All Things Audio

For those of you who don’t know, Behringer is a German company that does their manufacturing in China. They’re an audio equipment company that seems to specialize in copying existing designs from other manufacturers. While I believe they do have some original equipment, many of their products are “ripoffs” sold at a much lower price than the original. It’s always obvious that they’re Behringer products, and there’s no attempt to fool the customer, but sometimes even the names are not so subtle hints as to which products they’re emulating (Xenyx vs. Onyx anyone?).

If you lurk around various internet forums involving pro audio equipment, you’ll quickly find that people are usually pretty polarized about Behringer. Some people love the great value, and the fact that equipment formerly only available to the pro is made available (through a lower price) to the amateur. Others are upset at the blatant copying, and go as far as to advocate and practice boycott of the company. Still others are merely leery, citing poor build quality.

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Bose home theater speakers are widely known as the best you can buy. This is a true statement. Bose home theater speakers are overpriced ripoffs. I also believe this to be a true statement. Sadly, the first statement is true because of Bose’s amazing advertising and not because of any truth in the actual belief. It seems to me that almost everyone who doesn’t know much about audio, but buys their home theater stuff based on what they’ve heard, thinks that Bose systems are absolutely the best, even if they have done zero comparison with better systems. I used to think this way too, a long time ago. In recent years they’ve had a bit of a lashback as the geek crowd who are a bit more “in the know” gained voice along with the rise of the Internet, but the misconception (in my opinion) still remains quite prevalent. Hopefully if you’re interested in Bose, by reading this post you’ll at least gain a healthy dose of skepticism enough to go and do your own listening (which is always good to do when buying speakers anyway) before taking the plunge.

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Ever hear that phrase? If you’re in a church that’s transitioning from traditional hymn-based worship to something more contemporary, that’s probably one phrase you’ll be hearing quite a bit. The first time you hear it, you usually hear it without the “the” at the beginning, and you usually hear it when someone (younger usually) suggests that your church start to incorporate drums into worship, and someone else (older usually) objects.

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