Behringer A500 Amplifier: Objective Test Results

[Seth=L]

The unit has a massive toroidal transformer and about 195,000 uf of capacitance per channel for the power supply, if memory serves correct.

It's 48,000uF per side, giving it a total of 96,000uF @ 63v. That big transformer helps out a lot I'm sure.

 

[WmAx]

Thanks Jeff, I did find that link after our discussion.



Hey Chris, the more I learn about the Behringer EP2500 (only $290!), the more I like what I'm reading. It seems that many (all) amplifier manufacturers overcharge you way too much for their amps.

It is quite impressive what only $290 can buy you right now, the EP2500 must be the deal of the century, or what?

And also, the reviews from the owners speak for itself, very high ratings indeed. I'm glad that I finally learn about this seemingly exceptional power amplifier.
Now, if I want POWER, I know what to buy for an amazing value.
I'll be working right now to start with one of these, and see how it would cost me to bring one to my home in Canada (Victoria, B.C.).
If any of you guys have any suggestion, I'm all ears.
And my hard to drive speakers are ready for the new ride.

Thanks to you guys.

Bob

The EP2500 was measured by a Crown technician. He also measured a Crown K2. The K2 is a 'legendary' pro amp, a high end pro amp that costs well over $1000. The K2 is rated similarly to the Behringer in power, etc. The Behringer measured superior in every single aspect of performance - from power output into any load and noise/distortion as well.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/printthread.php?t=855865&pp=60

Note: ideally you will need to use an unbalanced to balanced line converter if you are using a source that only has unbalanced(RCA) pre outs. Otherwise you could have noise problems or not be able to use the power potential of the amplifier. The Samson S-Convert is the recommended unit.

-Chris

 

[dschwark]

A500 Confusion

Hi Guys. I run two of these amps for a small karaoke show setup. One for the highs mids in stereo, and one for the bottom bridged mono. I was under the impression that these amps were rated at 2 x 230 watts in stereo, and bridged at 500 watts. I have a 600 watt Nady bass cab, and run 2 Yamaha br-10s for the mids and highs. The yamaha's are rated at 250 watts each

If I understand you guys correctly, these amp don't put out that kind of power. Am I seriously underpowering my speakers with these amps? I get good sound, but I don't want to burn up my speaks...

thanks,
dan

 

[WmAx]

Hi Guys. I run two of these amps for a small karaoke show setup. One for the highs mids in stereo, and one for the bottom bridged mono. I was under the impression that these amps were rated at 2 x 230 watts in stereo, and bridged at 500 watts. I have a 600 watt Nady bass cab, and run 2 Yamaha br-10s for the mids and highs. The yamaha's are rated at 250 watts each

If I understand you guys correctly, these amp don't put out that kind of power. Am I seriously underpowering my speakers with these amps? I get good sound, but I don't want to burn up my speaks...

thanks,
dan

The actual output, continuous, in stereo, is about 140 x 2 (before clipping) into 8 Ohms and 220 x 2 (before clipping) into 4 Ohms. Bridged mono, output is 440 watts into 8 Ohms. This is based on 3rd party measurement/analysis.

-Chris

 

[dschwark]

A500 Confusion

Thanks for the clarification, Chris

Dan

 

[wae5]

Me too!

I was unaware of this defect. I wonder if it's something they fixed in the more recent A500s.

I’m new here so it's nice to have something to say after having lurked here for awhile. I received my A500 yesterday and will return it by the weekend because it has the static others complained about which is a shame since it sounds good with my MMGs. BTW, My Behringer EP1500 is defect free and sounds wonderful with MMGs.

 

[Lordoftherings]

I’m new here so it's nice to have something to say after having lurked here for awhile. I received my A500 yesterday and will return it by the weekend because it has the static others complained about which is a shame since it sounds good with my MMGs. BTW, My Behringer EP1500 is defect free and sounds wonderful with MMGs.

Thanks wae5, and Welcome to Audioholics, where you can read, say what you have to say, or do both at the same time.

This is very cool that you share you own experience, as it helps people to make a wise decision.

Cheers,

Bob

 

[gort]

Ditto!

Based on the data and encouragement provided by WmAx and others I just last week got a ep2500 for my MMG's. Previously I've had these power hungry panels hooked up to receivers for 13 years. People who say these planars don't sound good on the low end never fed them 650 watts, heh.

FWIW a line leveler (Rolls) made a huge difference for me, my Onkyo 706 was just not putting out enough, at low volumes the amp didn't seem to be getting a signal at all, even with the gain all the way up.

I’m new here so it's nice to have something to say after having lurked here for awhile. I received my A500 yesterday and will return it by the weekend because it has the static others complained about which is a shame since it sounds good with my MMGs. BTW, My Behringer EP1500 is defect free and sounds wonderful with MMGs.

 

[highfigh]

I’m new here so it's nice to have something to say after having lurked here for awhile. I received my A500 yesterday and will return it by the weekend because it has the static others complained about which is a shame since it sounds good with my MMGs. BTW, My Behringer EP1500 is defect free and sounds wonderful with MMGs.

I didn't read anything about static- is it intermittent?

 

[WmAx]

I didn't read anything about static- is it intermittent?

The static like sound appears (on defective A500 units only) at first to the listener on high frequency transients when no other sounds are present in the recording. For example, a strike of the high note keys on piano solo will cause the static sound to present itself during and directly after (for a couple of tenths of a second) the note is struck. The same goes for any high frequency immediate tone in isolation. It is extremely annoying once you hear it occur. Once you get used to it, you can hear it even in more busy music, because you have effectively trained yourself to ID the sound more easily, to an extent, with repeated listening. I purchased two A500 amplifiers for my active computer sound system, but at least one was defective with this same problem, and I suspect the other as well. I replaced them with Crown XLS202D amplifiers and now I have perfect performing amplifiers for the tweeters and mids. I use a Behringer EP2500 for the woofers on this 3 way active system.

-Chris

 

[FNG212]

How would 5 of these (as monoblocks) compare to 1 Emotiva XPA-5? 5 would cost about $1k vs $800 but thats close enough to count the same for me. Thoughts?

 

[wae5]

The static like sound appears (on defective A500 units only) at first to the listener on high frequency transients when no other sounds are present in the recording. For example, a strike of the high note keys on piano solo will cause the static sound to present itself during and directly after (for a couple of tenths of a second) the note is struck. The same goes for any high frequency immediate tone in isolation. It is extremely annoying once you hear it occur. Once you get used to it, you can hear it even in more busy music, because you have effectively trained yourself to ID the sound more easily, to an extent, with repeated listening. I purchased two A500 amplifiers for my active computer sound system, but at least one was defective with this same problem, and I suspect the other as well. I replaced them with Crown XLS202D amplifiers and now I have perfect performing amplifiers for the tweeters and mids. I use a Behringer EP2500 for the woofers on this 3 way active system.

-Chris

Chris, thanks for expressing the inexpressible. I got the A500 because it doesn’t have a noisy fan like my EP1500. How’s the fan noise on the Crown?
Is it worth trying?

 

[Lordoftherings]

How would 5 of these (as monoblocks) compare to 1 Emotiva XPA-5? 5 would cost about $1k vs $800 but thats close enough to count the same for me. Thoughts?

If I was you, I make my life very simple, and get the Emotiva XPA-5 on sale for only $719

* With the $300 you save, get yourself a bunch of Blu-Ray movies.

*** Moreover, your Klipsch speakers won't miss a thing.

 

[Daverz]

Wish I'd seen this thread before I ordered the A500. I ordered one of these based on Aczel's review, but just canceled my order with the etailer, hopefully they'll honor the cancelation.

I wanted this as a backup amp for my Bryston 3B SST, which is making a pop noise about 10 seconds after turn off (sounds like a capacitor dumping charge) and needs to go back for repair. But given the reliability and distortion problems reported, I did not want to have to replace the replacement amp.

So I'm still looking for an inexpensive amp with XLR inputs that

* is dead quiet (no fans, no switching power buzz)
* has XLR inputs
* is stable into 4 Ohms. 120W@4 Ohms is probably adequate for my listening volume.
* at least 10kOhm input impedance
* won't have a significant probability of being DOA

If I can find a receiver or amp that has a high pass filter with a 6dB/octave slope, -3dB@100Hz, I don't need XLR inputs. The odd requirement is because this is for the Vandersteen Quatros, which require a high-pass filter between the pre-amp and amp, and I chose the balanced version (which will not work with XLR-to-RCA cables according to Vandersteen) to go betwen my BAT and my Bryston. But if the amp has the high pass already, I don't need his little boxes. Most AV receivers have 12dB/octave high-pass filters.

(Yes, I'm trying to go cheap on a backup amp for $8k speakers; I kinda blew my wad for a while.)

So far the Outlaw Audio M2200 monoblocks and the Emotiva XPA-3 (3 channels for $100 less) look interesting. Not quite the $180 I was hoping to pay, though that does seem like wishful thinking in hindsight.

 

[mike c]

Wish I'd seen this thread before I ordered the A500. I ordered one of these based on Aczel's review, but just canceled my order with the etailer, hopefully they'll honor the cancelation.

I wanted this as a backup amp for my Bryston 3B SST, which is making a pop noise about 10 seconds after turn off (sounds like a capacitor dumping charge) and needs to go back for repair. But given the reliability and distortion problems reported, I did not want to have to replace the replacement amp.

So I'm still looking for an inexpensive amp with XLR inputs that

* is dead quiet (no fans, no switching power buzz)
* has XLR inputs
* is stable into 4 Ohms. 120W@4 Ohms is probably adequate for my listening volume.
* at least 10kOhm input impedance
* won't have a significant probability of being DOA

If I can find a receiver or amp that has a high pass filter with a 6dB/octave slope, -3dB@100Hz, I don't need XLR inputs. The odd requirement is because this is for the Vandersteen Quatros, which require a high-pass filter between the pre-amp and amp, and I chose the balanced version (which will not work with XLR-to-RCA cables according to Vandersteen) to go betwen my BAT and my Bryston. But if the amp has the high pass already, I don't need his little boxes. Most AV receivers have 12dB/octave high-pass filters.

(Yes, I'm trying to go cheap on a backup amp for $8k speakers; I kinda blew my wad for a while.)

So far the Outlaw Audio M2200 monoblocks and the Emotiva XPA-3 (3 channels for $100 less) look interesting. Not quite the $180 I was hoping to pay, though that does seem like wishful thinking in hindsight.

check out the Yamaha P2500S and other models in the P**00S series.

 

[Daverz]

check out the Yamaha P2500S and other models in the P**00S series.

Thanks. I saw one of these on Audiogon. Too bad that the high-pass filters are 2nd order. Otherwise, simply as huge wattage amps with the Yamaha name they are worth considering. But they do have fans.

Since I'm spending so much on these speakers, I think I'm going to ask the dealer to bring an amp when he sets them up, and maybe they'll even loan me one while I wait for my Bryston to be fixed.

 

[mike c]

Thanks. I saw one of these on Audiogon. Too bad that the high-pass filters are 2nd order. Otherwise, simply as huge wattage amps with the Yamaha name they are worth considering. But they do have fans.

Since I'm spending so much on these speakers, I think I'm going to ask the dealer to bring an amp when he sets them up, and maybe they'll even loan me one while I wait for my Bryston to be fixed.

i forgot to mention that the fans on mine have never turned on.

 

[WmAx]

Yeah, the Yamaha amps have fans, but they will not activate. They are only there for over-heating conditions; which is hard to get occur.

-Chris

 

[arrt vandelay]

i'm thinking about buying this amp to drive my energy c500 towers and have been doing some research. i have a question or two:

-according to the a500 manual, the gain dials need to be turned to the zero position when turning the amp on and off. does this really matter? i'd probably be leaving the amp on most of the day, turning it off at night. it'd be pretty annoying to do this every time i power down.

i've really narrowed my choices down to this amp or a used adcom gfa 545II. would there be a very noticeable difference between the two? fyi, i really just want to see what an external amp would do for my set-up and these two options are less than $200. i use my set up(c-500 towers, c-c100 center, c-100 surrounds and yamaha rx v765 receiver) for pretty much 100% ht/tv. everything sounds good now, just curious as to what an external amp would do for me...

 

[Lordoftherings]

Hi Arrt, and Welcome to Audioholics.

The gain on the A500 has to be at zero, because you don't want to have a loud pop sound from your speakers, that's all. That's the Pro version way of many amps.

Now, with your Energy speakers, you don't really need much power at all, as they are very sensitive (94db for the C-500, 91db for the C-C100 and 90db for the C-100). Also, they are an easy load (8-ohm impedance for all).
Your Yamaha 765 is fine., like you said, "everything sounds good now".
But, if you want to add an external amp, you'll gain more power of course, and you'll be able to play your Energy's louder. BUT, you cannot play them to very loud, because with their smaller drivers, they will overload.

>>> If I was you, I would not waist my money, even if that amp is cheap.
* I'm not a big Adcom fan. And in your case, I don't think you need it either anyway.

If you can try the Behringer A500 at home for your C-500s, and see if you like it, with the precaution indicated about setting the gain at zero, when powering it up, and having the option of returning it; then, go for it, and give it a shot.

Cheers,
Bob