Behringer DCX2496 Ultradrive Pro Reviews

A cheap but feature rich device

I've been running a bunch of these, both in rental and installation usage and these run great. They are able take tremendous amounts of abuse and still beat up the big boys. Spill a drink on a device that costs more than four times what this little beast does and your night is ruined. Do that on a DCX and it still runs fine, of course buttons will be a bit sticky but that's all. Outdoor events are no problem, and it performs as well on a sunny beach as during the coldest Finnish winter nights.

It's a bit shame that this device doesn't have a modern interface connection and only comes with a outdated RS-232 serial port. However, the UI is great and every option is configurable from the front panel only. There are some caveats what comes to channel naming and initial setup (especially this is extremely misleading - DCX's routings are not limited to what initial setup offers), but once one does that a couple of times the rest is simple. DCX's UI easily beats up in usability some of the higher end gear that are either software-only configurable or front panel driven.

One of the most useful feature is dynamic EQ. It may sound a bit ankward at first, but for fixed installations it's terribly useful for compensating eg. lack of bass when the night is still young and sound levels are quote low. As it may be applied as well for outputs as inputs, it doesn't eat up all DSP resources. DCX doesn't have unlimited resources, but they'll grant EQs in all inputs, steep HP/LP and limiters in all outputs. The percentage of remaining DSP resources is readily shown, which is not always the case with these kind of devices regardless the make.

Of course, the DCX and it's cheap price only gets it so far. Connectors are pretty poor, feel flimsy and are no match for brand names. Also, the third input channel is pretty useless as only two channels may be summed together. Neither input nor output sensitivity is selectable, but usually it's something that one can live with. In a prolonged installation usage internal power supply will eventually fail after a few years as the input caps dry. When that happens, usually most of the input and output channels are also destroyed thus rendering the device beyond any economical repair. Diyers take note.

While DCX gradually fades in obscurity at this pace (due to lack of modern interfaces or any real hardware upgrades within the past 10 years), it still offers a great bunch of features for a fraction of price what more modern devices cost. Unless more input channels (consider this as a two channel device) or a network connectivity is required, I'd still buy DCX and a spare unit to go along as nothing is eternal.

Overall decent value for money, but not very user friendly.

Degrades the sound quite a bit and some of the presets do not quite work as explained.

The memory cards are hard (impossible) to get.

Has sat unused for years now.

Confused at first

I expected behringer to create a product similar to a dbx drive rack pa, however it's a completely different beast, no rta, no 28 band graphic, the dial wheel does not act as a select knob, I should have done more research maybe, will need to get used to using multiple parametrics instead of graphics, purchased as a back up unit, I have not gigged with it yet, solid build and looks more expensive than it actually costs.

Nothing better for the money!!

Awesome product. Have 4 of these and they have never let me down, in constant use, one has been on for 3 years in a club without being turned off and it never skipped a beat! The other 3 are on the road constantly and are just as reliable. Great features and easy to use menu system. Definitely recommend

Impossible to get better for the money.

Having used this unit to run full 3way PA systems and then the very same unit a week later to run a 2way monitor set-up, it preforms faultlessly.

2 years in, no issues as yet so build quality is really good too. Doesn't sound as good as BSS or XTA units i have used for obvious reasons but is just as easy to use.

As the title suggests. For the money (or in fact anything double its price) you cannot go wrong.

Behringer do it again

The Behringer DCX2496 Ultradrive is a great device, and does more than most other units.

The price is great, but dont let the cheap price put you off. This unit has more functions that some DBX units and its a 3rd of the price. It will take some time to digest every single function, but once you have had a browse through the unit is a dream to use and is very flexible.

We have used several of these on installs and they are simple to setup. You can also set a pin code so that you can effectively "lock" the unit to prevent DJ`s and the like messing around with the unit.

Great item at a great price. Behringer do it again!

Quickly load pre-sets when re-visiting a venue

I bought the DCX2496 to replace simply an equalizer.

I use this along with EV Zx3-90B Speakers and QSC-GX7 Amp.

the sound quality is impressive, what is most impressive is if you have DJ'd at a venue before and saved presets, it is possible to load them again with just a few clicks.

I have been using the free software that comes with the DCX2496, from there I am able to control everything with ease.

for me I am running 2 speakers, 2 subs and 2 monitors connected to the DCX2496, I have configured the equalizer, mid-pass and roll-off adjustments for my gigs, as well as the limiter, my favourite feature is the assignments from source to any output and all of the above is configurable at source or at each output individually and it works great!

there is also the ability for dynamic eq, and compression, however as there is so much you can do with the DCX2496 I just have not got around to doing this.

but overall a great product from Behringer, and I would say this is a much cheaper alternative than to buying products such as from DBX where for pretty much the same features you could be paying up to three times as much all-be-it there is most likely some differences in quality and finish.

My Experience

We have two of these units. Both are used in separate 3 way PA systems.

Its very easy to configure and use. The price is also very good. Yes there may be better, more expensive units on the market but for our use this works great.

Behringer always seem to get a bad rep but being geeky I actually had the first unit on our test equipment and spectrum analyser; result was we bought a second unit for our main PA. Test it for yourself.

Verdict, ace piece of kit at a good price.