Behringer NX3000D Pro DSP Amplifier Review

[ruinevil]

Talks about half attractive amber lights and LEDs, shows us a picture of it unplugged.

 

[Bear123]

ah my mistake I realize, the reason your numbers are not what I expected for burst ratings is caused by the distortion threshold been 1% and the load not been the minimum of 2ohm. I'm most familier with the NU6000D which gets about 2000W into 4 ohm burst which would correspond to 500W into 4 ohm for the non bridged version (NX3000). I think you would see a bigger difference between burst and continous if you briged the amplifer at which point the output is limited by the power supplys current capability and the voltage rails will start to sag.

The Inuke/NX amps have almost no burst. Their continuous and burst is very similar.

Post # 638:
https://www.avsforum.com/forum/155-diy-speakers-subs/1780914-measuring-amplifiers-22.html

 

[escott82]

what's the consensus of running these amps on a smart switch I can turn off with my phone? Also with the crown amps. Anybody running these on them?

 

[Andysu]

I'm surprised this one did not get a headless panther with a noisy fan and a SINAD below what even those skeptical of the need for high SINAD amplifiers. It does have a lot of power, but not not near what the manufacturer rates it for. Perhaps an A800 or a Crown XLS is a better fit for cheap power.

They are for PA use not in a room showed off with LCR speakers in front of a projection screen when they should be behind the screen and the amplifiers racked in a rack tower elsewhere in the home so then the fans won't be heard. I replaced the fas with a better low noise fan and still the amps are racked elsewhere in my kitchen. If can't stand the amplifiers better get out the kitchen.
I also have Crown CTs8200 the fans on them are quieter than the inuke, NX fans. Not replaced the fans on Behringer EPQ304 which have a high pitched frequency fan noise and can be measured with RTA to show the fan frequency noise signature as that is what you would hear in a home theatre where the amps should be in another room. Even a video projector is too noisy which is why mine is also in the kitchen with Laserdisc players that sound silent. Even the Panasonic 9000 THX, I can hear that in the room and may place it the kitchen and use IR emitters for the remote controls.

 

[lordvader]

I've been using one of these to power a pair of subwoofers.

Wondering though - when it comes to level matching with my mains, should I use the volume dials on the unit, or use NXEdit to set the attenuation in software ?

 

[Stellabagpuss]

I run the inuke 1000 dsp, and use a both methods. l rum math room dsp room correction software first, you can tell my the measurements readout, if your outputing to much bass. l ended up up with dials at 2 o clock.
Of course, the nx and inukes can do a lot more, with PEQ ,input levels and other parameters etc
What software do you run, and do you run room eq?

 

[lordvader]

I used REW to do some correction, but used the DB meter to level match first (using 85db as a reference point).
So yeah, I also have the dials at 2 o'clock

But was wondering will I be better off with the dials at the max setting, and attenuate with the NX Edit software.

 

[Stellabagpuss]

I used to run the amp flat out, but decided whats the point in driving the amp, just to reduce its input using REQ or in my case MathRoom, it's also kinder on the amp, these amps are built for clubs, you just don't need to drive them that hard

 

[Archaea]

These amps in the DSP less version are on sale at sweetwater for $200 right now.

 

[Andysu]

These amps in the DSP less version are on sale at sweetwater for $200 right now.

can always get the nx3000 and use . used DCX2496 for selectable crossover slopes . only few nx3000d in the rack with inuke dsp 3000 . just got change the fans for quieter fans .

 

[Urubamba]

There are hundreds of pages at various avforums about this amp ...........

I know I'm late but there was a global Covid pandemic that postponed a lot of things, right? And now a war.....
I understood (wrongly) that you were referring to the AVforums forum specifically. I have had the NX3000D for almost three years, but its manual is exclusively for the hardware, there is no information about the NXEdit software that was somewhat complex to use. So I signed up and used the search engine, but there were no answers.
I ask, does anyone know where to find information about the NXEdit software that is enjoyable and not for sound engineers?
P.S:
I did the retrofit with a Noctua fan which is really quiet, you can feel the air coming out the front, not with the power of the original fan, but for living room use, fantastic!
In a real PA scenario, can anyone hear that noise?

 

[Urubamba]

Ok guys, I found this and it seems very complete. I hope it helps others too.
There are some videos on YT but they seem quite basic,I hope this helps me to operate NXEdit correctly, can I consult here any questions that may arise?
Thanks friends !

Behringer NX3000D DSP Settings Starting Point

Hey guys, New here, but have several hours into digging around here looking into tactile immersion, and must say there is a ton of really good looking info here. You guys definitely seem very knowledgeable on the topic. I however am a complete newb to all this audio/tactile stuff. I have spent...

www.racedepartment.com

 

[elderblaze]

I had considered NX6000 for a pair of 15" subs. Best I can tell, they are pretty loud, don't turn off automatically, can't turn off LEDS, and can struggle with input sensitivity in non-pro applications, aka requiring a device like Art Clean to boost an AVR's sub signal. Crown's more expenisve but may be worth it if :

You don't want to turn it off manually all the time (sleep mode)
You don't want lights in your face
You don't want to void your warranty and lower product life by messing with the fans (crowns are quiet, out of the box)
You don't want to potentially have to use yet "another box" (Art Clean) in your chain (crown has input sensitivity selection)
They do also offer basic DSP missing from basse model Behringers, notably 20 HZ brick wall, which is good protection if your not trying to go below 20HZ, this could be bad if your trying to build something that hits lower.

I don't know.. considering all of the above, I think i'd rather have a pair of used 1502's @ 300-400$ each then a single brand new NX6000 @ 500$. By all reports, the crowns are more reliable as well. I certainly wouldent waste money on the D version of the 6000, the upcharge is almost as much as a MiniDSP and Umik-1, which is far more powerful.

 

[Urubamba]

Point 4 :
Use the speaker output, avoid internal AVR distortion and maintain correct phase.
(REL and others recommend it)

Voltage Divider Calculator

Try our easy to use Voltage Divider Calculator. Enter any three known values and press Calculate to solve for the other.

ohmslawcalculator.com

Point 5 : Bheringer limits the FR output to 20 Hz at the low end by default, both in the DSP and in the parametric equalizer.

The other points are absolutely irrelevant.

 

[Broken brain]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Behringer NX3000D Pro DSP power amplifier. It was kindly purchased new and drop shipped to me by a member. It costs US $399.

As pro amplifiers go, the NX3000D is half attractive especially when on with its amber lights and LEDs:

View attachment 72029​

There are variable (analog) gains as you see. I did not play with the DSP or menu system but it lets you do such useful things as setting up a crossover to drive a sub. There is built-in power limiting in there.

The unit is quite light. So light that you think it may fly away given its large and noisy fan:

View attachment 72030​

The fan unfortunately is not temperature sensitive and wails away upon power up! I am sure saving weight is a big deal when you try to squeeze every dollar out of shipping costs. Good news is that as they advertise, this thing runs as cool as it can get. After a bunch of testing, the temperature was the same as the room.

Note that speaker connections are SpeakOn which I like but not common in consumer audio. Inputs are only balanced XLR/1/4 combo. There is extra gain though to use RCA unbalanced with them using an adapter. Where I placed the gain knobs provided 29 dB of gain.

Amplifier Audio Measurements
As usual, we feed the amp 1 kHz and see what else it outputs beside that at 5 watts into 4 ohm test load:

View attachment 72031

What it outputs is a bunch of distortion in the form of third harmonic at 3 kHz placing the unit well below average:

View attachment 72032

Note also the disparity in channel output which you can also see in the frequency response measurement:

View attachment 72033

The gain controls are notched so not easy to select any in-between gains to adjust for this.

Another news is how narrow the bandwidth is. Being a DSP amplifier, it digitizes the input and it seems to use 48 kHz sampling resulting in bandwidth of 24 kHz.

Noise performance is not that great at 5 watts, falling well below 96 dB we like to see for CD/streaming 16-bit content:

View attachment 72035

Fortunately at full power (right), you do clear that hurdle.

These amps are sold almost exclusively by how much power they produce versus their cost so let's get into that with 4 ohm load:

View attachment 72036

Seems like the rated power numbers are a fantasy unless they are measured for one channel driven, not two as I do. Still, 400 watts is lots of power in such a cheap package. You get a bit more as well if you allow the distortion to rise to 1% and also measure it as a peak (right):
View attachment 72037

Switching the load to 8 ohms naturally lowers available power:
View attachment 72038

Switching/class-D amps can have complex distortion profiles that highly depend on frequency and power level and we see some of that here:

View attachment 72039

At higher frequencies different distortion mechanisms become dominant causing the curves to go up and down.

While I always see some power loss at 20 Hz, it is disappointing to see it dip so low to just 268 watts for an amplifier rated at "900 watts." Bass is where we need the power.

Finally, we can remove our filter and examine the ultrasonic spectrum to see what the amp is producing there:

View attachment 72040

Switching frequency seems to be around 410 kHz which is well above the audible band, and is attenuated quite a lot for a switching amplifier (-26 dB). I am not too happy to see so much other junk there though although not audible per se.

Conclusions
Pro amps can often make good alternative to hi-fi amps since they are sold at much lower cost/watt than consumer products. We get that in Behringer NX3000D but we also get the other drawbacks of pro products in the form of high fan noise. And distortion that is pretty high. If you can hide it some place and use it to do drive a subwoofer it should be fine. But otherwise, I think a more quiet amplifier would work better for home hifif than this unit.

Overall, the Behringer NX3000D is not my cup of tea for home use so I can't recommend it.

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

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[GabrielPhoto]

Did you check how many watts bridged by any chance with a 4ohm load?

 

[croseiv]

Right off the cuff, those power ratings seem highly exaggerated.

 

[GabrielPhoto]

Just to clarify @amirm ,

That means 404Watts per channel?
I want to connect a couple of woofers and need to send them about 250W each so trying to decide if Stereo Mode @4ohms is the best option but got confused if this is 404W total or per channel.
Thanks!

 

[Andysu]

I'm surprised this one did not get a headless panther with a noisy fan and a SINAD below what even those skeptical of the need for high SINAD amplifiers. It does have a lot of power, but not not near what the manufacturer rates it for. Perhaps an A800 or a Crown XLS is a better fit for cheap power.

most of all fans since the video have been changed to quieter cooling fans , still have few behringer epq304 to replace

 

[Andysu]

@amirm you didn't test the amp all way though , audio dsp limiters are applauding bad sounding , it should make that noise sound it does