PAS 800 stereo amp)

I can't understand why the breaker is tripping after the system is turned off. Any ideas?

 

[PENG]

I have a problem with my amp rack and wonder if anyone can help. After listening to my system for an extended period of time and turning it off, the breaker for the amps is always tripped when I go back to turn them on.

It doesn't shut down while the system is playing and it doesn't matter if I am playing the system loud or not. I have a dedicated 20 amp circut just installed for the amps. ( 3 behringer A500's and a PAS 800 stereo amp)

I can't understand why the breaker is tripping after the system is turned off. Any ideas?

Are you sure the breaker did not trip when you turned your amp(s) on? If the breaker trips when you turned things on it could be due to the high initial current surge. Under NO LOAD condition, the primary winding of a power transformer could draw as much as 12 times it rated full load current for a short duration depend mainly on the point on wave (sine wave) of the voltage when power is turned on.

If the breaker in fact tripped even when everything is turned off, then either the breaker is defective, or the breaker is of the GFCI type and you have a ground fault in your circuit. That does not explain why it never trips when your amps are on though.

 

[vlad335]

Are you sure the breaker did not trip when you turned your amp(s) on? .

Thanks for the reply.

No, it is already tripped beforehand. Almost like it is tripping when I turn them off. I am turning then on and off using a Furman rackmount power strip.

Very weird...