{mosreview}manufacturer=Behringer/product=EP2500/website=www.behringer.com/price=200/score=5{/mosreview}

Most of us know that Behringer have a mixed reputation. You can buy one of their products and it will work straight out of the box and provide years of reliable service, but unfortunately there are occasions on which it fails to work right from the start. Don't let that put you off buying from them though - I have yet to have a Behringer product fail on me.

Anyway, let's start at the beginning, first impressions. I ordered two of these amplifiers and was pleased to find them well packed in a very sturdy cardboard box on arrival. They are quite weighty at 16.6Kg, but this is to be expected from any amp of this power. Remember that more power output = larger transformer and heatsink, the only way around this is to spend many times more on an amp with a switch mode power supply.

Onto the specs:
- 1200w p/c @ 2 Ohms
  750w  p/c @ 4 Ohms
  500w  p/c @ 8 Ohms
- Distortion < 0.02%
- Frequency response 20Hz - 20Khz
- Damping factor >300 @ 8 Ohms
- Noise -100dB
- Short & open circuit protection
- HF protection
- Thermal overload protection
- Dimensions 88mm(H)*482mm(W)*402mm(D)
- Weight 16.6Kg

Some readers may be thinking that this amp seems remarkably similar to the QSC RMX2450, and you'd be right. The general consensus is that the EP2500 is a cheaper knock-off with only very minor cosmetic differences. How much the internals differ I do not know, what I can say is that the QSC model weighs 20.2kg - that's over 3.5Kg more than the Behringer, so there must be a difference somewhere. Perhaps they have used a larger transformer and/or heatsink, or the casing is quite simply heavier. No doubt the QSC would outperform the Behringer copy, but as far as I'm concerned the EP2500 is a solid amp and performs very well for the price.

So, back on track. The gain controls and power switch are both located on the front panel, along with the power LED and individual clip and signal indicators for each channel. You'll also find a cooling vent pushing hot air out the front of the amp through some form of foam filter. One thing I would like to mention at this point is that the casing is very well build and could no doubt take a few knocks, and the gain controls just seem to 'feel' a much higher quality than other amps in this price bracket.

On the back panel are two speakon output sockets and binding post connections, along with the mains IEC inlet, XLR and TRS signal inputs, the DIP control switches and a thermal breaker. The top speakon socket is 4 pole and is wired to output channel 1 on +1/-1 as well as channel 2 on +2/-2. This could be a useful feature if you wanted to run a 4 core cable from amp to speakers and then a breakout into the cabs, or if your system is bi-amped. The EP2500 does lack the barrier strip terminals of its QSC counterpart, which is a shame as I have two of these amps in my rack and the barrier strip would have been ideal for connecting to the patch panel. The DIP switches control a variety of features including switchable (and defeatable) 30/50Hz low-cut filters and clip limiters, along with the bridge, stereo and parallel output settings.

The fact that an amp of this price claims to operate down to 2 Ohms is enough in itself, being able to do so reliably is nothing short of astonishing - but this is exactly what the EP2500 can do. For larger gigs I use one of these amps to drive a pair of 4 Ohms subs in parallel on each channel, making a 2 Ohm load. It will happily drive this load all night, even at high power, and barely even break a sweat. Obviously you should avoid running at 2 Ohms if possible, but as the Behringer blurb for this product states, you really can push it "to the limit" without problems!

Overall this is a fantastic piece of kit for the price. Of course you can spend more and buy something better, but for an RRP of £235 I can't think of any other amplifier I would recommend in this price bracket. Its a shame about the lack of a barrier terminal strip, but still, well done to Behringer for bringing such a fantastic product into the lower end of the amplifier market.