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Behringer A800 Stereo Amplifier Review

Rja4000

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I guest impedance also varies with room in low frequencies?
That makes me wonder if one could guess correct in-room response by analyzing impedance variation ? (While knowing free air response and impedance)
 

DDF

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Yours will be perfectly fine once you add the RC to pull the rising HF impedance down. Otherwise it's just not representative of typical speakers.

Indeed. A passive divider for tweeter pad makes high pass filter function much less dependent on tweeter impedance. Only time a single series resistor might be superior is for a low impedance tweeter that doesn’t need much padding, a rare bird.

There’s about as much justification (almost none) to test into this sky high upper frequency impedance as there is to test into the almost dead capacitive short debated elsewhere
 

Bruce Morgen

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Hi.
I had to sign up to tell you that you want to stay away from the Behringer U-Phoria.
Although the measurements are somewhat good it has its "issues".

First of all the max. output level is very low much lower than other devices.
Second it will compress the output signal.
Third the output will be muddy and lifeless all over, highs, mids, lows you name it.

If you compare it to the inbuilt soundcard of a 370 EUR HP laptop (Realtek ALC 3227) the laptop soundcard will have at least 3 times the clarity, punch, liveliness, ... at the same output level.
Sad but true.

I have been shocked when I compared the 2 against each other.
The difference is HUGE.
Better stay away.

EDIT:
The Behringer A800 is nothing short of amazing for the price.

Not my experience at all, but I have plenty of gain elsewhere in the signal chain and never have to set my UMC202HD's "OUTPUT" knob higher than 2-3 o'clock -- and I could easily arrange for even more post-DAC gain with my setup via a simple adjustment. Once I cleared up some USB-related issues, I found it vastly superior to the Realtek ALC261 (an older chip than yours, but 96kHz-capable) in my HP tower -- especially when it came to the noise floor, which would have been intolerable with the Realtek in a quiet listening room.
 

pierre

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I don't have a problem with it. I really enjoy my XLS 2502 driving my JBL SRX 835 passive 3 ways. Everyone
has their preferences and requirements. I can achieve high SPL and at the same time enjoy my setup at much more
normal levels. I think it is epic. Lots and lots of people would disagree with my choices...and I don't care. I know what
I like and am happy with what I use.
I continue to be appalled at how much better these speakers work than my Sennheiser HD600 phones. Better bass...much
better highs...comically so. I keep hearing new details on old CDs...just ridiculous.

The XLS 2502 is perfect for me. Inexpensive, powerful, great damping, stable to 2 ohms....I am in heaven.

It is fine with me if others think I am a cretin. But I can't imagine a better system for what I want. Ultimately, it is all that matters.
Being 58 years old I can say...my opinions would be different if my ears were 8 years old again. But they aren't.

JBL SRX 835 are a good deal: powerful and they measure not too badly (Test from German magazine Production Partner).
i have used them for parties but also for music listening with some eq (generated by audiolense ) and I am also happy with them. I have the active version without the sub.
 

carlosmante

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I'm don't want to step on Dougs feet (who am I compared to him?) but I think this does not look like a realistic model. It seems to simulate two chassis (tweeter to the left, woofer in closed housing to the right) and then connect them in parallel without any crossover. One should add a typical crossover (e.g. 2nd order) and recalculate the impedance. If it does not differ significantly I'd stand corrected.
A recent video about speaker dummy loads. .
 

M00ndancer

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Sorry, byt what link?
1578649718715.png
 

oog747

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Did anyone buy this amp and test it at home? What do you think?
Only subs or mains?

Bought A800 to test at home with 4 ohm (~100W nominal) speakers. Side-by-side comparing to Crown XLS-1502 and Marantz SR4023. I think A800 is capable as amp for mains at home. To me A800 has little more "air" than XLS1502 due to smoother highs. I can't tell the difference in highs with Marantz. Of course it's very subjective. But I had another person, who listened to A800 and XLS1502 in my setup not knowing which amp plays, expressing same perception. Low end dynamics is nice on both A800 and XLS1502.

Main "complain" about A800 - no "official" support for bridged configuration to 4 ohms. Would like to have it for future expansion. Trying to get some word from Behringer support, but so far unsuccessful. On other hand what can I expect them say.. they have it in specs.
 

mhardy6647

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Then you should use the same load as stereophile (see here). If one looks sharp one can see that this circuit contains real world components:

scan57.jpg
scan58.jpg


All inductors have an additional series resistor (not shown as an internal resistance though)
  • Inductor 0.5 mH with 0.7 Ohm resistor
  • Inductor 0.3 mH with 0.5 Ohm resistor
  • Inductor 1 mH with 0.9 Ohm resistor
  • Inductor 10 mH with 0.6 Ohm resistor
To assemble this load you have to get inductors with said inductance and same or lower internal resistance. Any missing internal resistance can be added easily with a matching additional external resistor.

I don't know whether Visaton sells to the US but here is the link to their crossover parts. For the 10 mH inductor refer to the FC series. FOr the smaller ones the core less SP series should suffice. You may need to buy a larger inductor and remove a few windings to reach the proper value.
Cool -- I looked up the source of the Stereophile simulated loudspeaker load (since, though I was aware of it, I'd never seen it before):
https://www.stereophile.com/reference/60/index.html
 

Niklasmagnus

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Bought A800 to test at home with 4 ohm (~100W nominal) speakers. Side-by-side comparing to Crown XLS-1502 and Marantz SR4023. I think A800 is capable as amp for mains at home. To me A800 has little more "air" than XLS1502 due to smoother highs. I can't tell the difference in highs with Marantz. Of course it's very subjective. But I had another person, who listened to A800 and XLS1502 in my setup not knowing which amp plays, expressing same perception. Low end dynamics is nice on both A800 and XLS1502.

Main "complain" about A800 - no "official" support for bridged configuration to 4 ohms. Would like to have it for future expansion. Trying to get some word from Behringer support, but so far unsuccessful. On other hand what can I expect them say.. they have it in specs.

Thanks for feedback. I plan to use two to my four subs. They can’t handle to much power anyway so the A800 should work great.

Regarding Behringer support, I sent them a question since my subs are 3.3 ohm at minimum. The answer I got back was:
“Thank you for your contact.

Unfortunately we cannot advise any usage outside the specifications present on the products page.

Nevertheless I can state that the impedance values defined for any unit are an indication of what impedance values should be used and if the impedance values are slightly higher of lower that should not be of great concern.
Thank you again for contacting us and please let me know if I can be of further assistance or if you have any further question. Alternatively please visit our website for support and further information.

Kind regards”

So I don’t expect you will get any other answer since it’s related.

I think I try this amp for subs, will be great to exchange my fan cooled one. Sound like a yet plane.
 

A800

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Did anyone buy this amp and test it at home? What do you think?
Only subs or mains?

I bought 3 of them.
Good fast punch.
Very precise, detailed, effortless and controlled sound.
I had to highlight this.
If you listen to one you will know what I mean.
This amp will not color at all.
It will precisely deliver whats on its inputs.
So on a bad source it is very "unforgiving".
I could imagine this one in a pro recording studio despite the price...
I use them on mains and subs (bridged, 4 ohms).
A steal for the money (169 EUR each, thomann.de).
One of the better Behringer products.
 

Niklasmagnus

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I bought 3 of them.
Good fast punch.
Very precise, detailed, effortless and controlled sound.
I had to highlight this.
If you listen to one you will know what I mean.
This amp will not color at all.
It will precisely deliver whats on its inputs.
So on a bad source it is very "unforgiving".
I could imagine this one in a pro recording studio despite the price...
I use them on mains and subs (bridged, 4 ohms).
A steal for the money (169 EUR each, thomann.de).
One of the better Behringer products.
Sound good!
What are you comparing with?
 

A800

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Sound good!
What are you comparing with?

Compared to the Sure Electronics AA-AB32313 which was my previous favourite (also an exceptional value, highly recommended, just add a Meanwell LRS power supply) it's a little more "grainy" but also a tad more honest/detailed.
While the T-Amp sounds almost too good ("processed", but in a good way) the Behringer seems to be the more honest.
Both are really good amps but I think I like the Behringer a little more.

Listen to the T-Amp also if you can.
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/class-d/298796-electronics-aa-ab32313-2x400.html
 

Pulkass

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The problem with the hi fi home chain devices, any of them, from the cartridge , dac, cd player buffer, pre amp, power amp, loudspeakers is the ability of handling complex musical passages, like in a symphonic orchestra, just one instrument can be relatively easy, or a jazz quarted. But when the going gets tough......(?)
 

Pulkass

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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.

------------
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How do you measure the ability to handle complex musical passages ???
 

A800

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How do you measure the ability to handle complex musical passages ???
By ear ?
Measurements are fine and all but the final judge is/are still the ear(s).
You got to listen to an amp to judge its performance.
There is no way around it.
 

sergeauckland

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By ear ?
Measurements are fine and all but the final judge is/are still the ear(s).
You got to listen to an amp to judge its performance.
There is no way around it.
Yes there is. There's no point in listening to any amp that's transparent, as most are. It's transparent, so any amp that sounds different won't be, and therefore wrong.

S
 
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