Behringer EPA40 Europort 40W Handheld PA System

I can see why other reviewers are downbeat on this product but if you accept what its pros and cons then you may find it fine for your purposes.This is battery operated with a shoulder strap so is intended for portable PA. A great use for this is for tour guides who can talk to their who group without shouting. Another use would be for outdoor event announcements where mains electricity is not available.You have to accept that the sound quality is not going to be comparable to wired PA systems but if you simply want your voice to be heard then this is fine.

Bought from another source and now on third unit as none have worked from new with the battery. All were tested straight out of the box and none have worked! Battery does not charge and unit will only works on mains supply. Sound is ok but useless if you have to take a generator with you to use away from regular 240 volt supply. Only given it one star as you can't give it less!

Battery charge only lasts up to one hour. I am trying to source a new battery from a different manufacturer as the reviews suggest that this is an ongoing problem. I gave it three stars because in all honesty it is a very good product with great sound.

Great product - I use it as a tour guide and it is a quality sound and very rugged and portable.Just wish they sold it with a head mic option which I had to buy separately, but as it is it's brilliant.

Bought this as used item. It is not portable as battery will not charge. Only works p!hugged in . Sound is not great rather tinny, too much treble and no where near enough bass. Behringer customer service did not even bother to reply to my complaint. Amazon customer service were much more helpful.

NICE COMPACT HANDHELD PA SYSTEM. VERY LOUD AS WELL. WILL RECOMMEND. CERTAINLY DID THE JOB. VERY HAPPY WITH IT. (AT LEAST UP TILL NOW).

I purchased one at it lasted 2 months with only being used a hand full of times.Very annoyed as it not really cheap for such a small unit.Insimply don't know what's wrong with it. Sometimes light come on but no sound. Sometimes it's just utterly dead despite being charged.I would avoid.

Quite good but watch out for battery issues. Purchased elsewhere and had the problem but the one I bought on here is okay so far.

El sonido es fuerte y claro de la bocina, pero si el uso es con la batería es inútil porque llego con la batería descompuesta pues nunca se cargo, afortunadamente en mi caso muy particular el uso es por medio del adaptador a la linea de electricidad así que por eso no lo devolví, la batería no se si se pueda conseguir por otro lado pero por ahora no la necesito.

This is PERFECT. Very lightweight and loud. EXCEPT that the battery and the microphone stopped working after about a year. I'm purchasing another for that reason. If they could fix the battery issue it would be even better.

UPDATEOriginal review below, but don't bother reading it.If you are considering purchase of the Behringer EPA40, DO NOT DO IT.This device suffers a fatal flaw: proprietary batteries. Worse, these batteries have a near complete failure rate after one use.Although the small lead acid sealed batteries appear similar to those used in commercial applications such as emergency corridor lighting and exit signs, these batteries have non-standard terminal locations and dimensions, making third party alternatives impossible.I have checked with two local industrial battery vendors, Interstate Batteries and Tri-State Batteries, plus spent hours online. There is simply no other source for the battery inside the Behringer EPA40 than Behringer...Only Behringer is a sorry source for any kind of support. I have purchased two sets of replacement batteries already. Besides the unreasonable cost, these batteries are not stocked in North America. My experience on replacements was 2 months wait on the first occasion and what seemed like 6 months wait on the second occasion.BTW - I purchased an expensive battery rejuvenation charger from Granite Digital. It works great on other specialty lead acid batteries, but FAILS outright on Behringer batteries that were used ONE TIME ONLY.DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT. In fact, BEWARE OF ALL BEHRINGER PRODUCTS. In my opinion, Behringer is strictly disposable, single use equipment. And this opinion is not based on this product alone, but multiple products in the line. Behringer is the epitome of cheap Chinese junk devoid of all quality control, I don't care what sort of ISO9000 compliant marketing hogwash the company attempts to wrap themselves in.This opinion is not based on a single sample of the EPA40. I purchased 4 units, each of which has now had 3 batteries from Behringer. So this is an absolutely repeatable situation based on 12 batteries over a period of more than 2 years, with the last set of batteries being scrupulously charged in a regimen to Behringer specifications, and confirmed by researching best practices on charging and maintaining lead acid batteries. Not to mention purchase of a specialized lead acid battery maintenance device, because the Behringer supplied chargers failed to maintain the batteries properly.Behringer is an EPIC FAIL brand.==========I bought 4 Behringer EPA40 portable PA systems for my company because we were hosting a large open house tour with 4 chartered busses. Turns out modern motor coaches almost always have built-in PA systems, but the Behringers still proved useful for crowd management at frequent stops on our parade of homes.This is a fairly specialized device. The only competition is athletic bull horns, with poor audio quality, and a very comparable portable PA unit from Fender, the guitar company most famous for Stratocaster guitars (Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton). Frankly, I would have preferred the Fender unit even at about twice the cost, but at 4 units, there was a $400 spread between Behringer and Fender.I own larger portable AC-powered Fender PA equipment, too, and it is excellent.These Behringer portable PAs are quite serviceable, but the design is odd, something like a quarter section of watermellon, and the color is weird, too, somewhere between blue and purple. Fender definitely wins for appearance and industrial design. The Behringers are made out of hard plastic, which might tend to shatter if dropped, though mine are lightly used and this is not a big consideration.The microphones are decent for the intended purpose, but do not use standard CANNON 3-wire mic cables, but rather an unbalanced 1/4" plug. So the mics are dedicated to this device. The mic does contain a mute switch.Run time is something like 6 or 8 hours, so these units could conceivably be used in classroom sized meetings or break-out sessions.I don't have one of these devices in front of me right now, but I believe the speaker can be mounted on a standard mic stand, making for a self-contained battery powered mini PA.The battery is an easily removable lead acid type, which can be replaced locally anywhere at an industrial battery supplier. Probably not a big consideration, but nice to know you can get generic parts locally anytime in the future. The battery is similar to those used in a computer UPS, only smaller and lighter, more suited to the handheld nature of this device.The Behringer is easily handled by almost anyone, men, women and children. It includes a shoulder strap for walking and talking tours. There is space inside the battery compartment, which opens to the rear, to store the strap internally. Unfortunately, there is no internal storage for the mic, mic cable, or battery charger, which is external inline type, thankfully not a bulky wall wart.Lack of internal storage along with odd shape means this device has a lot of parts to keep track of. I can't confirm specifics on this battery charger, but one plus I give Behringer is their external power supplies usually have the Behringer name molded into the power supply plastic, or clearly labeled as Behringer. Anymore, with millions of cordless phones, cordless drills, and all sorts of external power supplies, the first order of business for me when opening any manufacturer's box is making sure all the parts are clearly labeled, and if not, making labels with a Brother label machine before things get piled in a lost wire junk box.In addition to the microphone, the Behringer EPA40 has an auxilary input using a standard 1/8" mono jack. This takes the same size wire used on most Windows PCs, normally color coded pastel green. This is also the same size as a small iPod-sized headphone/earbud jack. The only difference is this input is mono, and so a 2-wire mono Tip-Sleeve type plug should be used, not a stereo 3-wire Tip-Ring-Sleeve (TRS) type connector seen on every headphone and earbud plug on the planet.What this means, and what my children will at some point discover, is that you can use 2 of these Behringer portable PA systems to create an awesome portable party. Just combine 2 Behringer EPA40 portable PAs (for stereo LEFT and RIGHT channels), 1 iPod, and a cheap splitter cable from Radio Shack, and you have hours of high volume, high quality, portable sound ready to go anywhere, no AC power required. It will beat any dedicated iPod boom box made.

Small, lightweight and easily portable. Worked great for guiding a walking tour through our arboretum. Sound was really good for this size of a unit. No problems with drop-out or feedback.

The battery only lasts for two or three months. I used the megaphone five or six times, and then the battery didnt work anymore.