Behringer ACX1000 210 Combo

OK, I was a bit harsh on my last write up, but while this amp was working it really did sound so very acoustic, clear and sharp enough for recording (before the effects started making the chainsaw backing track).

I have tried several acoustic amps upto Xmas and found none so acoustic as the ACX 1000 (before the effects starte......).

REliability is very doubtfull, as I look after my gear pretty good, but it still broke down. As for the replacement that Behringer sent me from Germany (made in China of course) which was doing exactly the same noises, straight from the box.

Waranty is 2 years in Europe. I'm just thinking that Behringer would be happy to just keep on sending more and more and more replacement units (Via UPS) until next Xmas.
They ended up sending me the very latest ACX 1800, which is rated at 180 watts, but I tested it against my "Valve junior" rated at 5 watts, holding my Radio shack Decibell meter 3 feet away from the speakers, each amplifier in turn (and yes, I set the EQ and pre volume stuff up corectly) "no crap", as the Valve junior left this ACX 1800 way down quiet at vacuum cleaner level (another report for you'z all)..

Before it broke the overall rating was very good, but after it broke and the comings and goings of more faulty gear, the overall ratings now here at my house is prety bad.

I got my ACX 1000 new last year. It was a clean sounding acousic breakthrough until the effects started getting louder and louder until eventually it was a "chainsaw backing track" (even with nothing plugged into it). I had to stop a small bar gig 1/2 way through and was fully humiliated by it.
I play a Yamaha LD which has a "top" pickup system and the phantom powered mike channel on the ACX 1000 is magic for my condenser mike, but as soon as one plugs anything into this amp, it gets even more noisier than before.
I wrote to Behringer anmd they dispatched another ACX 1000 to me almost straight away (10 days from my e-mail to arrival here), but on removing the new unit from the box, I found it was buzzing even worse than my origional unit. Where do we go from here! Are these manufactured faulty? are Behringer too cheap for their own good!
I have owned lots of music gear and have never had anything go wrong on me "yet" (the odd mike/guitar lead),. I am prety carefull with my gear, but in future I will make sure that I "read up" before buying anything with the Behringer name on it.

Was superb/fantastic, but low on sound output, for the first few months.
Effects got very, very noisy, almost a "chainsaw backing track"!

Unreliable from a few months on.
It broke down due to very cheap construction and zero research into manufacturing.

Slow but so far, prety good. Waranty is 24 months and you will need it.

I will not ever buy another Behringer product, I read user reviews befor buying now. A very good website for reviews is "this one" and an American one called Musicians friend.

This is a brand new old stock Behringer ACX1000. I believe these might be discontinued as of this writing. At any rate this is quite a versitile amplifier. I only use it to amplify my classical when I play instrumentals and it is perfect for that. The amp has 2 channels; one for instrument and one for either another instrument or a microphone. There is also effects loop for both channels. Being a 60X2 amp, there is plenty of volume for what I need. Also included are treble, bass, mid, and feedback control for each channel, as well as 99 preset digital effects.

A common complaint of this amplifier is the noise. I found that to be the case with the reverb settings (# 29-47). It wouldn't be a problem too much in a very quiet atmosphere, but in an average room it would be. So when I want reverb, I get around that problem by using a setting that features a dual channel reverb. Noise is cut down dramatically that way. Another way to circumvent this might be to use the line out feature, keeping the volume down to a monitor level.

Too new to comment on this.

So far my single email hasn't been answered, but it's only been about a week. I was told I have a year warranty with this model but as yet haven't had to go that route.

After playing for over 35 years in all kinds of bands and with all kinds of equipment I'm down to just one guitar, a keyboard and a couple of amps. I chose this amp primarily due to the cost, but then I tried it out and was swept off my feet by the lush sound. It would be the perfect amp but for the reverb noise. It's still very useable however. I think I'd buy another one if something happened to this one.

Extremely well specified, providing a number of options for multiple inputs such as balanced mic, line inputs, instrument, making it a versatile amp for solo or small group perfomance. On-board DSP provides (on paper anyway!) multiple effects such as chorus, reverb, tremelo, flanger. Specs well covered in other reviews.

On paper this amp appears impressive. However there are some significant issues. It's not hard for a manufacturer to produce a low noise, low distortion solid state amp. You will not find though a signal to noise ratio or distortion spec for this amp from Berhinger... that's because it's simply appalling by today's standards. I have no doubt that the actual preamps and power amps are quiet. The key culprit is the poxy DSP that is hard-wired into the signal path, rather than being user bypassable as all effects units should be. The net result is that even when all inputs are wound down, the noise present from the main output when it's turned up is shocking. This means that even though the amp is well specified (60watts per channel!) you simply cannot achieve decent power output without indroucing a lot of unecessary noise. Other reviewers have defended this amp on the basis of establishing correct gain settings at the preamp stage. I agree that this should be the case for all amps however it should NOT be an argument to defend a poorly designed amp. Why on earth Berhinger did not mix the DSP output into the main signal bus via a level control, thereby minimising noise is beyond me. This noise is also present at the DI output.
Another significant blunder is the addition of not one but two feedback notch filters that are also hardwired! You cannot deselect them. This means that the preamp is always applying a deep cut at two frequencies (depeding upon where the feedback notch controls are set) thereby colouring your sound. Hello... shouldn't a notch filter be used only when necessary as it affects tone.
It is possible to get reasonably tone from this amp but not for gigs requiring reasonable output.

Mains fuse blew shortly after receiving the amp(!) and the reverb settings are so noisey they are practically unsuable (see DSP comments above). Chorus plus reverb however is reasonably quiet so maybe there is a problem in the DSP.

No comment as have not dealt with them.

I've been playing for 30 or so years. I've since sold this amp and am awaiting delivery of a Laney A1 combo. Similar features however checkout the Laney website and download the user manual PDF for the A1. In this you will find a block diagram of the A1 circuit which will help make sense of my comments above. You'll see that the onboard DSP of the Laney is fed via a separate effects bus and returned to the master bus via a level control. Sorry Berhinger but releasing an amp with so much noise (see other reviews) is simply inexcusable. Lot's of "features" don't compensate for poor design.

I just recently puchased my ACX last month. I'm one to really do my homework before buying anything of any value and I just want to thank Harmony central and it's patrons for playing such an important part in helping me make a final decision. My ACX is just about everything I could ask for in an acoustic amp. It has all the features that I would ever need. My favorite feature in the line level output on the back of the amp that I can run directly into my digital recorder, so what I hear is what I get on my final recording. It's very user friendly and is built like an Abram tank. I played through every brand of acoustic amp that I could get my hands on. Honestly speaking, the only one that even came close to the Behringer was the Fender Acoustic Amp line. Their sound was very good but they were terribly under powered. The only one that would have met my needs was the SFX 2 at $700.00. I think at $299.00 my ACX is a much better value.

My biggest concern with my purchase was how well all of my instruments would sound through the ACX. I play mostly acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo and fiddle miked through an amp but I record often with my Fender Nashville Tele and my 335. I thought they would sound less then desirable through an acoustic amp. I have to admit that my ACX brings out the best in them. A nice clean fresh sound plus FX's make for a great electric guitar sound. Sorry, no built in distortion settings. The ACX can on certain FX settings have a slight humm to it when the volume is high. A few people have complained of this problem but I find that notching the master down and tweeking some of the tone settings nearly eliminate any unwanted noise. The ACX's excess noise is definitly no worse then any of the other amps that I've owned or played through over the years and is better then most.

This is my second Behringer product. I own a eurorack mixing console that I bought a while back. All I can say is. "So far so good". Both of my Behringer products seem to be built really well and never had a problem. The price vs quality ratio seems to be unsurpassed in my book. Only time will tell.

I have not had to deal with a support team yet. I hope I will never have to.

I have been playing music for 27 years. I grew up around music and I have a very diverse taste in music. I listen to everything from classical to bluegrass and just about everything in between. My true love is gospel, but I love classic country and rock-n-roll. My house is like a music store and I play nearly anything that has a string attached to it. (Not well mind you, but I play them just the same.)I really did my homework with this amp. I'd have to say that I am very pleased with my selection. If you feel as though you need a little more power you might want to consider the ACX 1800. At 180 watts it will give you the extra kick you need. Thats 20 watts more then the Fender SFX2 and a couple hundred bucks cheaper. If my ACX 1000 was stolen, burned up in a fire or swept away by Katrina's sister today. After I finished crying I would overnight order a brand new one. If I had a little extra money to spend I would order the ACX 1800.

Well described in other reviews. I was attrracted by the "warmth" control, on board effects and dual channel 60watts amps and speakers aimed at the accoustic guitar.

Using a Fender DG22CED with a fishman Accoustic Matrix pickup and their Classic 4T preamp with 4 band equaliser; Bass, Middle, Treble, Brilliance controls.

Turning the master volume up to 4 hiss became audible and increased in a linear fashion with increasing volume. Trying various effects led to a variety of additional noise and harmonic intrusion before playing and a hangover effect with some of the effects. I didn't take notes as to which ones.

With all this noise trying to play quiet passages was extremely frustrating.

Feedback controls worked okay and the effect array appeared to be useful, but it always came back to the background noise/hiss etc.

Out of the box the warmth function didn't. The meter didn't move and there was no apparent change in output when maxed out.

It was suggested that it go to their repair technician, but in light of it's general lack of performance and after reading the reviews on Harmony Central decided to cut my losses.

The dealer happily accepted the amp for return and gave a full refund. Obviously they were not worried by Behringer's response.

Only playing guitar for 6 months and wanted an amp to start getting noisy and play around with sounds.

lOADS OF EFFECTS AND DUAL FEEDBACK CONTROLS + PHANTOM POWER AND 99 EFFECTS PRESETS.

I use my Gibson JF55 exclusively with a dual source L.R. Baggs system.
At first I wasn't too pleased because I was getting too much feedback and could not turn up the volume much. I lowered the mic. volume on my pickup and raised the transducer vol. up and presto- it sounded beautiful! The quality of sound and the discerment form preset to preset was great. When directed out to the P.A. the sound is lush, warm and clean. I tried Kustom, Peavey and Fender acoustasonic and this amp is it for me. I was so happy with it, I went and bought another for backup.

Has not broken yet so no comment.

I've been playing for 35 yrs. and have played in many bands and have owned loads of gear. I would like to have a Genz Benz though, but I;ll never see one for 199.00.

2x10" (2x60W) acoustic amp. A guitar channel (jack) and a vocal channel (XLR and jack). Loads of on-board goodies - peak indicator, mute for tuning, voice enhancer, guitar attack, 48V phantom power, feedback killers (2 on each channel) tube emulator, loads of effects (footswitch included) And that's just the front! - the back looks definitely like rocket science.

Sounds OK. It's noisy but I don't notice when I'm playing. I use the vocal channel for voice and harmonica and I'm happy enough. Various guitarists have stuck their thing in the other channel without complaints. So the amp sounds ok. Not all the functions seem to have much effect though. I can't say that the feedback killers do very much, and the on-board effects are pretty much of a shoulder shrug. I've found a suitable reverb and I don't touch the effects any more than that, so I don't bother with the foot-switch either. The tube emulator is ok, although I use the Behringer MIC200 tube preamp in addition on the voice channel. This is because of the harmonica which I like to thicken a bit.
Mostly we use the amp as a sort of mini-PA in settings where a proper PA isn't available/appropriate. It's great for this kind of use (although a bit heavy to lug around)and even has volume enough for outdoor settings. All in all the sound doesn't make me wet myself but it's good enough (and you can't get better than that....)

I've had the amp about 6 months and have had no trouble with it (or with any of my other Behringer products for that matter), but others may have other experiences here.

I haven't dealt with them beyond registrering the product on Internet.

I've been playing for about 40 years, but harmonica for only the last 20...I've used Rolands, Fenders and various other amps, both tube and tranny for harmonica, in addition to going straight into the PA. The Behringer replaced my Fender Blues Junior, which is a great amp but gave a somewhat limited harp sound. If it was stolen I'd get the insurance money and buy another - as they've gone down in price I hope that happens. What do I love - the amp's versatility. What do I hate - it's weight! When I bought it I checked out other equivalent amps but none could give me the same amount of features for the money.
The only things I miss on this amp are wheels - the thing weighs 22 kg.

Wont go into specs as this is adequately covered.
My review consists exclusively of using the amp for vocals & piezo acoustic solid body guitar at home.

I was in pain trying to find an acoustic amp to fit my purposes. I wanted it to sound like it does thru my studio monitors, but not have all the hassle of setting everything up. I just wanted to be able to plug in & play, & sound adequately loud with no feedback & hi-fi quality.

I had 3 amps to try at home over the weekend. The ACX100, Roland AC-60, & Carvin AG100D with twin effects processor.

I had no particular bias towards any of these amps, but the Carvin was rapidly dismissed. It was very lo-fi compared to the other 2, & there was no feedback control. The effects were present, but were mediocre. Pity, cos it was the only one with 3 dedicated channels with tone controls.

I loved the cuteness of the Roland. It was well made, sounded great, & highly transportable. The effects were adequate, but lacked any sort of control. They were boring & limited. I think if it was only guitar I was going to use this for, it may have been a keeper. However, the real problem was the feedback control, which did nothing. My SM58 also sounded kinda boxy, & I couldnt dial this out.

We come onto the winner now, the ACX1000. This was a nice surprise. Not only was it cheap in price & well made, it outclassed the competition. I could not stop playing with the sound this thing produced. It sparkled. The effects oozed quality,lushness & variety. It sounded rich & full. The tone controls worked great, & so did the feedback.....2/channel!

I can reassure potential purchasers about the noise problem. At volume, all the amps I tried hissed. The ACX1000 was no worse than the others. It is easy to live with.

I had to wait for a second unit as the first one was faulty out of the box! I dont know how reliable it would be in the long term. Seems well made with cooling fan. I have owned Behringer stuff before & had no problems.

The dealer (Digital Village) replaced immediatly!

I would have liked to try a few more amps, like the Marshall equivalent. I feel the ACX1000 would be hard to beat. There is nothing that compares for the price. The only negative is the weight. It weighs a ton, & is awkward to carry. For me, tho, its only staying in one place.

Please note I have reviewed these items according to what my specific requirements in choosing an amp were. These might not be the same as your requirements. They may or may not help you choose. I hope they do!

For the price this has LOTS of features. Two 60 watt channels, each channel has treble, mid and bass eq. Each channel has its own speaker. Two feedback destroyers per channel. One channel has an XLR input and a balanced 1/4 if stereo cable is used, or unbalanced is mono 1/4 cable used. Other channel has 1/4 unbalance input. I use my mic in the XLR and my acoustic guitar n the other channel. Works great. Reverb, delay, chorus and leslie on each channel. I turn the mids down for my Taylor expression system, seems to help. Master volume. Back panel has tons of inputs and outputs for CD in, microphone, out to a tuner, effects loop etc. I haven't use most of it, but it's there. Can save 4 effects settings and has a footswitch.

My guitar is a Taylor with expression system. Suits my style fine (blues, bluegrass, folk). Not noisy. Lots of eq. Feedback destroyer really works. Effects sound good if strumming (heavenly chords with the leslie on). I give it a 9 but for the price of $350, I'd give it a 10.

Reliable so far, which is only about a month.

Don't know.

It's better than the Fender Acoustisonics I played, but I didn't play the biggest ones of those. Seems like the one channel should have an XLR input as well as 1/4", no big deal, as there are three total.

Acoustic 2x60 watts amp, separate mike & guitar channel, tube emulation, feedback suppressor, digital effects
I first heard about this amp from a friend, who was looking for an acoustic amp, and I decided to give it a try at my favourite shop in Brussels.
I own a full blown PA system, and regularly I have bars/ other people contacting me for a small PA system for singers/ speeches, and the big system is overkill for these purposes. PLus I play regularly with friends in bars / pubs, so I needed something similar to the ACX 1000
In terms of features, well, it has pretty much everything you need, inclusive of all kinds of connections in the back, and a separate tuner output. Download the manual at www.behringer.de for all the details.
The great thing is the feedback suppressor. It WORKS!
The final nice touches is that it has 'recliner legs' like the good old fender twin reverb, which makes life so much easier. After all, mankind did not develop ears on its legs, this is very useful.

Originally I tried it in the shop with guitars I did not know, and I felt it sounded a bit weak. Then I came back with a friend and my ovation balladeer, and listened to it from 10 meters away. The reason it sounded 'weak' as you were in front of it is because the sound is quite clear. This thing is definitely 2x60 watts, and it delivers.
There is a very small hum, nothing dramatic, and the tone controls are quite effective.
The feedback suppressor works, and is tuned in the instrument channel to acoustic guitar feedback frequencies (low and mid) and in the mike channel to low-mid to high mid.
It does work. Standinng in front of it at full volume with a guitar, I was able to cut out the feedback frequencies without detrimental result on the sound. In fact, it's almost as if it was not doing anything.
The effects are good, but sometimes a bit too much for my liking. I prefer very subtle reverbs, but it can be made to sound good. In fact a footswitch is supplied so that you can program 4 reverb settings and select them during performance.
Basically, I like the sound of this thing. It will not make the wallpaper fall off the wall, but delivers reasonable power and sound quality that is more than sufficient for small clubs/pubs.
We played it indoors and outdoors, and even outdoors it fares quite well. I do not think it would be able to handle well modern keyboards that tend to overload low frequencies, but let's be fair, this has been designed for real musicians, ie guys with a guitar and a mike, not karaoke on a keyboard..... ;-)

Well, I have had it a week, and it has not gone up in smoke yet. I own quite a few things from Behringer, and I never had any problems. The unit looks very well made, looks great and seems to be designed for being used regularly.
One thing though. Its quite heavy (22kg - 45 lb)and a bit larger than most acoustic amps. But that's the price to pay for 2 speakers and a big power supply (200w)

see above

I own quite a lot of equipment, and this one is quite a neat design. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a decent multipurpose amp, with instrument and mike input. Apart for the weight (I guess I'm getting old...) no negative points on it.
My wish list? Maybe a little more power (OK, I'm used to 400W PA) and a second mike input. But that can be easily fixed with a small mixing table.

Value for money? In my opinion, unbeatable, unless you steal one, that is .....