Behringer Eurorack 104 Case Is Like Déjà Vu All Over Again

The latest addition to the Behringer synth lineup is a Eurorack case.

European music retailer Thomann is listing the Behringer Eurorack 104 case, a compact 104 HP Eurorack skiff case, that may look familiar to some readers.

Here are some images of the Behringer Eurorack 104 and corresponding images of the Moog 104HP Eurorack case:

Behringer Eurorack 104:

Moog 104HP Eurorack Case:

Can you see any similarities? Share your thoughts in the comments!

79 thoughts on “Behringer Eurorack 104 Case Is Like Déjà Vu All Over Again

      1. because I don’t want to shell out an extra two grand for essentially the same technology just because I want to have the brand name? I fail to see the connection between being frugal when it comes to buying equipment on a budget and a Faustian pact

  1. What an odd first eurorack product. An unpower 104hp skiff? The images show a their fakey minimoog in it, but can the boog be powered by a eurorack power supply? If not you have to leave a few hp open for the power cord to come in?

    If it can be powered by a eurorack supply, it’s still got the problem of size. The 104hp case less the 70hp boog means you only have 34 hp to work with… 30 once you put a power supply in there.

    A much smarter opening gambit would be a 70hp case, with power, that mounts above the model d or neutron. A little like moog’s mother 32 companion case+2/3 tier racks.

    Either way, power is still the major entry barrier for eurorack. Right now the entry point is about $200-250 (excluding diy solutions) for a powered skiff. This case doesn’t change that, since you’re still going to drop $100-150 on a row power or a uZeus to make this work.

    1. >but can the boog be powered by a eurorack power supply.

      Yes. So the Behringer Model D was their first eurorack product. The neutron is their third. Presumably the Pro-One clone will be third, making this their fourth, not first, eurorack product in that sense.

  2. This is Behringer shoeing their true colors IMHO. This isn’t a vintage synth that’s in demand, it’s a product already on the market being sold by a respected company. They don’t care about pushing music gear in a new direction, they just want to make cheaper versions of what people are already buying just to boost profits and undercut other brands.

    1. this is capitalism, pure and simple , why should i pay more just cause it says Moog. why shouldn’t poor people be able to get into eurorack affordably. your gripes sound mostly like gatekeeping

    2. It’s…a box. In a very standard form factor, which incidentally was pioneered by someone else (Doepfer).

      You think Moog should ‘own’ the right to make empty Eurorack boxes of a particular size?

      1. Yet, somehow, every other synth case maker has managed to come up with an original design, and Behringer doesn’t even try.

        It shows you that their business model is to make knockoffs of successful products, not to do something original.

    3. its just a rack case.
      if it was a water glass, would you have the same feelings about Ikea?
      did you by your car from carl benz? no?
      how very cheap of you, lol

      this shit is much to expensive for what it is
      go behringer

      1. Behringer has simply copied Moog’s work. Again. If you buy the cheap copy instead of the innovative original designs, the innovators will be forced out of business and we’ll be left without interesting new products.

        1. Please detail Moog’s “innovative original design” work for an empty metal box for a synth format Doepfer made, for which the physical format was largely copied from a standard for industrial/laboratory equipment.

          There are much more important things in this world to get upset over than two similar looking metal boxes.

        2. innovative original design?
          a box to put stuff in and some things to fix the screws?
          sorry this is complete non sense.

          talking about the minimoog clone
          car manfuctures do this all the time and no one complains
          don’t try to tell me you bought your car from carl benz, lol

          so where does all this pointless emotion in this discussion come from?

    4. It’s no different than a bazillion cheap Stratocaster or Les Paul clones that have sold alongside Fenders and Gibsons for decades.

      Seems to me the case form factor follows exactly that of their Model D, Neutron etc, which admittedly probably copied the Moog skiff in the first place but no-one’s noticed until now.

  3. this is probably politically controversial but: I HATE SLIDING NUTS. Put a vector rail in that thing and I’ll think about it

    1. For literally a couple bucks you can buy threaded insert strips, take the sides off and replace the sliding nuts. Inserts are $10ish from many synth stores, or like $2 from electronics parts suppliers. I’ve not done this, becuase I don’t mind the sliding nuts, but i’m pretty sure it would be VERY easily done.

      1. I know, I’ve got a stack of them and I’ve done it several times. You generally have to cut them to length. Depending on the case design its either a minor pain in the butt to take the thing apart and put in the rails or a huge pain in the butt to do it. Granted this one looks like it would be easily converted however, all things considered I prefer no pain in the butt to either minor or huge pain in the butt.

    1. Exactly. The amateur astronomy industry is almost completely sourced by Chinese R&D and manufacturing now. Vendors select designs from catalogs of options and add their brand. Many different brands are all built on the same assembly line. So Moog and Behringer are using the same Chinese company. Happens all over, in every field.

        1. Yes, that and all the other companies that pursue exactly the same out-sourcing method. Do some research. 99% of the posts here are clueless about how products are actually engineered and marketed. And yes, I have 40+ years in the electronics industry.

    2. But that would interfere with our circlejerk. Can’t be having that.

      Besides, it’s a FRIGGIN ALUMINIUM EXTRUSION! It’s not rocket science, it costs like 5k euro to get an extrusion mold make, and you’ll get them in like 3 meter sections.

      To hell with this “Moog Good, Behringer Bad” mentality. The Venn diagram of their client bases are like two separate circles.

    3. It is unlikely in this case that they are buying from the same Chinese supplier. As someone else points out, aluminium extrusion is a very standard practice, so there would be a ton of people who could do it exactly like this. But what is not standard is: black powder coating, the same exact angled presentation, the same thickness and colour of wood end-cheeks, and the existence of wood end-cheeks. Take a look at the make noise, intellijel, or arturia skiffs. They are all aluminium extrusion 3u eurorack cases, but they all look distinct.

  4. Even if its only a hobby, playing music still beats drinking and doing hamster taxidermy. I have no need of anything Behringer offers (I’m a DAW/softsynth creature now), but there’s a hard truth people dismiss, which is the overall economy. If someone has a genuine Moog jones and can’t afford a Voyager, that musical desire shouldn’t wither when a few hundred bucks can essentially make it a reality. The company also offers a three-year warranty, which speaks of confidence in their current builds. You can bristle over their design ethic if you like, but that doesn’t mean jack to someone who is pairing a Boog with a Neutron and loving it. Uli can get prickly, but I’ve never seen a jpg. of him drop-kicking a small dog, so get over all that blithering and let the market decide. It will anyway.

  5. Wow, similar problems yield similar results, so what? Euro-rack is based on standard designs. Copying popular electrical and mechanical implementations helps the ecosystem grow by focusing R&D on value-add, not looks.

    1. Yes, I haven’t done a side-by-side comparison.. but the extrusions look identical. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were coming from the same factory. I think it’s neither Moog nor a Behringer product.. just a “we’ll cut these to length and put whoevers name on them” type deal.

  6. Yeah sure it looks the same but you can’t exactly reinvent the wheel with eurorack cases when dimensions and form factor are dictated by the system dimensions of eurorack gear. Wooden cheeks and aluminium frames are commonplace in synth gear and Behringer are just giving the market what it desires. If it lowers the sometime crazy costs of Euro then all the more power to them. I already own a Neutron and I’ll definitely be considering their modules when they come out if they sound decent.

  7. Moog are very expensive.There was a revolution in music that began in Chicago and Detroit .Cheap accessible equipment made that possible from cast off and second hand budget equipment.Behringer and others are allowing masses of people access to musical instruments that are helping people be creative .I celebrate that enjoyment of music.The worst synth I ever bought and used least was a moog Voyager. (Their sub 37 is stunning) Thank you Behringer for being cheekys sods .

  8. Its amazing that any post about Behringer results in more comments than the majority of other posts (even when its a plain old eurorack case). Behringer sure has everyone hooked, good or bad.

  9. I wonder if the power supply in the Boog or Neutron has enough headroom to power a few additional modules?

    Also, I am a fan of Behringer, but this product makes me scratch my head. I understand that they identified the need for a case for current products and their line of upcoming modules, but why copy a current one? If they came out with a design that was not a copy, they would escape all of this criticism.

    1. They understand that Behringer isn’t known for either,

      Behringer is just making knockoffs of gear that lots of people want. They’re the Aldi of electronic music gear.

    2. Moog neither invented nor innovated. the inventor was Bode, the innovator was Doepfer. they just copied themselves. they are just better at marketing than Behringer.

  10. Every time Synthtopia posts news about Behringer, the Behringer fans have to have a freak out and say everybody else is an idiot for buying the originals over knockoffs, that Behringer is doing the real innovation or that people that buy the originals are elitist ‘cork sniffers’.

    If you want to collect cheap knockoffs, great! If a clone meets your needs and it’s the best solution for you, cool!

    It’s like Behringer fans are over-compensating for something! Just get on with it!

    1. And mr. synthhead tents his fingers mr. burns style… “brilliant” as a long comment thread full of vitriol brings in eyeballs to serve ads to

  11. honestly i personally found already the Moog case and modules controversial. they were plagiarising themselves, first Moog took the design from Bode (who is never properly credited), then later they abandoned their format and copied Eurorack, popularised by Doepfer. making them somehow innovators now is ignoring this history.

    1. What? Your comment doesn’t make much sense.

      Bode died before Doepfer ever started making synths in the Eurorack format. Both MU and Euro are open standards, so companies can make gear in the format that’s either original or not original – that has nothing to do with the format.

      Moog has been releasing gear in both MU and Euro for years. They reintroduced their modular gear in MU before going into Euro.

      If Moog’s designs weren’t interesting and popular, Behringer wouldn’t be copying Moog, they’d be copying whatever gear was popular.

      Food for thought: Name a piece of Behringer gear that other companies have cloned.

      1. may i didn’t phrase it clearly, i wasn’t making a connection between Bode and Doepfer but i was saying Moog copied their designs / ideas for modular synths. i’m well aware Eurorack is used for other purposes and has been around long before Doepfer used it for modular synths – what i am saying is that this caused Moog to switch from MU. all i’m saying Moog was not innovator or inventor on this particular modular case (which does not contain any modules) in any form or function. neither was Behringer, obviously.

        (i’m not painting Behringer as innovator here, but i think with their family of X32 mixers has at least caused an increase of efforts by other producers in this category of devices – but yes, not direct clones)

  12. Could it be, perhaps, that Behringer was manufacturing this product all along, possibly under contract to Moog, and that Moog was just rebranding it? Just a thought.

  13. My only complain is that, like the original Moog skiff, it can’t host the Doepfer A-110 VCO (my all times favorite). Therefore, also this one, like the original Moog skiff, is a NO GO.

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