Behringer POWERPLAY P1 Personal In-Ear Monitor Amplifier

OK, so let me start out by saying I have a LONG history with Behringer products. Most of my experience has been so-so at best. Starting in the early days with the reverse-engineered, made in China clones of dbx, Mackie, Aphex and others - the quality has always been hit and miss but for me, mostly misses. Recently, Behringer seems to have switched gears (somewhat) and are buying up some pretty well known manufacturers and making an effort to establish themselves as a legitimate pro audio leader. So I have been paying attention to their more recent offerings. I play drums and use IEMs. When I needed a headphone amp, I started looking at all of the usual suspects. Price was not the main concern - I don't mind paying for quality gear - but I am not a gear snob either. The Behringer had some pretty cool features, including XLR inputs, a mic stand mount, and a belt clip. It was decently small and for under $50.00, I figured it was worth checking out. If I hated it I could always return it. A year later, I am still using it. It fits the bill pretty nicely for me. Is it audiophile quality? No. However, given the environment it has enough output and headroom to work well for me. The low end is solid and the top end does not seem overly harsh. Be careful though - if you are using consumer earbuds you may not get the same results. I use custom molded triple driver ear monitors that are up to the task and offer a lot of isolation from the ambient drum and stage volume. Even so, the P1 is usually run near the top of its output range. Be careful that you run a clean signal to it, and don't overdrive the inputs (but this is true for ANY headphone amplifier). There are a few negatives - but considering the price of the unit, it definitely earns 4 stars. The negatives - (1) No power supply is included which is really pretty silly given its intended application. The battery option is nice, but probably not used much. This is a wired unit, meaning you are going to be relatively stationary - so a power supply over a battery is a no brainer. (2) XLR inputs only. Would be nice if one of the XLRs was a combo connector that could be used with a TRS input for a stereo feed. Depending on what you are sending, you may need some extra cabling. (3) Limiter cannot be bypassed. I prefer to use the compressor/limiter on my console or IEM processor as it is much more musical and exact. I get it as a safety feature for novices - but make it a jumper or something internal that has to be intentional and that would likely discourage most people that may not hear the difference anyway from bothering with it. Overall, this unit was a pleasant surprise. And since its been a year since I purchased it - it has proven reliable thus far. Update 11/28/2023 - I have had this unit for 6 years, used almost weekly, without a failure. Even with the shortcomings mentioned, it deserves a 5 star rating for reliability alone so I have updated this review.

We use these at our church to give the musicians a stereo headphone monitor. We use to run mono, but upgraded our board to a model that had enough aux outputs to move to stereo. We had to replace our mono headphone amps and these are great. They are not very expensive and work very well. We actually power them using the 9v battery option just to keep the stage looking a little cleaner. The batteries have lasted several weeks now and haven't needed to be replaced. They are used about 3 hours each week, so that isn't a ton, but we've gotten at least 12-15 hours of use on the 9v and haven't replaced them yet. They can be powered by a continuous power supply however if you don't want to use batteries. The volume control is nice and big and the other controls/buttons are well labeled and easy to use. If you need to convert an XLR output to use with headphones, this is a great product to use.

The sound quality is great on this. Very little hiss or noise. The battery life on the other hand is not good. Since it's a wired pack, there's no reason nor to use a power adapter. Be careful on what power supply you use though! One that I had, even though it was the right size and polarity, it was cheap, and introduced some audio noise and artifacts into the line. I did not get that with batteries, or once I changed to a higher quality power adapter. I tried useing this for a while from my keyboard. It was too limiting for me being tied down, so I quickly moved to a wireless setup. I gave this to my drummer, who is quite happy with it.

Good, no issues. I wish there was no balance knob, I find it to be of little use.

How I use it: live weekly. I'm a guitarist I run the unit in stereo Pros: Stereo (or mono) Panning feature Simple Belt clip Can mount to mic stand easily inexpensive!!! Cons: Wired (x2 for stereo) Battery can take a minute or so to change out I imagine battery door will be first part to fail My two cents: At the price point nothing comes close to matching it. I am generally not a fan of Behringer, but this thing is a homerun. Given the choice between running wireless IEMs mono or running wired IEMs in stereo I'll choose stereo wired every time. The subtle panning of your mix is infinitely better in my opinion. The drivers in your headphones don't have to work as hard; the mix will sound less muddy. You get a better sense of space and don't feel so "trapped in a box" when you can monitor with stereo. I've used mono wireless IEMs for years because stereo was just not an option for my regular venue (church). Stereo became an option (church got a much better mixer) so I decided to drop $50 and give these a try. Night and day difference. I let my bandmates listen to my mix; now they're buying these (one has already). Ultimately, I don't expect my unit to last for ever, but I could go through ten of them for less money than my mono wireless IEMs cost.

Just did my first gig with this. I'm looking to take the place of a mono Shure wired/wireless pack that only uses 9V batteries. Since I only need wired, and could be powered, on paper it was ideal. I used it in stereo mode and got a stereo monitor send from the main board (a QSC touchmix). Being able to pan instruments really opened things up, and I was able to hear more clearly at a bit lower volume than my other pack. I'm not sure why others are complaining about the volume; it certainly had more than enough for me. I left it on 10 o'clock on the volume during the gig. I made sure I was sending it a healthy signal, the same as with my other pack... Our band does not have a loud stage volume at all (acoustic drums and a couple wedges for two members is all, no amps on stage) but we are playing rock and I was less than 10 feet from the drummer....so I suspect that if you aren't getting volume from this it could be that the input volume isn't hot enough... Sound-wise it's great. No noise that I could hear in testing, and great clarity. The only thing that I didn't test out was the limiter, and I need to do that. Turning the volume to midway was too loud and the limiter hadn't engaged (I don't think) so it's something to check.

I've got 3 of these in my rig, which brings my total stereo in-ear mix number to 6 with 3 P-16m personal mixers. These give easy access to your volume and blend (or pan). I keep one clipped to the bar of my Nady tablet holder (has a flat bar that clamps onto the mic stand) and run a headphone cable that is strapped to an instrument cable so I can have an easy to grab in ear solution that doesn't give me another cable to trip over. XLR connections on the back make for an easy interface with mixers. I keep mine on a 9v powe supply, but they can be battery oper as ted as well. The battery cover is finicky and the tab that holds the plastic door on may be prone to breaking the first time to put a battery in. Ive seen plenty of these in use, and plenty with taped-on battery doors... You'll find these on many stages and player's pedalboards - they are THAT good. users who have had issues with volume not being loud enough may be experiencing poor gain staging or lack of understanding of how to run their sends, or have headphones that are causing the issue. Ive never needed the volume up very loud on these to get a good loud and clear mix (in ears mostly but 2 different types of cans as well with great results). Perfect for drummers, keyboard players or others who don't need to move around on stage, though as mentioned before a simple cabling solution makes that easy too. If you want to add in ears to your setup and don't need to go wireless, this is the easiest way!

It’s a bit odd layout but works great for headphone monitor amp in vocal booth of studio