Behringer Xenyx 802 Premium 8-Input 2-Bus Mixer with Xenyx Mic Preamps and British EQs

Behringer products have a kind of shoddy reputation and I was skeptical about paying even [...] bucks for an 8-input mixer. My intention for this product was simple yet unorthodox: I wanted to use it for recording a drum set. I wanted to do it through my M-Audio ProFire 610. I had 4 mics, 4 stands and a 5 piece drum set. I love my ProFire610 it is reliable and the preamp is clean and strong. I have no gripe with it it's just that the preamp only works on two of the 6 inputs, so I figure if I get a mixer I can use ITS preamped channels and run them through the 1/4" inputs on my interface. Well, it worked. It worked GREAT. Not only did it sound great but I was able to have more control over the sound of each individual mic. Low noise, great sound and I still had 4 1/4" inputs on my mixer to play around with. With my drum set experiment over I now had an 8 input mixer at my disposal. Add two monitors and you've got yourself a nice little PA. There are no BUS outputs so if you're serious about getting a descent mixer I wouldn't bother, but as a starter mixer for the price offered, I couldn't be happier. It works fantastic for small gigs or (God forbid) house parties. It may not be the prettiest looking mixer but its a very simple, self explanatory and effective mixer. I didn't need all the flash and the input/output jacks on the top is WAY better than running them out the back of the unit (I hate that!). The EQ setup for each channel is basic: Hi, Mid, Low, FX , Pan and Level. Having an FX send is awesome when using it live. I didn't think a tiny little mixer like this would accommodate that. (the thing is only 9"x7") It's also got a control room output with volume which you can use for more monitors if need be ;) The Xenyx 802 is a great buy. Had I known I would like it this much I would have paid the extra $[...] and gotten the 12 channel one.

Pros Cons Small Size- very portable Power source - doesn't have on/off button sound output-excellent setup-relatively simple and self explanatory This is a very good little mixer handles the job sufficiently. great for small gigs, and limited space applications. The only thing about this mixer i didn't like is the fact that the power supply must be disconnected. I recommend unplugging from power strip or wall outlet used rather than the back of the mixer due to the connection type. otherwise this is a nice mixer for the cost. also when disconnecting microphones or instruments and you may not want to turn pull the plug you can still make the disconnect by turning the gain controls and main all the way down to the counter clockwise position. However if making changes in instrument or mics this can be a little inconvenient and a lot easier to just unplug it and plug it back in.

I'm completely new to using an audio mixer and I chose this as my first mixer. I wanted to improve the sound quality of voice overs and narrations for videos I am editing, such as product reviews and tutorials. I wanted the three-band equalizers and at least 2 XLR jacks, which this was the smallest one that met those conditions. *Build Quality* This one gets 5 stars. It seems to be well built and I have no complaints here. *Performance* This thing performs as expected. If you're connecting microphones via the phono jacks, they MUST be independently powered. In other words, if you're connecting a lapel mic or something via the 1/4-in jack, the mixer will not provide power to it. The main thing that seems to determine the quality of your audio is the microphone you attach to it. I followed another reviewer's advice and bought the Behringer XM8500 mic along with this and I must say, "WOW". I don't know much about microphones, but the XM8500 does a great job at suppressing ambient noise and delivering great quality audio, especially when combined with this mixer. For the tech geeks, this mixer uses 4558 op amps, which aren't the best at being the quietest op amps, but considering the price range of this product, it makes sense they would use it. Each audio signal does go through multiple 4558 op amps, so that will have some impact, although I think it's very insignificant. But that depends on the application I suppose. *The Power Jack* Many people have fussed about the odd connector for the power adapter, but it makes sense. The AC adapter provides +18V & -18V, necessary for dual rail power supply to the op amps. So it has to have a 3-pin power connection, leaving the standard barrel plug not an option. I didn't have the issue with it being loose, which could mean Behringer has fixed this issue or I just happened to have gotten a good build. So I have no complaints with this part, especially considering why it's necessary. *NO POWER SWITCH!* Ok, this is a BIG negative and the reason I gave it only 4 stars (almost 3). Why the heck does it not have a simple on/off power switch? The only way to turn it off is by unplugging it, which I don't really want to do at the mixer since I don't want to wear the plug out and make it loose. Seriously, who thought leaving this off was a good idea? The right upper side of this gets pretty warm due to the AC-to-DC power conversion, so I don't like leaving this on when not in use. I don't think it's necessarily a safety issue, but I see it as being something that will decrease the life of this mixer. That's just my speculation anyways. Over all, this is a great mixer, especially for a beginner. I wish there was a way to make it more portable, such as power it via batteries, but no such luck here. The size is rather small, smaller than I was thinking it would be, so that makes it easy to store and takes up less space on your desk. I would definitely recommend this and it's a great deal at this price range.

+ High Quality output. + Recordings are also clean. + Never had latency issues from what I could tell or from what others would tell me. + Fairly easy to figure out with the design of the mixer. Makes it pretty straight forward. - Not really a negative, but after almost 10 years of use if finally gave out on me. Would not hesitate to buy another one though.

Works great. Clean and smooth operation. Phantom power for condenser mics. Most people that buy this have likely been trying goofy adapters and additional cabling techniques and avoiding the leap to a mixer. Just get it - you'll be glad you did. It's got a relatively small footprint and a low profile. Small, solid and rugged. Edit: 9/19/2016: Okay, so I've had this thing for two years and use it for mixing my musical instruments to my amp for practice and less often to my PC for recording. This thing sent me on a VERY frustrating wild goose chase, and once I figured it out, I forgot about it and was just plain happy the ordeal was over. But when 10mo. later it happened again, and I remembered the problem and the fix, to avoid the chase, I thought that now I should pass the knowledge along.. I was losing signal intensity intermittently. Very seldom it would go out all together briefly. This is with my guitar rig mind you. When this happens, you lose the crispness of your clean single coil sound as well as your edge on your crunch. Swore it was the guitar jack.. Replaced it. Touched up the internal solder joints on my guitar.. Swore it was the cable. Replaced it. Destroyed an expensive MONSTER brand cable. Swore it was the studio vintage effects processor. Ripped it apart and flooded the unit with contact cleaner on all of it's mechanical points. Because this was so intermittent - every time I did something it seemed it was fixed - then it would eventually come back absolutely driving me bananas. I would do something, or move something, or flex something and get fooled into thinking that there was some type of relationship or correlation with what I was doing to the change in behavior to the problem. I was cursing Ibanez and Digitech and Monster and Mesa and in the end - it was a pot on this damned mixer. A stinking pot!! A pot that I never ever touch in the normal course of operation!! Balance. I never change the balance. It's ALWAYS kept in the center!!! Now that being said - the pots have never been noisy. Even with this loss of signal, the pot wasn't noisy.. IF YOU EXPERIENCE LOSS OF SIGNAL - WORK THE POTS BACK AND FORTH ONE BY ONE ON THE CHANNEL IN QUESTION AND LIKELY YOU WILL FIND A POT ACTING UP. After you work the trouble making pot back and forth, it will probably work like new again for months and months. In my case, about 9mo. It took me about a full minute to remember the fix since it had been so long (and coincided with the installation of my new wireless setup) - and then it all came rushing back. The process of going round and round literally for weeks because of a simple damned pot that disguised itself momentarily and intermittenly as anything and everything else.. WORK THE POTS!!!

This is a good little portable sound mixer. However, we have had some issues with it. We run about 6 shows a year and use this to run sound throughout the show into our speaker system from 2 wired XLR mics and a 1/4" patch from a macbook running itunes. It's not a complicated set up. We've been using the same setup for 5 years. We are on our third board, each of them is logging less than 1,000 hours. Now, I'm not "in the business" so I don't know how long this thing should last, but that seems like it's a short lifespan for something of this build quality. I know, I know, "Well, what did you do to it?" Our first board was dropped at least once that I know of, but that was a long time before it failed on us. The second board has been treated like a newborn baby with a padded case and never plugged into the wall, etc. When I pulled it out of it's case Monday, it was all messed up. Channel one XLR mic had no volume, but the signal leds were showing a good stereo signal from that channel when you talked into the mic. Channel two XLR mic only had volume when you put the balance to all L or R. As you got further away from Channel 1, the problem seemed to be less severe, but we are in the middle of tech rehearsals and i don't have time to figure out why it isn't working. I had two people who are sound techs look at it (not take it apart yet) and they have no idea what it could be. It was not our set up or wiring, etc. If I can get one of them to crack it open for free and take a look, I'll update this. Unfortunately, I'm not the one who bought either of the first two and I don't have the receipt for them, therefore, I could not send it to Behringer under warranty, and really at $65, I'm going to spend a lot more on these things getting someone to try to fix it. So my recommendation is, for the money, it works great. But at some point, it will fail on you, so have Amazon Prime shipping to get a replacement. We have been happy with it when it functions properly, plenty of inputs, controls are pretty good, we use zero of the features. We would love for it to last more than 1, 000 hours for us. Update 4/7/16 Well, the third and final of these lasted under a year. Same issue, something in one of the channels is not working and we are losing one side of the stereo. This one was treated like a baby. I don't think we had any power surges or blew it out in anyway. We've stepped up to a Yamaha that had some good reviews, so we will see.

My Requirements: I wanted to incorporate a Karaoke system into my current home theater, which includes an xbox360. I also wanted to keep the budget for everything under $100 and get something with good sound quality that I could later use with an electronic keyboard. Finally, I wanted to incorporate the free youtube Karaoke videos and save money on songs. This affordable mixer was the best solution. Review: It's doing everything I need it to do. Since I am using an HDMI cable, I needed an audio adapter for my xbox360 ($4), otherwise you can just split out the RCA output into the mixer, bought a pair of Pyle Pro VHF cordless mic ($29), and the output from the mixer went to the Amp/Home theater. No cables are included and it will run you about $8 on Amazon. You can use anything that will stream youtube such as a PC, Roku, Wii, etc. Use the television or PC for the lyrics. Youtube has a lot of Karaoke videos with lyrics. BTW, the mixer is plugged into my Home theater, so shutting off my Home theater will shut off the mixer, as the mixer itself does not have an on/off switch. Material Quality - Unfortunately, I unintentionally did the drop test from about 3 feet on to a hardwood floor and it didn't leave any mark or crack. The casing feels like it's mainly made of metal and the knobs feel pretty solid compared to the flimsy plastic knobs on my wireless mic receiver. I'll leave the rating of the internal component quality to someone else more qualified. Finally, there is no ventilation on the unit and if you follow their instructions, the unit should not need them. So 4.5 star there. Packaging - Unit was packed properly with foam and fit in the box tightly. 5 star there Usability - How hard can it be to plug in inputs and outputs. It does require some logic so a little brain power will be needed. Sound quality - I am running this though my 8 year old Yamaha Home theater system and it sounds the same whether I route the RCA audio cable through the mixer or bypassed it and went directly to the Home Theater. Bottom line, it will also depend on what Amp/Home theater you are using in conjunction to the mixer. Haven't messed around too much with the EQ to give you an idea of how effective they are, but then again, I haven't had to mess with the sound. So 5 star there. Overall - It does produce some heat over time where the LEDs are located. I've only used the system at no more than 30-45 minutes intervals and it gets pretty warm. The instructions says not to place them over other electronics that will release heat, especially not on top of the Amp. Since the unit is compact, it's tempting to place it over another electronic device in an effort to save space, but that will just increase its chances of overheating due to the lack of ventilation. Also, for those of you living in really hot areas, you may want to pay particular attention to the ambient operating temperature requirements. Yes, I would recommend this product.

I love this thing! It is the perfect gadget for mixing down the outputs from my 4-track recorder/player into 2 track stereo that my stereo system can handle as well as feeding my PC with a seperate stereo output that I use for creating CD's. Great sounding audio, no decernable noise coming from the mixer and a three band eq and fader on every channel. Without going into too much detail, the 802 has all the right stuff for my application. The only detractors are the fact that is is not especially rugged in construction so it does need to be handled with care which is not too big of a problem for me. But there is one thing that really annoys me: It does not have an on/off switch so I have to crawl under the desk to plug in/unplug the mixer every time I want to use it. I did contact Behringer tech support asking if I would be risking either the mixer or the power supply if I just left it plugged in all the time whether it was in use or not. The reply was to unplug it whenever it was not in use. Still, the Behringer Xenyx 802 mixer gets a 5-star rating because of its excellent sound quality, nice layout, and an unbeatable price for this good 4-input mixer.