• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Behringer A800 Stereo Amplifier Review

Archaea

Active Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2020
Messages
158
Likes
391
Location
Kansas City Metro
I tried to plug it to my AVR, my AVR only has RCA out, so for that matter I am forced to use RCA cables, and past the first quarter input gain volume I start hearing a darn hum, thing which does not happen with RME ADI-2 DAC -> XLR - Behringer A800.

Is there any way to minimize this or I am stuck with it when using RCA?
I’ve had great luck with these cables. Get as short as possible for your connection.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=4777

They seem to have less ground noise than using a standard RCA couple to a RCA to XLR adapter. Makes sure your RCA/XLR wiring is routed away from the power.

also you might try ground chassis screws between your AVR and your AMP with a piece of copper wire.
 

hansik

Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2020
Messages
77
Likes
102
Im using two a800’s and they are excellent value! Currently im demoing a Nord with the nc500mp and i can say that the noise floor is certainly lower on the Nord and i have a little bit more headroom.
My room is fully treated and my speakers are quite sensitive, the noise floor while not a deal breaker on the a800 was something I wanted to reduce.
Apart from that I think they are fantastic!

I bought 4 of them for around 160 euros each, it's a gem. On my 96db sensitive speakers I didnt notice a different noise level compared with my NC252mp, but i didnt test it specifically.
 

rvsixer

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Apr 6, 2018
Messages
605
Likes
409
Location
Somewhere at the base of the Rockies....
I tried to plug it to my AVR, my AVR only has RCA out, so for that matter I am forced to use RCA cables, and past the first quarter input gain volume I start hearing a darn hum, thing which does not happen with RME ADI-2 DAC -> XLR - Behringer A800.

Is there any way to minimize this or I am stuck with it when using RCA?
Had the same issue (AVR plugged into Crown XLS1502).
1) Unplugged every input into AVR, hum gone
2) Started hooking up one component at a time into AVR (i.e. Roku box, blu-ray player, etc.)
3) Plug in cable box via HDMI....boom hum appears
4) Disconnect cable going into cable box...boom hum disappears again
5) Ordered coax cable isolator from Parts Express for about $7 IIRC...hum gone for good

In a perfect world we would do everything XLR...but in today's mixed environments just have to isolate ground issues one hum at a time.
 

Archaea

Active Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2020
Messages
158
Likes
391
Location
Kansas City Metro
Had the same issue (AVR plugged into Crown XLS1502).
1) Unplugged every input into AVR, hum gone
2) Started hooking up one component at a time into AVR (i.e. Roku box, blu-ray player, etc.)
3) Plug in cable box via HDMI....boom hum appears
4) Disconnect cable going into cable box...boom hum disappears again
5) Ordered coax cable isolator from Parts Express for about $7 IIRC...hum gone for good

In a perfect world we would do everything XLR...but in today's mixed environments just have to isolate ground issues one hum at a time.
Good thought...
Speaking of that, even just a long HDMI run to a projector with no cable box in the mix can cause noise. I ran into that with a room I was calibrating for a friend. Unplugged the projector HDMI and hum disappeared. We ended up using a cheater plug on the projector and it fixed the issue. The HDMI could then be plugged in with no problem.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-15-A...ing-Plug-Adapter-Gray-2-Pack-543002/203728202
 

holbob

Active Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2020
Messages
283
Likes
473
Location
Lincoln, UK
I have an unusual question about this amp. It is too wide to fit into my cabinet, though depth and height are more than fine. If I changed its orientation, the width of the amp is still too much for the depth of the cabinet. Which, if I bought the amp, leaves only two solutions - placing the amp vertically which I am aware is a no go due to the placement of the vents. But what if I put the amp in so it just fits so one side is higher than the other? It is a closed cabinet (other than vent holes at the back) so aesethics are unimportant and the amp would be stable due to the rack mounts being wedged in! Weird question I know, but would it be safe?
 

Pulkass

Active Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2019
Messages
275
Likes
59
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Behringer A800 Class D Stereo Amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member. The A800 costs US $299 including free shipping from multiple sites.

The member who loaned it me has done a youtube video of it which you can see by clicking on this link.

Behringer has been in this game for a long time and it shows from high level of optimization of weight, size and robustness of the A800:


The unit is quite shallow relative to its width.

Standard gain controls are provided which go up to 30 dB (for balanced input). Nice set of LEDs show the output level including clipping indicators. All amplifiers should come with such displays (with switch to turn them off). I could do without the notches in the volume control though as they are fake (they are fully analog) and made exact setting harder (it would creep into the notch). Not a big deal though.

Back panel shows nice set of connectivity:
For my testing I focused on XLR input only and standard speaker banana connectors.

The amp hardly radiates any heat and has no fan. Given the pro application of these amps, I expect them to be robust and reliable.

During measurements, the A800 provides high level of predictability and assuredness that I sometimes miss when testing switching amplifiers. It only shut down once after fair bit of experimentation at full power.

Amplifier Audio Measurements
As usual we start with our dashboard of 1 kHz tone with a gain of 29 dB to deliver 5 watts into 4 ohm load:

View attachment 43257

This performance is very close to the Behringer A500 which I reviewed before. That amp though, generated much worse SINAD because of its non-switching power supply:

View attachment 43258

Its distortion products are capped to -80 dB which is what we see in A800. Eliminating those power supply components sharply improves SINAD which is relative to sum of noise and distortion:
View attachment 43259

Signal to noise ratio is "OK:"

View attachment 43260

Don't use it on sensitive speakers you may hear some hiss (although turning down the gain may help some).

32-tone test signal resembling "music" shows early rise in distortion with frequency:
View attachment 43261

Crosstalk is reasonable:
View attachment 43262

Dual, 19+20 kHz tone shows very high level of intermodulation distortion as we saw in multitone test:

View attachment 43263

Fortunately your music doesn't have such high amplitude tones and threshold of hearing is high that I don't think this is nearly as much of a problem for the ear as it is for the eye.

Frequency Response Measurements
The necessary low pass filter is causing some peaking at 20 kHz to the tune of 0.5 dB:

View attachment 43266

The above is with a resistive load. I have been asked frequently how the amp performs with a real speaker. Stereophile uses a simulated load of a 2-way speaker that was given to them by NHT. I built a similar load based on schematic from Doug Self:

View attachment 43267

Here is the impedance of my load versus frequency:
View attachment 43268

My response is more damped in low frequency than what Doug Self and Stereophile show. I will investigate this further but for now, it is close enough. Here is the phase response:
View attachment 43269

And Stereophile graph of the two:

scan56.jpg


Using my simulated load this is what I get with A800 amplifier:
View attachment 43270

As you see, there is hardly any difference. Looking at stereophile graphs, they use highly zoomed version to show differences. This is what happens when I do the same:

View attachment 43271

So a bit of ringing becomes apparent but it is so small as to not be of any consequence. Heaven knows your speakers are not anywhere close to this level of variation.

I will test some of the other amplifiers I have with this load and see if it causes more variation. As it is, resistive load is the same as complex one.

Note that neither my load, nor stereophile's are high power ones. So I cannot plot full power graphs and such. Above measurements were at 5 watts.

Amplifier Power Measurements
Going back to our resistive load, we get this output with 4 ohms:
View attachment 43272

The show starts well with A800 being much quieter than our premium brand NAD AVR. But then distortion kicks in and we don't do as well. We get however tons of power nearly a quarter of a kilowatt. Similar story holds for 8 ohm load:
View attachment 43273

Still, that is a lot of power at 8 ohm leaving our AVR way back in the dust.

Using 1% threshold for THD+N, we get more power naturally than my graphs above indicate:

View attachment 43274

Left hand is short-term burst power, right side is long term.

Thermal Stability
Performance improved just a bit after 10 minutes of warm up at 5 watts:

View attachment 43275

So you don't have to leave it on for good performance.

Conclusions
The Behringer A800 does what pro amps try to do: provide solid, middle-of-the-road distortion and noise with tons of power in quiet and light package for little money. The design is stable and better than the A500. As such, I can recommend the A800 as an everyday amplifier.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

You all asked for more amplifier tests and you are getting it. So time to pay up! Donate as much as you can using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/



Thanks, bought one, it s in the post, BTW what microdevices does it use ??? amplifying ???
 

Pulkass

Active Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2019
Messages
275
Likes
59
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Behringer A800 Class D Stereo Amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member. The A800 costs US $299 including free shipping from multiple sites.

The member who loaned it me has done a youtube video of it which you can see by clicking on this link.

Behringer has been in this game for a long time and it shows from high level of optimization of weight, size and robustness of the A800:


The unit is quite shallow relative to its width.

Standard gain controls are provided which go up to 30 dB (for balanced input). Nice set of LEDs show the output level including clipping indicators. All amplifiers should come with such displays (with switch to turn them off). I could do without the notches in the volume control though as they are fake (they are fully analog) and made exact setting harder (it would creep into the notch). Not a big deal though.

Back panel shows nice set of connectivity:
For my testing I focused on XLR input only and standard speaker banana connectors.

The amp hardly radiates any heat and has no fan. Given the pro application of these amps, I expect them to be robust and reliable.

During measurements, the A800 provides high level of predictability and assuredness that I sometimes miss when testing switching amplifiers. It only shut down once after fair bit of experimentation at full power.

Amplifier Audio Measurements
As usual we start with our dashboard of 1 kHz tone with a gain of 29 dB to deliver 5 watts into 4 ohm load:

View attachment 43257

This performance is very close to the Behringer A500 which I reviewed before. That amp though, generated much worse SINAD because of its non-switching power supply:

View attachment 43258

Its distortion products are capped to -80 dB which is what we see in A800. Eliminating those power supply components sharply improves SINAD which is relative to sum of noise and distortion:
View attachment 43259

Signal to noise ratio is "OK:"

View attachment 43260

Don't use it on sensitive speakers you may hear some hiss (although turning down the gain may help some).

32-tone test signal resembling "music" shows early rise in distortion with frequency:
View attachment 43261

Crosstalk is reasonable:
View attachment 43262

Dual, 19+20 kHz tone shows very high level of intermodulation distortion as we saw in multitone test:

View attachment 43263

Fortunately your music doesn't have such high amplitude tones and threshold of hearing is high that I don't think this is nearly as much of a problem for the ear as it is for the eye.

Frequency Response Measurements
The necessary low pass filter is causing some peaking at 20 kHz to the tune of 0.5 dB:

View attachment 43266

The above is with a resistive load. I have been asked frequently how the amp performs with a real speaker. Stereophile uses a simulated load of a 2-way speaker that was given to them by NHT. I built a similar load based on schematic from Doug Self:

View attachment 43267

Here is the impedance of my load versus frequency:
View attachment 43268

My response is more damped in low frequency than what Doug Self and Stereophile show. I will investigate this further but for now, it is close enough. Here is the phase response:
View attachment 43269

And Stereophile graph of the two:

scan56.jpg


Using my simulated load this is what I get with A800 amplifier:
View attachment 43270

As you see, there is hardly any difference. Looking at stereophile graphs, they use highly zoomed version to show differences. This is what happens when I do the same:

View attachment 43271

So a bit of ringing becomes apparent but it is so small as to not be of any consequence. Heaven knows your speakers are not anywhere close to this level of variation.

I will test some of the other amplifiers I have with this load and see if it causes more variation. As it is, resistive load is the same as complex one.

Note that neither my load, nor stereophile's are high power ones. So I cannot plot full power graphs and such. Above measurements were at 5 watts.

Amplifier Power Measurements
Going back to our resistive load, we get this output with 4 ohms:
View attachment 43272

The show starts well with A800 being much quieter than our premium brand NAD AVR. But then distortion kicks in and we don't do as well. We get however tons of power nearly a quarter of a kilowatt. Similar story holds for 8 ohm load:
View attachment 43273

Still, that is a lot of power at 8 ohm leaving our AVR way back in the dust.

Using 1% threshold for THD+N, we get more power naturally than my graphs above indicate:

View attachment 43274

Left hand is short-term burst power, right side is long term.

Thermal Stability
Performance improved just a bit after 10 minutes of warm up at 5 watts:

View attachment 43275

So you don't have to leave it on for good performance.

Conclusions
The Behringer A800 does what pro amps try to do: provide solid, middle-of-the-road distortion and noise with tons of power in quiet and light package for little money. The design is stable and better than the A500. As such, I can recommend the A800 as an everyday amplifier.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

You all asked for more amplifier tests and you are getting it. So time to pay up! Donate as much as you can using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The Baby arrived yesterday, hooked to tube pre amp, Topping E30 dac, rather good sound, in terms of amperes how many does it delivery peak ??? Thanks
 

holbob

Active Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2020
Messages
283
Likes
473
Location
Lincoln, UK
Does anyone know what voltage the black speaker outputs put out? I want to connect an active subwoofer at high level and I've been told the black speaker output has to be zero volts which is apparently unlikely with a class D Amp.
 

gene_stl

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Forum Donor
Joined
Jun 14, 2019
Messages
867
Likes
1,198
Location
St.Louis , Missouri , U.S.A.
Depends on whether the Amp is single or split (dual +and -) power supply. If it is split then the black is likely at zero volts.
If it is a single supply unit which some are then both the red and the black sit at half the supply voltage when there is no signal and move in opposite directions when there is.

You could connect your device through a blocking capacitor. But if you have to ask the above question you might be better off getting an electronics tech to do it for you.
 

rialler

Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2021
Messages
11
Likes
7
hi, the gain and volume is not issue, the issue is time delay of amp, for example crown have some few ms delay due to internal crossover but i manage all of this details (Time delay, gains etc. ) via Dsp ( Acourate Convolver ) will check tommorow and will come back with results :D
Hi!!

Where you able to try vertical bi amp?

I'm just horizontal active bi amping with Crown XLS1502 for bass, A800 for midrange and old NAD 20 series for highs connected directly to power stage.

I'm considering buying another a800 for high frequency and also try vertical biamping for mid/high using XLS for bass. More or less like your setup.

My bests
 

ezra_s

Active Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 23, 2020
Messages
293
Likes
327
Location
Spain
I was just about to buy a A800 but read a comment on Thomann.de that the Amp give a "Pop" to the speakers, when turned on. Do you also hear this on your A800's?

really really small pop on mine, but I generally leave them all 24x7 lately.
 

Pulkass

Active Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2019
Messages
275
Likes
59
Also use the E30 as preamp. Works fine for me.

This cheap little box E30 pre amp is absolutely great, revealing, hi definition, why don t they make one with balanced inputs--output too ??? I need various inputs
 

ezra_s

Active Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 23, 2020
Messages
293
Likes
327
Location
Spain
Well, if anyone still wants more feedback about this amp.

Still months after purchase I am loving it, despite being it a "middle ground" amp.

I not only am enjoying it much, but I also ended up using it solely along the RME ADI-2 DAC as preamp. It seems to have more than enough power to handle the buchardt s400 and the "gain knobs" allow me to set the gain much lower as "padding" to be able to get the most of the dynamic range from the RME as a preamp.

I also did a bit of measuring to level everything, left, right, subwoffer, peaks and dips with some eq for my room and I'm so very happy with my setup, certainly I don't have the ears and experience that many people here have, but for what I wanted more or less, I think I'm there.

0 noise from the Behringer from the speaker and the amp itself (this was expected as I wanted an amp with no fans), just as I wanted since I use them practically in near field and I hate hissing, coiling, buzzing or anything annoying noise related .
 

Pulkass

Active Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2019
Messages
275
Likes
59
Can l feed this dac via the pc usb ??? I listen mostly to Tidal . Qobuz. I have a huge collection of los and cds but too old and lazy to use them.
 

rialler

Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2021
Messages
11
Likes
7
A800 failure not powering up:

this week I purchased a second A800 and received it on friday. Played some music configured as vertical biamp Sounds great! Imaged better than horizontal bi amp. Normal listening levels

On saturday afternoon I watched a movie.. and when I switched on again at night... Dead. No leds, no smoke or even smell... simply press the switch and nothing happens. Checked power cord and amp fuse is ok.

The other A800 purchased before works well.

Tomorrow will call the store for warranty.
 

Pulkass

Active Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2019
Messages
275
Likes
59
A800 failure not powering up:

this week I purchased a second A800 and received it on friday. Played some music configured as vertical biamp Sounds great! Imaged better than horizontal bi amp. Normal listening levels

On saturday afternoon I watched a movie.. and when I switched on again at night... Dead. No leds, no smoke or even smell... simply press the switch and nothing happens. Checked power cord and amp fuse is ok.

The other A800 purchased before works well.

Tomorrow will call the store for warranty.
Behringer is usually like that: 3 good - one bad. It happened frequently to me, same rate. But what you mean vertical ???
 

ezra_s

Active Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 23, 2020
Messages
293
Likes
327
Location
Spain
Can l feed this dac via the pc usb ??? I listen mostly to Tidal . Qobuz. I have a huge collection of los and cds but too old and lazy to use them.

if you mean the RME, yesss.
 
Top Bottom