Behringer MIC2200 Component Rack

• Discrete mic/line input stages with soft mute +48 V phantom power
• Ultra-wide bandwidth from 2 Hz to 200 kHz for open sound
• Two fully parametric EQ's with adjustable center frequency, bandwidth and level
• Built-in high-quality vacuum tube for outstanding, ultra-musical tube sound
• Fully tunable and switchable 12 dB high-pass filter

I operate an alternative broadcast studio, we create music related content and broadcast it on the internet. We needed some stand-alone microphone preamps and after searching the internet I decided to give this Behringer unit a try.

This single rack space unit provides two independent microphone preamps, each of which is equipped with a single band of sweepable parametric equalization to adjust the timbre of the final output. Before I even tried the piece as a preamp I opened it up to look inside.

DO NOT EXPECT TO CHANGE THE TUBE

The tube is mounted in such a way that it is probably impossible to change it out for a different one.

Fortunately the preamps sound good with the stock tube. There is no schematic provided so it's really impossible to say how the tube is implemented in the circuit and how much it actually contributes to the tone of the unit.

HOW DOES IT SOUND

The preamps sound very good, full, rich, crisp highs, deep lows, it's a function of the microphone you connect to it as far as I can tell. For comparison I A-B compared this preamp to our very expensive API 3124+ preamp which is a 4-channel unit that we paid over $500 per preamp-channel for, that is 10-times the price per channel of this Behringer unit. I'm not going to say the Behringer beat the API but they were a dead heat in most listening tests. My female partner who is not too technical (but has great ears) thought the Behringer was just as good as the API. We also have a Grace m801 which is another over-$500/channel preamp, she definitely liked the Behringer sound better than the Grace (personally I think it was the EQ on the Behringer that affected her choice when comparing to the Grace).

If my API or Grace preamps go toast I will definitely have them repaired. If the Behringer dies, it's going in the trash and I'll buy another one. It's simple economics and at $100 for two preamps that sound as good as they do these are really nice. They sound good. They have an industry standard packaging. The input and output connectors are excellent. It even has a line input mode so you can add a little tube distortion to a line-level signal (I have not tried this because we don't need it).

We broadcast between three and ten, live one-hour shows per week using this preamp for vocals. NOBODY in our listening audience has ever complained and none of them know we switched from our high-end pieces to this very inexpensive preamp. Now our expensive preamps are back over in our production studio and are used for recording tracks that play behind our live performances during the shows.

RELIABILITY

We have not had any problems with this unit. It is warmed up for an hour before each broadcast, I've never heard any noise or bad stuff come from it. We have A LOT of Behringer gear in our studio, it lives right along side gear from Neve, API, Allen and Heath, UA, Meyer, Lexicon and Apogee. Out of 103 pieces of Behringer equipment I've bought we've had two pieces that had problems and those occurred right out to the box. I had much worse reliability with Crown amplifiers than Behringer products and I really like Crown amps, regardless of the problems, they just sound so good. In my experience the Behringer products have provided professional results for an amazing low price. That's a win-win in my book.

Buy Behringer MIC2200 Component Rack Now

This is a microphone preamplifier. I love the thing and don't own a microphone. You see, it is also a line preamplifier, and it says so right on the front panel. Put this item together with a Behringer EP 4000, a source such as a CD player, and a set of high capacity speakers and the result is an old fashioned stereo (yes, you only have two ears) system that is remarkable and remarkably affordable. I put an Ultragraph Pro in the rig between the preamplifier and the power amp as I thought I might like some equalization (newspeak for tone control). This thing rocks out. The Crown and Phase Linear systems of the past were anemic in comparison. It's hard to buy good two channel gear for listening to music in this day of mp3 mania and "high quality" earbuds. My young friends who have heard this configuration have been impressed and amazed. Behringer equipment is really good and easy to buy.

Read Best Reviews of Behringer MIC2200 Component Rack Here

I originally bought a Rode NT-1 microphone and the AVID M-Box Mini for connection to my digital audio workstation (DAW). Maybe I chose my components poorly, but the AVID M-Box Mini didn't seem to have the guts to properly drive the signals from the Rode microphone. It could be an impedance mismatch. It could be that the M-Box Mini didn't supply a true 48V phantom power to the microphone (since the M-Box Mini is powered only by USB connection). It could be that the pre-amplifier of the M-Box Mini just doesn't have the horsepower.

Regardless, the problem I was having was that I had to nearly max out the gains on the M-Box Mini just to get an acceptable input level into the DAW. When setting the gains this high on the M-Box Mini, the result was that I was getting far too much "P" and "T" pops, even with a high quality pop-screen. Having the gains maxed also resulted in every room imperfection showing up in my recordings.

Solution? Add a more substantial microphone pre-amplifier in line between the Rode NT-1 and the M-Box Mini. The Behringer Ultragain Pro MIC2200 fit the bill. Now, moderate gains on the Behringer allow for minimal gains on the M-Box Mini and MUCH cleaner sound quality going into the DAW. The lesson learned? As in all things audio related, your best bet for sound quality is to keep the gains as low as possible or you risk introducing noise from a variety of sources.

Want Behringer MIC2200 Component Rack Discount?

This is a wonderful product for the price! Ive used other tube preamps that cause terrible humming at low input gain. A little difficult to set up properly, but if you are running an eq separate, then you only have to adjust the input and output. I dont care much for the tube display with led lights behind it, but it doesn't bother me either. Behringer makes great products at incomparable prices.

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I was so surprised at what I got for such a great price. This is a must have for any studio. When this breaks down, I will buy another!!! Thanks, Amazon!!!