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#201
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Uli Behringer responds to those "rip off" claims
fEeyore wrote:
hank alrich wrote: Of seven DEQ2496's three failed within warranty And you're *praising* Behringer ???? Obviously, they had a bad run of something. All the failed units came in close succession. Since repair they have run realiably, and in the case of the dance studio units, that means at east 12 hours/day 361 days/year. The DEQ2496 offers me outstanding performance for the price, to the point that I have been willing to cut them slack to see if the repaired and/or replacement units will give good service over a reasonable life span. So far it looks like they might. The ones in my little live rack do not get coddled. And in fact, if you could read for content, you would have understood that I have praised Behringer's CUSTOMER SUPPORT. (Read that slowly and give yourself a chance. I could type it with spaces between the letters if that would help.) I am not praising your comprehension. I think you may have an edge connector loose. -- ha Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam |
#202
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Uli Behringer responds to those "rip off" claims
"Don P." wrote: Eeyore scribbled: "Don P." wrote: My experience with Behr gear is that the newer stuff is much higher quality than the older stuff, although none of mine has ever let me down (as far as failures). I have a noisy, lousy-algorithm (for the reverbs, anyway) DSP2024 that I keep for the pitch shifter patches and vocoder, but the REV2496 is a night-and-day difference. Plates that almost sound like real plates, smooth decays into velvety silence, amazing graphic display for easy editing, etc, etc, etc. I haven't heard that one. Sounds good. I'll have to copy it and save on R&D ! I have one of the original ones (REV2496) that didn't pass the FCC testing before they were forced to take it off the US market. I saw a press release earlier this week that they are now all settled up on that. It's not difficult. How they (mis)handled that FCC business smacks of plain arrogance on Behringer's part. It's not as if the FFC rules are anything new. There have been FCC regs for RF emissions from 'computing devices' since the mid 80s. It's perfectly clear that they always applied to digital audio too. I was looking into the implications for Neve with their digital consoles back in 1987. Graham |
#203
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Uli Behringer responds to those "rip off" claims
Eeyore wrote:
How they (mis)handled that FCC business smacks of plain arrogance on Behringer's part. It's not as if the FFC rules are anything new. There have been FCC regs for RF emissions from 'computing devices' since the mid 80s. It's perfectly clear that they always applied to digital audio too. I was looking into the implications for Neve with their digital consoles back in 1987. The problem is that ALL consumer electronics manufacturers handle this stuff in the exact same way. We got a computer at work that did not have an FCC Part 15 certification. I called the vendor and they offered to send me a sticker I could put on the back. Sheesh. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
#204
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Uli Behringer responds to those "rip off" claims
Scott Dorsey wrote: Eeyore wrote: How they (mis)handled that FCC business smacks of plain arrogance on Behringer's part. It's not as if the FFC rules are anything new. There have been FCC regs for RF emissions from 'computing devices' since the mid 80s. It's perfectly clear that they always applied to digital audio too. I was looking into the implications for Neve with their digital consoles back in 1987. The problem is that ALL consumer electronics manufacturers handle this stuff in the exact same way. They do ? We got a computer at work that did not have an FCC Part 15 certification. I called the vendor and they offered to send me a sticker I could put on the back. Sheesh. Was that a major vendor ? Graham |
#205
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Uli Behringer responds to those "rip off" claims
Eeyore wrote:
Scott Dorsey wrote: Eeyore wrote: How they (mis)handled that FCC business smacks of plain arrogance on Behringer's part. It's not as if the FFC rules are anything new. There have been FCC regs for RF emissions from 'computing devices' since the mid 80s. It's perfectly clear that they always applied to digital audio too. I was looking into the implications for Neve with their digital consoles back in 1987. The problem is that ALL consumer electronics manufacturers handle this stuff in the exact same way. They do ? Yes. Take a transistor radio into Wal-Mart, tuned to an AM station. You'll find more than half the stuff sold in the electronics department is unable to pass Part 15 certification. It's not just dimmers and touch lamps either. There are even TV sets with lots of RF trash coming out. Nobody cares. The FCC has no money to do any enforcement any more. We got a computer at work that did not have an FCC Part 15 certification. I called the vendor and they offered to send me a sticker I could put on the back. Sheesh. Was that a major vendor ? Not really, but they were large enough to know better. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
#206
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Uli Behringer responds to those "rip off" claims
In article ,
Eeyore wrote: "Don P." wrote: I have one of the original ones (REV2496) that didn't pass the FCC testing before they were forced to take it off the US market. I saw a press release earlier this week that they are now all settled up on that. There is a difference with "did not pass" and "was not tested" and in this case they were not tested. FCC Compliance test demonstration was done at 2005.03.13 (3/13/2005) for REV2496. How they (mis)handled that FCC business smacks of plain arrogance on Behringer's part. It's not as if the FFC rules are anything new. There have been FCC regs for RF emissions from 'computing devices' since the mid 80s. It's perfectly clear that they always applied to digital audio too. I was looking into the implications for Neve with their digital consoles back in 1987. At least they did not label their gear with fake certification labels. I suspect that a REAL cheap clone manufacturer would have faked them and added every possible label to the cover. Was this already mentioned : ---------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.behringer.com/01_news/pr_...g=eng&prid=299 Press Release BEHRINGER Resolved FCC Compliance Issues Before Recent Ruling. June 15, 2007 BOTHELL, WA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mig (Try #2 - #1 disappeared) -- **** Mikael Willberg ***** "Oh dear", says God, "I hadn't thought of that" ** * * and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. * * Tampere * (Douglas Adams) * ******** Finland ************************************************** ********** |
#207
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Uli Behringer responds to those "rip off" claims
On Jun 8, 11:15 am, "Bill Ruys"
wrote: In the "readers letters" section of the current Audio Technology magazine (issue 54) out of Australia, UliBehringerpersonally responds to the copying/patent infringement claims made by so many on this forum. His letter was in response to a similar claim made by one of the magazine's readers. It makes for very interesting reading. As this is a letter from UliBehringerresponding to a reader's accusations, it may not be subject to copyright. If not, maybe I could post the letter somewhere for everyone to read. Anyone interested? That's what I found on Audio Technoilogy Magazine Australia. Pretty interesting and also watch the video. http://www.audiotechnology.com.au/behringer.html Peter YOUR WORD Readers' letters BEHRINGER SOUL Gotta Have Soul? (Issue 52) - Firstly, I have to say, love the magazine a lot. We subscribe at work (Darwin Entertainment Centre) where I'm the FOH engineer. Just wanted to write in and make a quick point about your Behringer article. I agree: with you for the most part, bur I couldn't help but think of the old blue 16-channel Behringer I have at home. I do live dubs here in Darwin and I've been using the old Eurorack mixer I bought when they first came out. It cost a lot more than they do these days and I admit that this is a vital part of the argument. But, a Mackie of the same vintage and some current Spirit mixers we have here at the centre don't have the sound I need for what we do. I firmly believe this cheap little mixer has 'soul'. In fact, I've grown to really love this thing to the point where I've gone to the trouble of servicing it regularly and doing a few little mods. If I lost it, I'd be mortified - if it means this much to me, then it must have character and soul. Send onto Uli this information if you get time, maybe: he might revert some of their current design ideas to days gone by (or stop cutting the corners integral to the blue Eurorack sound)... Justin Moon -- Gotta Have Soul? (Issue 52) - Watched your video diary. Enjoyed it. Had a question, though. You mentioned how Behringer had some quality issues in the beginning. What you didn't mention, is Behringer's rotten reputation for stealing proprietary information and manufacturing clones of other's R&D. It has lost large lawsuits with both Mackie and Aphex for outright stealing and copying. Many in the pro audio community won't have anything to do with them for these reasons. This is not private information but has been published many times over the years. I've heard that Mr. Behringer has just told the litigants to sue and has made money despite losing these lawsuits. He just makes more than he loses. I cannot support that kind of organisation with that attitude. David Dansky Performance Sound Designer & Mixer. Hollywood, CA At the risk of seeming long-winded, explaining Behringer's side of things requires me to go into some detail 1.) Legal Cases: The Aphex case is around 20 years old, so it's quite understandable that the facts have become mixed with fiction. Back then I had a little garage company and believed Aphex's patent was invalid due to prior art and advise from a lawyer. At that time there were several companies who produced those exciters, such Akai, SPL, D&R, etc. Hence I did not stop production and rather filed for invalidation, which triggered a court case that tasted several years. Later, I also filed for my own patent application for circuitry that made the harmonics processor level-independent (patent DE3904425), an invention that was sponsored by the reputable Fraunhofer Institute, which invented MP3. To cut a long story short, the court decided that Aphex's patent was valid and unfortunately my own patent would also infringe. I simply lost the case and paid for damages. Concurrent with our case were allegations that the Aphex patent 'inventor' Kurt Knoppel had stolen the patent from someone whom he worked for as a treasurer. But I even heard that Aphex themselves were sued by Harvey Rubens who claimed his VCA patent was infringed. Just Google 'Aphex Harvey Rubens' for more details. Concerning Mackie, all I can tell you is that it was a dispute over trade dress and IP. Behringer definitely did not lose any case against Mackie, as can be confirmed from the public record. However, our settlement agreement does not allow any party to disclose details. After Aphex we never lost an IP case again, a far cry from David's allegations. 2.) How Behringer designs products: Our R&D department, which I head, is one of the largest in the MI/Pro Audio industry. With over 200 engineers operating in Germany, USA, Philippines and China, Behringer R&D includes some of the finest DSP, analogue and digital system, speaker, instrument amplification, mechanical, PCB, process and quality engineers anywhere - truly a dedicated and sophisticated team that I am really proud of. Our technology portfolio contains around 20 patents with many more applied for. We constantly release revolutionary products such as the digital EQ DEQ2496, the modeling amp V-AMP or the digital mixer DDX32l6, which took over five years to develop. We spend more money on R&D than in any other Behringer department... because R&D is truly the heart and soul of our engineering-driven company. How else would we be able to release up to 200 new products per year? When you look at our product range, you will find many product categories, such as mixers, processors, speakers, etc. that are common with our competitors. While our look might be similar to other's products, what's 'under the hood' is quite different. For example, to design mixers is not rocket science since analogue designs are relatively generic. But what makes the difference in a Behringer mixer is the choice of components and the fact that we make so many of these components ourselves; from prosaic parts like switches to our outstanding V888 transistor used in our mic pre's. Lower costs are merely a side benefit of vertical integration and high- volume production. Because we produce millions of products a year, quality must be Behringer's main focus. Designing and building everything we can ourselves - right down to the pulp in our speaker cones - is the best way to ensure quality and cost control. Do we look at successful products in the market and then follow? Yes, of course, as do our competitors. But it makes no commercial sense to release a product with identical performance, features and price. Powered by over 200 R&D engineers, the Behringer approach is to offer better audio performance, feature set, plus design each product to be produced at lower cost. 3.) Intellectual Property. It's important to understand that IP (Intellectual Property) legal cases are very common in any industry. Just look at recent cases with Gibson versus PRS, Microsoft, Blackberry, etc. These guerilla tactics are especially common in the US where legal fees are sky high and each party has to pay its own legal fees regardless of the outcome of the case. Plus, IP is a grey area, as it deals with patents, trade dress, copyrights, designs etc. where not much is black and white. This, along with the fact that IP litigation is often used as a tool to push a competitor out of business, are reasons why there are so many cases in this area of law. There is a common misunderstanding about copying and reverse engineering. While 1:1 copies are clearly illegal, reverse engineering is an ethical and legitimate way to design, one that is used by major corporations every day. Remember that technology is generally public domain (unless protected by patents or copyrights). This is the basis for any industry to evolve, and you'll surely find the latest BMW on Mercedes' workbench and vice versa. We definitely look at our competitors' models - just as they learn from us. In fact, when you walk around tradeshows, Behringer is among the most imitated manufacturers. Where legal, we have no prob1em with this. Neither should our competitors. The following article gives you some valuable background information: http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/~pam...%20reveng3.pdf 4.) Why are our products so affordable? We have tools that allow us to efficiently design massive libraries of everything from analogue and digital circuitry designs to DSP algorithms. This provides us with economies of scale in our product designs, and reduces time-to-marker tremendously as well as cost. We strive to use the same components in as many designs as possible, cutting inventory, carrying costs and providing more buying power. It has always Behringer's philosophy to pass on those benefits to our customers and offer high-quality products for musicians that don't have deep pockets. This has undoubtedly made enemies among competitors who do not have the same commitment to vertical integration, economy of scale or dedication to their customers. Uli Behringer Chairman, Behringer |
#208
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Uli Behringer responds to those "rip off" claims
That's what I found on Audio Technoilogy Magazine Australia. Pretty
interesting and also watch the video. http://www.audiotechnology.com.au/behringer.html Peter YOUR WORD Readers' letters BEHRINGER SOUL Gotta Have Soul? (Issue 52) - Firstly, I have to say, love the magazine a lot. We subscribe at work (Darwin Entertainment Centre) where I'm the FOH engineer. Just wanted to write in and make a quick point about your Behringer article. I agree: with you for the most part, bur I couldn't help but think of the old blue 16-channel Behringer I have at home. I do live dubs here in Darwin and I've been using the old Eurorack mixer I bought when they first came out. It cost a lot more than they do these days and I admit that this is a vital part of the argument. But, a Mackie of the same vintage and some current Spirit mixers we have here at the centre don't have the sound I need for what we do. I firmly believe this cheap little mixer has 'soul'. In fact, I've grown to really love this thing to the point where I've gone to the trouble of servicing it regularly and doing a few little mods. If I lost it, I'd be mortified - if it means this much to me, then it must have character and soul. Send onto Uli this information if you get time, maybe: he might revert some of their current design ideas to days gone by (or stop cutting the corners integral to the blue Eurorack sound)... Justin Moon -- Gotta Have Soul? (Issue 52) - Watched your video diary. Enjoyed it. Had a question, though. You mentioned how Behringer had some quality issues in the beginning. What you didn't mention, is Behringer's rotten reputation for stealing proprietary information and manufacturing clones of other's R&D. It has lost large lawsuits with both Mackie and Aphex for outright stealing and copying. Many in the pro audio community won't have anything to do with them for these reasons. This is not private information but has been published many times over the years. I've heard that Mr. Behringer has just told the litigants to sue and has made money despite losing these lawsuits. He just makes more than he loses. I cannot support that kind of organisation with that attitude. David Dansky Performance Sound Designer & Mixer. Hollywood, CA At the risk of seeming long-winded, explaining Behringer's side of things requires me to go into some detail 1.) Legal Cases: The Aphex case is around 20 years old, so it's quite understandable that the facts have become mixed with fiction. Back then I had a little garage company and believed Aphex's patent was invalid due to prior art and advise from a lawyer. At that time there were several companies who produced those exciters, such Akai, SPL, D&R, etc. Hence I did not stop production and rather filed for invalidation, which triggered a court case that tasted several years. Later, I also filed for my own patent application for circuitry that made the harmonics processor level-independent (patent DE3904425), an invention that was sponsored by the reputable Fraunhofer Institute, which invented MP3. To cut a long story short, the court decided that Aphex's patent was valid and unfortunately my own patent would also infringe. I simply lost the case and paid for damages. Concurrent with our case were allegations that the Aphex patent 'inventor' Kurt Knoppel had stolen the patent from someone whom he worked for as a treasurer. But I even heard that Aphex themselves were sued by Harvey Rubens who claimed his VCA patent was infringed. Just Google 'Aphex Harvey Rubens' for more details. Concerning Mackie, all I can tell you is that it was a dispute over trade dress and IP. Behringer definitely did not lose any case against Mackie, as can be confirmed from the public record. However, our settlement agreement does not allow any party to disclose details. After Aphex we never lost an IP case again, a far cry from David's allegations. 2.) How Behringer designs products: Our R&D department, which I head, is one of the largest in the MI/Pro Audio industry. With over 200 engineers operating in Germany, USA, Philippines and China, Behringer R&D includes some of the finest DSP, analogue and digital system, speaker, instrument amplification, mechanical, PCB, process and quality engineers anywhere - truly a dedicated and sophisticated team that I am really proud of. Our technology portfolio contains around 20 patents with many more applied for. We constantly release revolutionary products such as the digital EQ DEQ2496, the modeling amp V-AMP or the digital mixer DDX32l6, which took over five years to develop. We spend more money on R&D than in any other Behringer department... because R&D is truly the heart and soul of our engineering-driven company. How else would we be able to release up to 200 new products per year? When you look at our product range, you will find many product categories, such as mixers, processors, speakers, etc. that are common with our competitors. While our look might be similar to other's products, what's 'under the hood' is quite different. For example, to design mixers is not rocket science since analogue designs are relatively generic. But what makes the difference in a Behringer mixer is the choice of components and the fact that we make so many of these components ourselves; from prosaic parts like switches to our outstanding V888 transistor used in our mic pre's. Lower costs are merely a side benefit of vertical integration and high- volume production. Because we produce millions of products a year, quality must be Behringer's main focus. Designing and building everything we can ourselves - right down to the pulp in our speaker cones - is the best way to ensure quality and cost control. Do we look at successful products in the market and then follow? Yes, of course, as do our competitors. But it makes no commercial sense to release a product with identical performance, features and price. Powered by over 200 R&D engineers, the Behringer approach is to offer better audio performance, feature set, plus design each product to be produced at lower cost. 3.) Intellectual Property. It's important to understand that IP (Intellectual Property) legal cases are very common in any industry. Just look at recent cases with Gibson versus PRS, Microsoft, Blackberry, etc. These guerilla tactics are especially common in the US where legal fees are sky high and each party has to pay its own legal fees regardless of the outcome of the case. Plus, IP is a grey area, as it deals with patents, trade dress, copyrights, designs etc. where not much is black and white. This, along with the fact that IP litigation is often used as a tool to push a competitor out of business, are reasons why there are so many cases in this area of law. There is a common misunderstanding about copying and reverse engineering. While 1:1 copies are clearly illegal, reverse engineering is an ethical and legitimate way to design, one that is used by major corporations every day. Remember that technology is generally public domain (unless protected by patents or copyrights). This is the basis for any industry to evolve, and you'll surely find the latest BMW on Mercedes' workbench and vice versa. We definitely look at our competitors' models - just as they learn from us. In fact, when you walk around tradeshows, Behringer is among the most imitated manufacturers. Where legal, we have no prob1em with this. Neither should our competitors. The following article gives you some valuable background information: http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/~pam...%20reveng3.pdf 4.) Why are our products so affordable? We have tools that allow us to efficiently design massive libraries of everything from analogue and digital circuitry designs to DSP algorithms. This provides us with economies of scale in our product designs, and reduces time-to-marker tremendously as well as cost. We strive to use the same components in as many designs as possible, cutting inventory, carrying costs and providing more buying power. It has always Behringer's philosophy to pass on those benefits to our customers and offer high-quality products for musicians that don't have deep pockets. This has undoubtedly made enemies among competitors who do not have the same commitment to vertical integration, economy of scale or dedication to their customers. Uli Behringer Chairman, Behringer On Jun 20, 5:22 am, (Mikael Willberg) wrote: In article , Eeyore wrote: "Don P." wrote: I have one of the original ones (REV2496) that didn't pass the FCC testing before they were forced to take it off the US market. I saw a press release earlier this week that they are now all settled up on that. There is a difference with "did not pass" and "was not tested" and in this case they were not tested. FCC Compliance test demonstration was done at 2005.03.13 (3/13/2005) for REV2496. How they (mis)handled that FCC business smacks of plain arrogance onBehringer's part. It's not as if the FFC rules are anything new. There have been FCC regs for RF emissions from 'computing devices' since the mid 80s. It's perfectly clear that they always applied to digital audio too. I was looking into the implications for Neve with their digital consoles back in 1987. At least they did not label their gear with fake certification labels. I suspect that a REAL cheap clone manufacturer would have faked them and added every possible label to the cover. Was this already mentioned : ----------------------------------------------------------------------http://www.behringer.com/01_news/pr_detail.cfm?lang=eng&prid=299 Press Release BEHRINGERResolved FCC Compliance Issues Before Recent Ruling. June 15, 2007 BOTHELL, WA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mig (Try #2 - #1 disappeared) -- **** Mikael Willberg ***** "Oh dear", says God, "I hadn't thought of that" ** * * and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. * * Tampere * (Douglas Adams) * ******** Finland ************************************************** ********** |
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