Behringer Powerplay P16-M 16-channel Digital Personal Mixer Reviews

I purchased this personal mixer to improve in our church services. It is so easy to setup and give it a well-going performance. The sound that comes from it really helps a lot to keep track of what is going during our worship and preaching. I couldn't be happier with it.

I've always been a fan of the p16 since I first used them years ago. They are very user friendly with each channel clearly visible. The led light is a quick indicator for what is currently selected (red light) and which channels are receiving signal (green light). I love that I can store up to 16 scenes so that as my musicians rotate, they can each have a scene which makes set up and rehearsals much easier and more efficient. These units are easy to daisy chain with cat5 and a power cable OR these units pair perfectly with the p16-d which can power the unit via the cat5. It seems Behringer has improved the overall construction of these units over the years which is great! The p16 units are also super affordable and if you catch them on sale, I'd say they beat out any competitor. The price, ease of use and accessibility make this a great product. Highly recommend!

Look no further. Great product!!!

Where to start. I've used similar systems in studios for years... they usually gave you a limited 'more me' function or, if they had more capabilities had some pretty extensive setup needed at the studio booth. When I first encountered this sort of system in the wild it was a Hearback system. Ugh. you got the L/R main signal and 6 'more me' knobs, or 8 individual knobs if you decided which two things could stand to be stereo separated permanently.

Enter the P-16M. Church I started playing at had switched to this system when they changed to an X32 mixer. 16 channels (can be 'bus sends/mixes' with individual level, EQ and Panning! At first we were powering each one (5 in total) with wall-warts but decided to make the stage more flexible the hub (which powers the device over the Ethernet cable) was the way to go. Of the 6 units ordered, one had an output board fail - that was back when you could get parts from music tribe - swapped out the board (cost $) and it was good-to-go. That was the only real failure I can recall.

There is a learning curve, particularly since many musicians aren't sound people... but if the system is well designed/labeled it is very easy for everyone to figure out. You can even save your mixes, so if you have rotating players, they just need to load their saved mix (on the same P-16M) and they are ready to go.

I bought 3 of these for my personal rig (originally VR18-based, now X32) and as a way to add stereo mixes without using more BUS/MIX sends, it is great! The Hub OR the SD8/SD16 stage boxes can power the P-16M's - so you don't need to be stuck with wall-warts to worry about.

On the concerns I've seen of volume issues or silent channels - you have the run the main level all the way up and mix on the channel levels - and if you press the level button the selected channel will mute - again, a little learning curve, but I bet many 'defective' units were actually fine, I've seen so many people make these little mistakes with no one to educate them.. Also, read up on how the limiter works - I've had people get all out of sorts with how it sounds because they are using it wrong too!

I'll keep using mine, they are really great for wired IEM's (or take the signal to your wireless unit) and mean I can add another 3 stereo mixes to my rig without having to worry about if I have outputs left to serve the need!

The ease of set up on the fly adjustments works great

The band got this for the drummer, he finds it very useful. Simple and ergonomic control. It's sends two signals out: headphone and 1/4" (we send to a wedge). We like having the choice. (We daisy chained the P16 with a DN-4816-O StageConnect interface. This gives us a one cable method of running 16 XLR outs.) The P16 gives us many, many more AUX outs for monitoring. Some band members use a tablet or cell phone for monitor control, and the P16 gives that nice tactile physical control option.

I've only had them for 3 weeks now but they are living up to the hype. I am a music director at a local church and my bassist has been trying to get us to buy these for a while now, we finally got them and he says they are a game changer. All of these things cost a little money of course, but when you can hear the click tracks clearly and be able to make adjustments without having to flag down the sound guy it really has taken our band to the next level. I don't have anything bad to say about them, I am just a cheap person so I didn't like the price, but I will say all of the features is really nice. Even the fact that you can run an external speaker off of this system is nice, & if you spend the money to get the distribution system it saves a ton of time and headache not having to deal with finding power for each P-16

It a awesome device so helpful for monitoring your instrument and affordable for the hold band

The P16 system has worked very well for me. It's a must for anyone tracking bands.
It take a bit of time to figure out but it's worth the investment in time and money.

I normally use a wireless Sennheiser system that I can mix on my phone or iPad, but when I do, I know that I am sacrificing just a little functionality, quickness of mixing, and clarity when I'm not using this P16 unit. These things are amazing - and they have been tried and true for many years now. They are rock solid and will withstand being knocked down a few times, the panning is great, the eq is great, the daisy-chaining options are great, the POE function is great, and the volume I get out of them is great. I really only have one major complaint after training volunteers on them for a while: I do not understand why there is a MAIN level (with the knob at the top right) as well as another MAIN level that you access by pressing main and turning up the volume (it seems redundant and tricky for many volunteers). But other than that - they are such great systems.

As the XR18 doesn't have the ability to power this thing, I hooked this up to a P16 Distribution Model so I wouldn't have to have a power drop. My only criticism is that the unit won't run off the XR18 stand-alone without powering it separate (a small complaint). I also read a few reviews that talked about the output gain being a tiny bit low and I do agree that. A small boost in gain would be appreciated so you do not have to push the mixer a bit but, it's just an annoyance more than a complaint. Lastly there's no noticeable delay in the signal processing and the EQ and Limiter work pretty well in my mind.

This thing is amazing. I literally didn't even open up the manual. Everything just makes sense. The workflow is super intuitive, everything does exactly what you think it'll do. The build quality is surprisingly good for the price point. And most importantly, I NEVER have to mix people's individual HP mixes, they got it themselves!

I love P16
One of the best equipments that I've ever purchased

So we upgraded our church with new sound equipment and we also changed out all of our old Avioms with these new Behringers.
I was taken back a bit because of my previous experience with Behringer products, I wasn't quite sure if these would be worth it....but wow. Behringer has come a long way. Everything sounds crisp and clean. Panning works great, the volume is very adjustable and loud enough....and louder if you need it. I love it, perfect for what we need. Guitar, bass, drums, keys, click track, vocals, all sound on point! Price is awesome too.

If you do IEMs, and use an X-Air mixer, this is absolutely worth the cost. The P16-M is a life saver when you're performing live. No more having to ask the sound guy to turn up your monitors or going over to the x-touch to adjust it yourself. You can just dial in your mix directly on the P16-M. It's also incredibly useful if you have limited aux out and need to run monitors and subs, no longer do you have to take from your aux to monitor!

There are those times, when you decide to try something and hope that it works. Well, not only was the Behringer P16 system what they claimed, it was more. For the first time ever as a performing band, were we able to control our monitor mixes so simply and efficiently. Takes the pressure off the annoying "I Cannot Hear, fill-in the blank". Behringer got it right, especially when I use it with the X32 Console.

My church's music team switched to these from floor wedges. With the wedges, almost no one on stage could hear what they needed to hear, if they could hear the monitors at all. With this system, each person gets the mix they need. Stage volume is reduced since we're using in-ears rather than wedges, which means the engineer has an easier time mixing the house/mains.
It was a learning curve for some of the musicians, but after a few weeks everyone was comfortable with them and happy with the results.
I am also familiar with this product's main competitor (Aviom). It has a built-in push-button-activated mic on each unit that allows band members to communicate onstage more easily, which is a very nice feature, but they are also much more expensive. That 'talk-back' feature is the only one I miss on these Behringer units, and wasn't worth the extra money in our application.
We've had these 4 years or so and have not had any issues with them.

This is essential for large bands. No more days of spending time getting each members IEM right , more time spent of FOH. Should have got them sooner.

This monitoring system changed our lives. For real.

Now, with one Ethernet cable each, we have the entire mix under our own control. I get to have my own mix, which has made life sooooo much better in terms of satisfaction and feel while I am playing. I do NOT want the singer's mix. I do NOT want the guitarist's mix. I want MY mix. And now I have it!

The main thing for you to take under consideration is this: You need to decide which distribution module you want to use. This is the module that all of your little mixers will plug into.

There is the P16-I, which has physical 1/4" balanced inputs and optical ADAT inputs. It also has individual dB +/- switches per channel on output, which can be quite nice. You will NOT be able to use Ethernet input to this distribution unit. This distributor will work the audio interfaces that have 1/4" and optical ins/outs. For instance, we used this with our Focusrite 18i20 interface via ADAT, and it worked great.

The P16-D is the one that has Ethernet-in capability. This one does NOT have 1/4" ins, and it does NOT have Optical ADAT ins. It also doesn't have individual channel dB adjustment switches. The plus to this one is that it works with Behringer mixers that use the Ultranet protocol. We upgraded from interfaces to the Behringer X32 Rack mixer, and now all we use for our input from the mixer to the monitor distributor is a single Ethernet cable! We love it!

So, in conclusion, if you are thinking about buying this system for your personal monitoring needs, DO IT. Dollars-to doughnuts, this is one of the best pieces of gear that I have ever bought. Ever. Period.

Enjoy!

I purchased 6 of these mixers
And it was the right product for the job
I had a problem with one of the mixer
I contacted Sweetwater and they overnight me a new one
I really appreciate Sweetwater going above and beyond to help with this matter

This was the trick that got everyone in the band to give up monitors and amps in favor of IEMs. Once they realized they could dial in their own personal mixes, everyone wanted one. That was followed by a pair of "test" IEMs to have people try. Our next gig will be 100% IEM as a result.

If you own a compatible Behringer mixer (X Air or similar), you need to check these out -- along with the nifty mounting plate and powered ethernet hub. Your stage mix will never be the same. Compared to alternatives, these are a great value as with most Behringer products.

The UI takes some time, e.g. the "main" button for overall volume, printing strips with channel assignments, getting people to stop yelling at the sound person to change their mix, etc. But it's worth it.

Full props to Sweetwater as always for having inventory (!) and sending it my way without a fuss.

We have about 40% dysfunction over 5 years or so. Connections, signal, all manner of breaking down. Unlike the X32, these units are classic chintz.

I use the Pm16 with my XR18 and couldn't be simpler, just plug in the ultranet/Ethernet cable an you are done. I also plug in an Xvie wireless IEM transmitter in the output so I can go full wireless. Extremely useful tool!

works very well

It works like a charm and puts the mix into the players hands. Wonderful.

Our Team implemented the Behringer P16 M Digital Personal Mixers about a year ago. We are very happy with them. No more feedback!

There are a few things I'd like to work a little differently, but the power you get for the money makes it the easy choice.

Our small church was looking for a way to improve our sound and help our worship team. Everyone was telling us we need to do in-ear monitoring but had no idea how we would do it. We then were directed towards the P16 Personal Mixer. Absolutely amazing. Best investment we have made for our team. Even the technically challenged enjoy the simple to use functions of the P16. Would Highly Recommend this product.

What a great idea and these work beautifully. They have plenty of gain for headphones and so hip to show people how to use it and then they are on their own. Very cool as I bought 4 of these so far.Definitely 5 stars and thank you to Nick LaMendola for the great deal.

These personal headphone mixers are the best investment I have made in my studio. I used to run aux mixes to my clients...always having to adjust them. Sometimes I needed more mixes than my console could output. I have used Aviom mixers (at church) and liked them, but they were way out of my price range. These do more than the original Aviom, but not as much as the new Aviom systems. They lack an ambient mic and the ability to add reverb inside the unit, but for the price...who can complain.

Great piece of gear for the money

I used to setup mixes for musicians in Studio Sessions. While building a new Studio I decided to go with a personal mixer solution. The functionality and price of the Powerplay system is hard to pass up. Had my first session in the new studio last week. They worked perfectly. I would never go back to the old method. Personal mixers save so much time. These are very easy for clients to understand and operate. There is ample room below the buttons for Marking Tape so you can label each session. The system just works great, and all you need is a Network cable if you are running directly from the distribution box. If you decide to daisy chain two of them, you can, just remember that one of them will need a power supply. The Power Supply is included with each unit. Great System! Nice work Behringer!

I could not be more pleased with our new Behringer system & the customer service at Sweetwater.
Derek Senestraro and staff were over-the-top helpful in getting us set up.
Thanks so much for all you've done; I will certainly be back.with future orders.

I've used Avoim for many years but these blew those away, especially for the price and functionality. These are a must have if you don't have a bunch to spend but need an in ear solution

Love the unit. Wish it had a little more headroom for volume but it works very well for personal control

Use in a 6 piece band where everyone is on IEMs. Mixer is the Behringer XR18 (and it's great), but w/only 6 aux sends, no one gets a stereo IEM mix. Over UltraNet, the P16M lets me to have that stereo mix, pan instruments L/R & adjust eq/volume & "Q" very handily.

The unit gets signal from XR18 over Cat6, then sends L/R to my Shure PSM300 & allows me to still be wireless. It feels reasonably sturdy, and has performed flawlessly over the last couple of weeks. I will update if that does not stay the same.

However, there are some drawbacks:

Behringer makes it seem as if any X-series mixer will power the P16M over UltraNet - it WILL NOT. You'll need to drop the $ on the P16-I if you want that feature. FYI, the P16M is center pin positive, so you'll need a reverse polarity cable to run it off of a power supply like the Voodoo Lab PP2+...

This is a 4th unit I purchased to add to my current 3 that I use in my studio for recording and for in-ears during my band practices. These units are really well designed and have worked flawlessly for me for years. If I were to be asked by Behringer for R&D ideas, it would be to make them wireless. Then they could be used on stage.

I wrote a review when we first switched over from an Aviom setup to the X-32 digital board, and the matching P16-M in ear set up (8 units). When I wrote that review we were still in the honeymoon phase. I am assuming that most of the existing reviews have been written by people blissfully in love as well. Now 3 years in, we have had major failures with 4 of the units. Headphone outputs dying, channels dying, knobs dying and one completely fried itself. We have been put out by the time and money it takes to get them fixed as well. I can understand 1 unit being faulty but never 50%. It has been a total let down and I am hoping it doesn"t end on a messy divorce.

I upgraded the headphone distribution system in my studio with the Input Module plus six of these mixers from a standard headphone amp set-up. I love it. No more asking all the artists what everyone needs in their cans. I haven't noticed any latency issues that other people have mentioned. Using this, I was able to get rid of two six-channel headphone amps and my talkback/cue/monitor controller.

I took away a half star for no threaded mic stand mount on the bottom. There are three small threaded holes for mounting to Behri's stand mount bracket, but those are ridiculously overpriced.

I took away another half star for value. I feel like these mixers are pretty expensive for what they are. I think a price point of closer to two hundred would make these much more attractive.

Our worship band has used 6 of these units for about 3 weeks now. We where currently using the Avoim A16-11 system which was about 10 years old. The Behringer system has a much cleaner mix and of course more eq options. Most of the band use powered moniters and we have noticed that we have had to either raise the gain levels at the mixer (X32) or the gain on the monitors. Overall they sound great and you would be hard pressed to beat the price for a personal monitor mixer.

We at Grace Christian Fellowship has had a Hearback system which was to say the least. Outdated and not acceptable for sending more than 8 channels and the stereo ones could only use one or the other. Since our purchase of the X32 and the S32 stage snake, this was a perfect addition. Our drummer is in an isolation cage and she says it is outstanding. She has total control over the 16 inputs I have programmed for her to receive. She no longer has to open her door and ask me to do anything. (I play bass and use my tablet to control the X32). Our worship group spends more time utilizing our time instead of me mixing and remixing for her depending on the situation.

We love the Behringer line of products

I really like these personal mixers for my rhythm sections and singers in the studio. Great for live as well. We use them at our church and I use them daily in my studio. A slight amount of quality loss but in general it has a very effective sound quality. I like being able to pan each channel for a better mix. Would be nice if it had a little digital reverb onboard for the singers, etc. Overall, I like it and plan to purchase more units.

It's good for what it does, but IMO what it does is very little compared to what you can already do. You can easily use one, ipad, iphone, android tablet, adroid device, etc (you already own) in its place and set each instrument station up with one using the free XR app to adjust the aux/output of XR18/x32 mixers. Not to mention can easily be switched to adjust other monitors if need be. Perfect for smaller churches where the sound man might have to fill in on a instrument

I just don't get it. Seams like something made for people who don't understand all the capabilities of the XR18/x32 without it, or just want to spend the extra money or for a specific look Nice option though.

Here is a way to avoid this using a XR 18. Run aux to stage monitors as a backup in case someones earbud goes out. Run aux 2-6 to different headphone amps on stage. As a example, make Aux 2 go to the backup singer. Aux 3 to the piano and drums. Aux 4 to bass and guitars. Aux 5 to misc instruments, and Aux 6 to the lead singers. Now each group can have their own personal mix for very little money. They can control it with their phones, tablets, etc. Just download the amp and flip there mixer to the aux 1-6 they are on. Give to all, or just to section leaders.

That's all you need unless you just want to spend money. The XR18 even has more features (better EQ, dynamic/compress/etc).

Hope this helps some smaller churches, or people looking to save where they can.

My purchase of 3 of these units have made my sound life much easier, so I love these units. Connecting them was easy and using them hasn't been difficult. My only issue is the volume output. I expected it to be higher, my phone seems to produce a higher volume. What I have learned is to run the MAIN at maximum and also to run the gains on the X32 at higher levels.
The muscians really like the units and have not complained much about the volume, so I plan to complete the set by purchasing another.

I used a P16-I hooked up to our rack of MOTU equipment, which is fed by direct outputs from our mixer, to connect to the P16-M. It uses just an Ethernet cable, which supplies power to the unit (very convenient). Everything sounds great. It was easy to dial in as much of the main mix as I want. Then, I can turn up (or down) individual instruments or vocals to get just the mix I want--very helpful for singing. It's very easy to set up and recall various settings if, for example, you have different lead singers and you want the lead singer in the centre, yourself to one side, and the other harmony singers to the right. You can establish a setting for one lead singer and a different one for the other lead singer. You can also configure stereo pairs and groups if, for example, you want to turn up all the harmony singers as a single group, or all of the drums as one group. It's very easy to use and configure. I'm very happy with it!

I have purchased 2 of these units for my church band (I'm the sound guy). I really love the concept and the fact that it's so easy to connect to my X32 via the S16 via Ethernet. My disappointment is related to the volume, it is very low volume on the headphone outputs. After searching around on the internet, I learned that if I run the main volume all the way up, I then have enough overall volume to give me room to play with on each channel. I was about to return the unit, but the musicians seemed to be ok with it after testing out on a loud Sunday morning. Since they were ok, I was ok, although still disappointed. To be fair though, my X32 gain structure is not setup with these units in mind. One of the things I learned is that if I push the gain up on a given channel at the X32, the volume increases at the P16. So one of my plans is to slowly increase the gains for all of the channels to get more signal to the P16's. Other than that, I love them and plan to purchase a couple more.

These units work incredibly well. Use them in our studio along with the X32 Producer. Has made our studio much quieter but helped every musician to hear what exactly they wanted to hear. Highly Recommend!!!

We bought 7 of these for our band. With members who rotate weekly the P16 has been a life saver! Sounds better than any personal monitor system I've ever used. Get it!

We have been using these for over 1 1/2 years now and all of NJsound clients love them. We initially had 5 and I just picked up another. One is hooked up to our internal headphone system to a crown amplifier so we have the ability to have dozens of headphone feeds 5 personal and 1 set for all the other headphones.

I love this product, affordable and very user friendly!

I used the Behringer 16-M for a while at my last Church and now that I'm at another Church that I as a Bass player don't have access to at this time, In feel a little lost because at times I cant hear the singer or the other musicians' cant wait for my Mixer comes in.

It could sound better. But it's easy to use the clients like it and it saves me time with headphone mixes.

Excellent Product

A personal monitor that takes fine tuning to a new level. Control how much or how little of whatever you want. 16 channels has an input for everything. Small price but BIG on performance ! I won't play a gig without it again!

Love the functionality of this unit. The EQ settings, pan and limiter make it easy for my musicians to monitor their mix. Only thing I wish is that there was more headroom. Fantastic mixer and really affordable!

This thing really rocks

The personal mixer is easy to use and I am happy with it!

I ordered this product for our church worship team, after having 6 other P16-M's installed. This additional mixer was easily hooked up by myself. There are 2 ways to connect: the daisy-chain method requires connecting the AC adapter to AC power source; the connection to the main panel doesn't require additional AC connection. Either way is easy to set up. The unit is not difficult to figure out and the price is reasonable. Make sure that you order the separate mounting bracket if you want to attach it to a music or mic. stand. It's not included with this item.

This product right here is something that everyone who has a X32 mixer needs to have. You are able to do so much more other things then worry about if the singers or musicians can hear them self. I my pretty impressed with Behringers prices and quality!!!!

Working with multiple musicians at once can be a juggling act. With these new headphone mixers, I'm able to focus on what's important, the recording. I don't have to spend time making sure everyone's headphones are set up or do any complex routing from my DAW to give everyone the balance they want. Now they all have control over their own mix and can adjust on the fly. This has really propelled my business to new heights and the production workflow is much more smooth and relaxed.

I can't even say for the price they sound great. They sound as good as any inear system I've used and at half the price. These are a great deal and a great way to get a good sounding monitor mix. If you are looking for a reasonable way to put your band, studio, or Worship Team on inears this is your answer.

This is part of a new, portable sound system our church purchased recently via Sweetwater and help from our customer tech, Nathan. We were looking for a system that had high quality sound and as simple a connectivity and setup effort as possible. Along with the Behringer XR18, the P16-M and P16-D work terrific with the Turbosound speakers that we also purchased. All have connectivity via Ultranet...we couldn't ask for an easier setup! Having wireless mixing via the XR18 and a wireless Android table and having the personal monitoring (with in-ear monitors)...we couldn't ask for a better performand and great sounding setup for both our worship team and the Pastor. The wireless mixing enables the sound tech to walk around the room while the system is operating and allow for the best possible coverage and levels for our congregation with no interference from open-air floor monitors. Can't say enough and can't think of a better, more useful portable (or permanent) setup! Highly recommended !!

These are pretty much an industry standard. No let down, they work really well!

There is no monitor system anywhere near this price point and even more expensive ones aren't this easy to use!

Would love to see the whole shebang go wireless with saving mixes to the computer but in the meantime I'm more than happy. The only thing that doesn't function well is the limiter but who cares? Just don't use it. The line outputs are also great for re-amping in the studio. You'd have to be nuts not to buy this system.

Purchased these for our worship team last week and everyone was blown away. We were using a headphone amp with the left and right connected to the 2 monitor sends. This worked ok until we heard what a difference the P16-M makes. Now I don't have to hear "I can't hear myself" ever again. And the clarity is awesome. We also got the XR18 mixer to go with the monitors and that has changed our main mix tremendously. There is a learning curve but with a few hours on YouTube, it really is simple. The amount of effects and routing options is unbelievable and for the price, can't be beaten. To buy all that gear would cost a fortune.

Lastly, I cannot give enough praise to my sales person, James Masterson. What an awesome guy. He has been so helpful with the decisions and making sure I had all the correct cables. I had a different idea for the monitors and our analog mixer but he took the time to explain the system requirements and offer alternative gear to get me up and running on our limited budget. Thanks James for all the help and support. I recommend this system for any live band situation.

I have dropped this unit from 3 feet high and worked fine, build well however if you use this unit for stage monitors, warning... the sound engineer has no control if the channels feeding into the p16 in prefader, only way you can control the p16 is using postfader when sending aux/bus sends (u can set postfader individually to each channel if engineer needs this control, u can set postfader to p16 in the x32's in routing page) which may effect other hearing of other players.
That is the only draw back of this product, however this is a UNIVERSAL monitoring-system with the p16-i meaning any mixer may take advantage of this product.

I've only used these a couple of times, but so far I've had good results. I have used them with individual ear plugs as well as a line out to a wedge monitor. They are really easy to learn to use. I'm only giving a 4 star rating because I've only used them for a short time and have a couple of small frustrations that may only be from user error.

We use these at church. Previously, we had four wedges driven by aux sends from our FOH board. We are in a small space with a hard, angled ceiling, so the stage volume reaching the congregation was unacceptable and the load on our all volunteer tech team mixing monitors *and* FOH was getting to be a pain.

Over time, we have been replacing wedges/aux buses with P16 units. Our current setup is: 4 musicians on headphones (3 pairs of over ear headphones and one pair of IEMs), 1 on a wedge, and 1 on a small keyboard mounted hotspot monitor. All 6 mixes are controlled by a P16. The P16s are fed with audio by our Midas M32's built in Ultranet port and the P16-D distributor from Behringer.

The monitoring/stage volume benefits of moving to this setup have been profound, but those benefits would be reaped from just about any personal mixer/IEM setup, so I won't focus on them, but rather the P16 system itself.

---Pros---

Sound quality: there is no noticeable delay (I sing with IEMs and my head voice lines up perfectly with what comes out of the P16) and the sound is very full range and present. It does not sound "digital" or compressed in any way. What goes in is what comes out. The headphone amp has plenty of power.

Simplicity: our musicians have varying levels of tech savviness and none have had any issue with setting up their mix after a quick (1 or 2 minute) demo of how it works. Being powered over the ethernet connection is a big plus, as we're on a small stage and cable clutter adds up fast.

Reliability: We've had these for a few months and have had 0 problems with disconnects/dropouts. They always just work.

Price: The price of the input module, distributor, and units themselves is drastically lower than other competing systems. It's quite amazing what Behringer has achieved at this price point. We would not have been able to pick up a personal monitoring system if this one didn't exist.

---Cons---

Noise floor: with my IEMs, which are admittedly very sensitive, there is a noticeable constant hissing noise floor, regardless of the output level (that is, even with the output level at 0, it's there). It seems to be power supply type noise getting into the headphone amp section. Once music starts it's not there, but it was a little alarming when I first tried the P16.

Weak EQ: Adjustments are hardly noticeable. This may be on purpose.

Build quality: These have the typical "Behringer" feel, very lightweight and delicate feeling. I have not had any problems or anything breaking quite yet, but I definitely get the sense that it might be an issue in the future.

No built in reverb / ambient mic: This is the biggest thing missing from this system, in my eyes. I know this is a lot to ask at this price point (see above). However, some similar units have built in reverb (even per channel!) and ambient mics right on the unit. As it is now we are using 3 P16 channels for stereo ambient/congregration mics and a reverb FX return from the M32. Luckily with the M32 we are able to group up some channels into dedicated mixbusses and send those as one channel to the P16, so it's manageable, but it would free things up a lot if we could do that right on the unit. Right now, FOH adjustments to reverb sends/parameters affect our monitoring mixes a bit more than I'd like in an ideal world.

Overall, I recommend these, *especially* if you're using a Behringer X32 (or any of the X-Airs) or an M32 already, as they have built in support. and *especially* if your budget is small, like ours.

If you are going to tour with your personal mixers, I have to suggest looking at something with a bit higher build quality as I am not confident these would stand up to the rigors of the road.

i have these paired up with my Midas M32 and they work amazing at my church. We are currently running 4 of them along with iPads as well. The beautiful thing about these is there is no connectivity issues.. Sometimes the iPad go on and offline from the console where these when they are plugged in.. They are plugged in.. Another buddy of mine at another church uses 8 of these with a A&H GL3200 analog console and he's also had no issues with them in over a year now.. 2 major thumbs up.

My worship team is comprised of all ages from 12 to 70 at various times. They all love these things! The only reason for a 4 instead of a 5 is that you have to crank them up quite a bit to get the needed volume. Other than that they are perfect!

We have 10 of these for our church worship team. We replaced an aging Aviom system with them and when we switched over to a Midas M32 console, the timing just made sense. The M32 talks to these things beautifully. All the channel assigns are at the mixer and are a piece of cake to route. I understand it's the same process for the X32. The mixers are great. Sound quality is excellent. You have EQ on every input channel - which is awesome. The limiter can be a bit harsh, but my ears don't mind not getting slammed with transients. It's just a balancing act between your master volume and limiter to get it right. My one complaint (hence the 4.5), if you select the "Main" button on the left, the volume is controlled by the same volume for the individual channels. So the pot at the upper right can be cranked, but if the other volume is down you'll get no sound. It's easy to remember, but newbies always seem to stumble over it. One suggestion, add an LCD so the console's scribble strip names appear when a channel is selected. All in all the P16-M is an upgrade from the Aviom system for us.

We upgraded our church's FOH console to a Midas M32 last fall. Instead of retrofitting our existing Aviom System, we decided to switch to the Behringer P16-M. Routing on the M32 is super easy. I'm guessing it's just as easy with the Berhinger X32. They are so easy to use, we have a vocalists using them as well. (We used to have floor monitors for them). Now we have no speakers on stage at all - every one is using IEMs with their own P16-M mixer. Having EQ on every channel is a huge leap above the Aviom system we replaced. The limiter is a bit harsh, but you learn to work with it. That said, I'm glad to have a limiter - for the sake of our musicians' ears! With the Midas M32, these things are a no brainer. The suggesting I would make to Behringer (for the next version of these) is to carry the scribble strip names to the mixer. That would make them perfect - although probably a lot pricier.

This unit is a great idea... Basically a cheaper Axiom system. However, its sound quality leaves a bit to be desired.

I guess for its ultimate purpose -- use on-stage with in-ear monitors -- it's probably just fine. I paired this unit with a Midas M32R digital console. I'd been playing around with the console for a while before plugging the P16-M in, listening to the console on my very revealing Sony MDR-7506 headphones. The console, it should be noted, sounds great! It's what one expects from Midas.

Then I set the console up to route audio to the P16-M over Ultranet, and plugged the two units together using the included shielded CAT-5 cable. I plugged the headphones in and hissssssssss. Even some crackles in the hiss! But no matter... The hiss would be overshadowed by the program material. I cued up a song and had a listen. The bass was muddy and boomy. The bass EQ was not at the right frequency to fix it, either. Again, since some in-ear buds can be bass-shy, this may ultimately work out well in its intended use... But this is NOT audiophile sound quality. I stopped the music and plugged my headphones back into the Midas console. Dead silence on the headphone jack. You can definitely hear the quality difference between Behringer and Midas!

Strike two agains this unit: The line-level outputs are unbalanced, TS jacks. I needed to buy adapter cables to use them with my active monitors, as the tip contact in the jack was bridging the tip and ring contacts on the TRS plugs, causing audio cancellation at the speakers (they sounded quiet, thin, and tinny). Once I used adapter cables, that hissy, muddy sound came through with authority.

What this unit does well: It is plug-and-play. You plug it in, set up routing on your source console (or their analog interface unit), and just tap each button for each of the 16 input channels and adjust volume and pan. It's super-easy! I even plugged it into a 150' CAT-5 (NOT shielded, as they require), and there was no degredation of audio quality; no dropouts, no digital artifacting. (The above sound quality observations were made using the included shielded CAT-5 cable). So, this unit gets a 3. I hope there is a forthcoming Midas version of this unit, with Midas-level sound quality!

This thing if freakin unbelievable! I don't know where to begin :). If being able to mix 16 channels with EQ, Pan, Volume on every channel isn't enough...you can also store and recall settings, there are line outs for speaker monitors (or re-amping). You can solo, mute....it runs on a ONE cat 5 cable. The brain can take ADAT inputs. My only beef is the cat 5 cables it comes with are only 15' which isn't nearly enough, but....whatever :). I can get my own. There's nothing even in the ballpark with this anywhere NEAR it's price. It's basically an Aviom system but for a fraction of the cost. Just...buy it.

The Powerplay is the recording Engineer /Musicians dream while recording.Musicians love it when they have control of there own mix.And I don't have to listen to anyone ask me to turn me up/turn him down.What more can I say.

Honestly, I love this better than Aviom. The build in Limiter is amazing. We purchased several of these units for our worship department and enjoy using them. One of the concerns that I had initially was if they were compatible with a analog board, and after doing some research, I found out that if you only plug it into the input half way it will work perfectly.
I encourage every church to invest in this product. We have NO stage sound problems anymore!

I bought the X32 and 5 P-16's for our worship team at our Church. Our two team's are not professional, so they were a little unsure about going with in-ears. When I introduced the Behringer system to them, and how easy to navigate the P-16, they were in awe.
By using in-ears, our FOH is sooooo clean.
The P-16 has so much more than is competitors, and cost less.
Also well made and thought out.

I have 12 of these and will be buying more (I specialize in larger horn bands). The regular guys like them and if I have in a sub horn (or other) player, it takes a few minutes of explanation and they have it under control. Although we mostly use them for in-ear, you can easily use them to control powered floor monitors, too. Just watch that the singers don't get too crazy and create feedback (we don't give them to the front singers... LOL!). We bought cheap "skate" cases at a discount tool store and have two per case. They are in the back of our equipment trailer and haven't had any issues with reliability. I don't advise throwing a bunch of them into a big bin with the wires. We also have the distribution router, so we have the option of sending from there or chaining. If you chain, you need to use power supplies, but our entire book is on iPads and we have to have power at every position anyway, so that's not a problem for us. I have three Behringer X32's, an X32 Rack and a Producer and these units work the same with all of them.

This thing is awesome, the obvious is just that but I have created new work flows to use this to create a custom mix for the video camera feed, the hallway / house feed, and even my heads.. (I use bone rattler wireless head phones so my ears are open and I route my Two way comm and FOH mix and trax play to it through a Rolls mixer) this allows me to cusom mix my FOH for my head and solo as well for pre check without being any where near the mixer. The price is killer.. I thought as of last year I'd never be able to get Personal mix in our house... HA Done !

Using this for cue system in a recording studio. Audio quality is quite acceptable, and the system was easy to set up and use. When compared to similar systems it is an an exceptional bargain !

We switched from an older Aviom system (Am I allowed to mentioned competitive products in a review?) with the Behringer system - mostly because we moved to a new Midas M32 console. The P16 is terrific. Audio is clean. There's plenty of headroom and plenty of power to drive IEMs. Love the EQ in each channel. Definitely an improvement over our previous system. Also love that each channel has a signal light. Just makes tweaking a little easier. Thanks to Tim Harrington, our Sales Engineer, who recommended them. We started with 6 mixers and just added two more. We'll be adding a few more very soon. We'll get all the musicians and vocalists on them as soon as we can... which leads to me to the value. The pristine sound you get at the price you pay makes the P16 a no brainer.

Of 6 units ordered in January 2013, 3 have now failed and the units are out of warranty. I would definitely not recommend these mixers because of poor reliability.

Very good. The ONLY problem we ran into is getting my band members the understanding that THEY are in control of their monitor now. They still ask me for things....and I keep informing them...they can adjust that.

Its has done what we wanted and we are gladg

I have played on aviom systems in church for the past 4 years. As I took a new job as a Worship Pastor at my new church, I was ready to buy aviom's and was quite hesitant towards the Behringer's. I had played them twice prior, with great results both times, but thought they were too good to be true, UNDER HALF THE PRICE OF THE AVIOM SYSTEM! But, after lots of research and talking to multiple people with the P16's, I bought them and haven't been disappointed! They are user friendly, sleek in black, have the ability to adjust individual EQ's (aviom's don't do this), and the limiter is great so you don't blow out your ears or headphones. The only downside is a slight sound quality loss in my opinion. It is slight but I have decided that the aviom's are ever so slightly clearer than the Behr's. But the greater ability to tweak each channel is a HUGE asset to the P16's. If I had to decide again, I would buy the P16's every time over Aviom.

Purchased 6 units January 2013. One failure (clock chip soldering failure) under warranty October 2013, second unit failure (no audio output) out of warranty April 2014.
While these units have great features and an intuitive user interface, I could not recommend them because of my poor reliability experience.

I set up theP16-m mixer next to the drum kit and with a short demo of how it works the drummer was able to get the headphone mix he needed. The sound quality is good and the P16-M interface is easy to use. I needed longer Cat5 cables to reach the drums so I bought a few 25' cat5e cables, plugged them in and everything worked great.

I got this to go alone with the P16-D. It works great. I can here everyone
on stage and have control of everything. You can adjust it in so many different ways to get the right mix of everyone. It is easy to set up also.

My worship band leader thought he would save the church some money by getting these instead of the Aviom. I was a bit miffed that such a big decision was made with no input from me (veteran church sound guy). Anyway I am not anti Behringer because I have owned tons of their stuff over the years. I thought we'll just have to try them and see what happens. We ordered 6 mixers (P16-M) the interface unit (P16-I) and one distribution unit (P16-D) from Sweetwater. One of the mixers was DOA (late Nov 2013). It lit up like the others but had no signal present lights and no sound. Sweetwater swapped it out for us no questions asked. Yesterday at rehearsal (12-29-13) a month or so after setting up the system our guitar player could not hear certain channels and the main mix would not adjust in volume. I played around with it a bit and finally swapped it our with a spare mixer. The spare mixer worked fine. I plan to return this one to Sweetwater if they will still accept returns on this system. We had one instance of the entire system going down during a rehearsal out of the blue - I reset everything and it came back. If this happens during a worship service it will be a disaster.

Bottom line....this is a great product in concept but I would NOT recommend this system due to reliability issues

Bought with an x32-Rack for IEM mix and this thing is awesome.
Does everything you could want from it, I only have 3 issues with it.
1) They should have an option for scribble strips like they do on the x32 and Ipad apps to ID the channels. As it is I have to mark the channels on the front bottom of the frame.

2) The mic stand bracket they ship with it is garbage. I luckily have another K&M bracket that's solid as a rock and I will use it and re-purpose the Behr bracket for a light mic. Problem is the clamp. It appears to be made to clamp to a large pipe and to clamp on a mic stand the screw needs to be out like 1.5" and it starts to wander off the stand tube causing the PM16 to sag. It really looks like it will pop right off one day. The PM16 has some heft to it so it really doesn't work with that bracket.

3) the lights on the PM are bright. On a dark stage they may be distracting. A dimmer would be a nice feature.

I am not a drummer but I'm thinking of having my drummer try it. It doesn't have an insert for a click on the PM which would be convenient . Instead we will need to run a patch back to the mixer and take up a channel for click only.

Other than that it is so nice to not have to build a mix with the Ipad or PC, just plug in a CAT5 and you're done. I learned that the mixer doesn't send power on the CAT5 like the optional SD16 or SI16 so you have to use the wallwart if you run right from the mixer.

A last nit (no marks deducted for this as I knew it didn't do this), using IEM with wireless transmitters is a bit cumbersome. I want to rack mount my transmitter(s) with the x32-Rack but if I do that I have to run a stereo pair of 1/4" TRS back from the PM to the TX so thats FOUR cables to deal with.
It would have been nice (maybe a future update) if Behr could have had and option for the PM16 return the mix and allow you to route it to one of the outputs or the aux outs.

I started with a P16-M system and was so blown away with it we almost immediately ordered an X-32 mixer. Both of these products have completely changed our live shows, we set up fast, we sound better and we're having more fun than ever playing music.

There are lots of personal monitor systems hitting the market at 3-4x the price of the P16-M, at this price we were able to buy a personal monitor mixer for everyone in the band (tough to justify music in todays economy). The P16-M plays loud and clear and has the feature you want, lets face it, if you really need more than 16 individual mixes you just might need the exotic features of the much more expensive system, but if you've been wanting to get into personal monitoring this system rocks.

The system is easy to use for non-techy sorts of musicians, I can teach someone to mix themselves in under a minute, then watch the smile on their face as they get their perfect mix dialed in.

When we play live we drive in-ear monitors with the P16-M and it works great. We could not be happier, thanks Behringer and thanks Sweetwater for the great deal and service.

I bought this system 2 mounths ago. with intentions of having all 4 members of my band hopfully using the P16m in the next few mounths. first I have to say this is an outstanding product. I have 2 PA systems, a small peavey 8 chan mixer with 2x15 mains running 2) 15 in monitors for stage. I use the main direct out to channel one on P16 for half the mix on 4 vox pan left on p16 and guitar, drum, keys and bass, panned on right side of p16 and use the monitor direct out on channel 2 for the left mix. On my larger system I use a 24 channel behringer onex mixer with direct outs on each channel. I just plug in channels one thru 16 into powerplay distribution and catt5 to p16m and I now have every band members vocal, and instrument in my mix and have full controll. I can even toggle back and forth from my monitor mix and front of house mix by using channel 16 to monitor my main FHO mix so I know exactly what listeners and club owners hear.to do this just run a 1/2 inch send from your main mix out on the mixing counsell to channel 16 on the disrabutiion rack and set the db on +2 or 3. I run sound from the stage so this setup is perfect for me to help make ajustments on the fly. no more feedback from my voccal mike. no more hearing other members loud overpowering guitar, bass ordrounding me out. I also stored 6 difrent club mixes so everytime we play a club all i hve to do is recall 1 thru 6 depending on what club im in and i have a near perfect mix. also I labbled each channel pn the bottom of the p16m just under the channel select button and on the channel snake ends to mach my direct outs on my board and on the rear of the power play dist unit. only takes me 5 min to set up and im ready to play. now my keyboard player and drummer are buying p16m's as thay listend to mine thru headphones at rehersal and loved it. I already layed out the money for the system meaning I got the powerplay and snake fan cable for like 600.00 so all band members have to pay for is p16m mixer for a few hundred making it cheep for them to invest in there owen perssonal sound and get the perfect mix. I only wish behringer would come out with an inexpensive inear wirlees monitor system to plug into the p16m. By far this system is the best in features and ease of use. its not really built for the road so i invested in a carry case to protect the knobs when transporting from job to job. the powerplay rack unit converter is higher quality. I also use a pair of sure in ear buds i got for 199.00. with a 1/8 inch 6 foot extention cable on stage. thi p16m sounds incredably cleare even at high volume. we use a backline of amps and mic em thru the pa. our stage volume is ear poping to say the least but Im perfectly comfortable with the isolation of the ear buds and my personell mix from the p16m. I will never miss wedge monitors and fighting with band mates to turn down agen so I can hear myself think or hear my guitar and voccal mic. I love this thing and highly recomend for both live stage and rehursals. Love it. hats off to behringer

Love the new Powerplay Personal Mixer. I would recommend this to other musicians. The only problem with this system is that when chaining the mixers you loose power to all the mixers downstream. The Aviom system supports this feature; however, Powerplay doesn't. We have to run longer cables from the distribution system or have power at every location. We wanted to get away from all the power needs. Worth it though!

Today the praise band used the Personal Mixer for the first time. They were sold after only one song. The system was easy to install and is fairly easy to learn. This system has taken the edge out of our praise band practices. We should have this done sooner.

This is a revolutionary system! it is meeting the needs of many musician's at a amazing price! You can daisy chain these mixers, which saves you big money!! The mixer offers everything you want and need, and works incredible!

I purchased these at Sweetwater's Gearfest in June and received them around August 1, 2012.

Last night was our first Worship Team rehearsal with all instruments on IEM's. No amps on stage. The result? - everyone using the system liked it alot. Plenty of volume and control. EQ and pan per channel is a nice thing AND the limiter allows me to sleep at night.

Admittedly it will take a couple of uses to get everything dialed in but my first impressions are still intact; this should be a winner.

The acoustic guitar player had previously used Avioms at a large church. He said that because of his previous experience he was hesitant but after using our system he said this experience was better.

The singers are still on wedges and said they could hear everything more clearly, the monitor wars with the band have ended.

One caveat. Your gain structure in this chain, I believe, is critical. Getting the most signal without distortion to the input module helps everything along the way. The four position gain settings per channel on the PM16I help you avoid clipping.

cons: minor really - I would have preferred ethercons for all network connections, the markings on the PM are hard to read in low light, I think they could do better on the mount, for that money I would like better machining of the stand mount hardware.

Overall, GREAT!!

What a great product. I've used the axiom system for a while but the p16 has converted me. Not only was the price right but features like eq on every channel and the ability to group Chanel's from the personal mixer make this a win for my studio. I'll be purchasing additional p16m's once they are back in stock

These units are absolutely incredible. I own have have used many "personal monitor systems" over the years at various houses of worship. But this unit bests all of the major players in that field in every area that counts - price, build quality, features, and style.

The monitors sound great, have excellent headroom, and are extremely pleasant to the ear. I used to get fatigue with the other "major brand" players out there, but no ear fatigue yet with this system. I attribute it to the limiter function and the midrange control.

This is an excellent system and it far exceeded every single expectation I had!

I am normally quite skeptical of bottom shelf companies, however this product looked very inviting so I had to give it a shot. I have been blown away!
I have been using an assortment of hearback and aviom products for the past couple of years and like them both, however, they both have their shortcomings.
This behringer unit does pretty much everything I could ask from a personal monitoring system. 16 channels with 3 band eq on every channel is a big deal. It really allows every musician to dial in a perfect mix. I bought 10 if the mixers 1 input module 1 distributor and 10 mic stand adapters. Everything feels great and most of all sounds fantastic. I blindly A/B'd the behringer and the avioms and couldnt tell the difference.
My only issues that stop the unit from getting 5 stars.
- The knobs are a little flimsy, i wish they felt a little more sturdy.
- The lettering is very difficult to read on a dark stage.
- I wish the headphone jack was surface mounted not PCB mounted. I feel like enough yanking the headphones in and out could break it off.

But really these are great products, I regularly do 8 - 10 piece bands and so far during the past week all the bands love them. Cant wait to give them a full workout and see how they hold up.