Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

> > Is a Roland really better than a Behringer?

Well, I just went to two different music stores, and I'm left 
scritch-scratching my head.  Not at the quality of the stuff I heard, but how 
the stuff held up or didn't.  I guess what I mean is, what I was looking at 
and how well some stuff worked in spite of the lower prices.

I listened to a number of different brands like Peavey, Roland, Behringer, 
JBL, etc.  I narrowed down to two choices, so I made direct comparisons 
between the Roland KC-300 and the Behringer KX-1200.  The KC-300 has a horn 
tweeter and a 12" sub, with 80 watts, I think.  The KX-1200 has a horn 
tweeter, a 5" midrange speaker (the only keyboard amp in the store that had a 
3-way speaker layout), and a 15" sub, with 120 watts.  Now given that, that's 
probably not a very fair comparison, given that a 15" sub is going to always 
move more air than a 12" sub, given similar speaker structure ratios.  On top 
of that, the magnet structure on a 15" is usually bigger than a 12" (given 
similarly-designed products).  Here's the surprise about the subs - they 
appeared to be exactly the same, as far as the material is concerned (the 
surround, the dimpling pattern on the cone, and the cap).  Now again, I 
realize that this wouldn't be a fair comparison, because of the difference in 
cabinet size, speaker size, power rating, etc.

What made me want to pick the Behringer over the Roland is how well it handled 
the lower end stuff.  The Roland was pretty good, but at fairly loud levels, 
(even though I'm profoundly deaf), I could hear the voice coil clanging 
against the back of the magnet (bottoming out).  This means that the magnet 
is probably not big or strong enough to handle such large movements 
accurately, a big enough power supply is not being used, or the damping 
factor (accuracy of cone movement control) is not tight enough.  The 
Behringer can put out more volume before it bottoms out.  On top of that, the 
low end stuff on the Behringer is extremely accurate.  It's on-the-dot and 
punchy, which is what I like.  The Roland sounded less accurate or muddy.  I 
was really surprised that I could hear that much of a difference (remind me 
to get my hearing aids checked - maybe I need to open up the sound on these 
hearing aids and see if I can handle it).  I was also surprised to see that I 
could definitely hear more of a presence in the midrange sounds from the 
Behringer (probably because of the midrange speaker).  I should also mention 
that this would be a better practice amp for me, because my hearing loss is 
more in the midrange area, by far.

I know that I would be very happy with this amp, as it was (gad!) loud enough 
for me and sounded just right for me.  I found this out today from a few 
musicians.  In Austin, (Vern, you probably know this) we tend to have two 
basic stage environments.  One is where you have a good-sized place which has 
a PA system in it.  That is common.  In this situation, an amp like this one 
is usually used as a monitor for the drummer to listen to, and the drum set 
is usually patched through the PA anyway.  In other places, like a coffee 
shop that doesn't have a PA system in it (not very many people with a full 
band play at these places), you would need a fair-sized amp to get up over 
the vocals and other instruments.  Also, it's not very often here that you 
would run into a PA system that can't stretch down the frequency range below 
the vocals.

So, next month, I'll be putting money down for the Behringer, at least on 
layaway for a couple of weeks, maybe.

Thanks, guys!
Stephanie