Behringer UCA202 U-Control Ultra low-latency 2 In/2 Out USB/Audio Interface

PS - 28 April 2014. In some of the reviews that I have read some of the correspondents have reported difficulty getting the Behringer UCA202 U Control to record in stereo and some are having difficulty adjusting the volume levels. Sometimes you have to adjust the sound settings in the control panel on a laptop or PC. You have to tell your computer to record in two channels instead of one for stereo. Go into the sounds window and select " Microphone 2 USB codec" with the device plugged in to a USB connexion. Select recording and advanced and set the device to 2 channel CD quality. I use Audacity software. You need to check that Audacity is recording in two channels for stereo recording rather than one channel for mono. You go into "Preferences" which is in the "Edit" menu and then set the USB recording device to stereo in the recording box. If you are having problems setting up the recording volumes then Audacity can be adjusted with the microphone slider which is on the tool bar. This works fine for me with a line level output from my amplifier - I do not use the phono pre-amp from my turntable kit when I record an LP or single. If this fails (or where you do not have a line output from your amp) you could try the headphone output which is usually located on the front of the amplifier. If you turn the amplifier volume control right down then it will attenuate the output level. Using a combination of the Audacity microphone slider and the headphone output you should be able to adjust the volume of the recording level to make sure the recording is loud enough but does not distort. In the view menu you can set Audacity to "show" clipping" . This will display a vertical red line on sections of the recording where the volume levels are too high and therefore the music will sound distorted - this is a very useful tool. I have never used a MAC PC but I would think that it has similar methods of controlling whether you record in stereo or not by using a sound control feature. I would guess that other types of recording software similar to Audacity need to be set up to record and playback in stereo or mono according to your choice. If the above does not work then you are faced with the possibility that some of your equipment is not working correctly from a physical point of view. You could check the connections have been fitted correctly or use alternative equipment to find out what has gone wrong. When set up correctly this product works really well; I am sure you will not be disappointed. Main text: I bought this brilliant device to "digitise" old LPs, which I buy in second hand shops, and archive old audio cassettes before they self destruct. I read all the reviews and I agree with most of them and decided to buy it even though it is of flimsy construction. It is not going to be used very often and I am careful with equipment so it should last years. It literally took me ten minutes to plug it into the line outputs of my amplifier and connect the device to a laptop, then cue up a Beatles 45 and digitise it with Audacity. Audacity is brilliant in my opinion and there is plenty of help text and Wikipedia information to get you going. I deleted the the Beatles 45 file as I just used it to test the recording levels. Next up was a Shadows LP "Rock on with the Shadows in Mono". Yes, you can buy this on CD but sometimes I like to play an ageing LP for old time's sake. I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I did not use Audacity to remove any surface noise from the record or clicks or pops; Hank's twanging drowns them out anyway. I played the digital recording back through the same amplifier and neither my wife nor I could hear any difference from the original: it sounded the same warts and all. At the end of the "first side" I felt compelled to jump up and turn the laptop er, record over. What more can I say about the sound quality? This was great stuff - the Shadows back in their 1960's glory, and you cannot damage the needle when you jive. One of the reviewers has complained about the the inability of the analogue converter to sample at 24 bit 96 KHz (24/96) as it is limited to 16 bit 48 KHz. This might affect you if you are mastering music and you want to keep the noise floor down when mixing lots of "takes". So, I take the point. For me, digitising old recordings at 16/44.1 or at red book CD standard is good enough. I fail to see how using a 24/96 sampling rate could improve the sound quality as I am only doing one "take". If you are only going to use this converter to digitise your records you can save yourself money and some disk space by buying this device. I have got plenty of external DACs, so I do not need to use this device for playback from a laptop or PC but I tested it just the same. The Toslink optical output works really well and so do the line outputs. The headphone amplifier is not so good but it is sufficient for my purposes. If you are on the road this device will probably perform better than your laptop's sound card or headphone output. The Behringer does not perform as well as the rinky dink DAC that I have got in my main HI-FI and I could not expect it to. But, it performs well compared to my other portable DACs. There is no Toslink input facility. Pros :- You can use a laptop for line output sources. You no longer have to use the line inputs of a desktop PC. You can connect it to a USB port on the front rather than fiddle about with connecting line outputs to the input connexions on the back of the PC. This is especially useful if your kit is under a desk. You can take your laptop to your HI-FI equipment rather than the other way round. There is no need to unplug your turntable or cassette player etc. and then plug it all back in again. It is small, very portable and very versatile - an ADC and DAC in one box! Cons: None really unless you are going to subject the device to hard and continuous use. In conclusion: Five stars for sonic performance and overall convenience; it is simply brilliant . But, it gets only three stars for build quality. The USB deck can now be given away.

I bought this to act as an external sound card/digital-to-analogue-converter (DAC) to improve the sound output from a laptop. I have found it to be absolutely excellent and remarkable value for money! Without this device sound output from laptops tends to be very flat with no dynamic range (e.g. an audible difference between quiet and loud sounds). Music lacks depth and feeling. However, as soon as you plug in this device the sound output from the computer is transformed: it goes from being 2D to 3D; from car stereo to hi-fi: the difference in quality is remarkable! The device is about the size of a cassette, and has both RCA outputs (to connect to a hi-fi) and a headphone output. You simply plug it into the USB port on you computer... plug some output cables into the device.... and it just works! There is no annoying software to install, and it works on PCs and Macs (I use both) Sometimes you may need to go into control panel/audio devices and select the 'USB Audio Codec' to activate it, but it really is straightforward. (The device also has audio inputs for recording instruments, but I haven't used it in that function so can't comment on performance.) For the price it's performance is fantastic. I even gave one to my boss as a present and he absolutely loves it too! Compared to more expensive devices I expect a 90/10 rule applies - this device gives you 90% of the performance for 10% of the price. If you listen to music through your laptop/computer through headphones or a hi-fi and value good sound quality, I highly recommend this device! Advantages: - Excellent performance for the price - Transforms sound quality from laptops - Small size - Easy to use - No annoying software - Works on Macs and PCs Disadvantages: - Low price won't impress hi-fi snob friends

I have come back to PC music production after a while away and realised that Realtek chipsets on most motherboards, although better than they used to be,can't quite cut it, particularly in the latency department. I was loathed to spend £50+ on a proper pro sound card while I was tentatively returning to this hobby so this Behringer UCA202 seemed perfect. It arrived on time and well packed and straight out of the box its smaller than I expected, about the size of a cigarette packet. I plugged mine in a proper USB port (not a hub) and immediately installed and worked (Windows 8.1 and 10), no issues. A little light on the top tells you its on and you get the glow from the optical out too. I fed my 10 channel WharfdalePro mixer into it and connected it to the line in on my Logitech Z speakers. Not exactly a pro setup but entry level music making kit. I tested it with Cakewalk and Ableton and there was a noticeable improvement in latency when feeding stuff in and through the PC i.e. guitar and mic effects etc. Not 0 latency, in fact on my set-up probably still 10-20ms, I used the ASIO4ALL drivers which have mixed success with most people but they reported something like 11ms via Cakewalk. Previously I could achieve similar latency with my Realtek card but it would become unstable and break up and need resetting every 20mins. This didn't happen with the Behringer, it works flawlessly for hours on end and basically it does what I bought it for. Furthermore there's a little switch for monitoring directly so if you just want to echo the in to the out with 0 latency, you can do that but clearly it won't be going though any effects etc on the PC. I also played music from Google Play though the unit and I the is a noticeable improvement in clarity, so much so that I can actually hear stuff in the songs that I hadn't heard before and that is usually the mark of an great audio equipment. I listened through my Logitech speakers and some mid range over ear Sony headphones and in both cases the music was balanced and defined. If you're buying this only for music playback and don't care about music production, as most people will, its worth it for that alone. OK, so why the four stars...Well, I used this on headphones and it was superb, when I connected the line out to the Z speakers there was a noticeable whine, digital interference whine that alters when you move the mouse pointer or change stuff on the screen. That is very far from pro audio or high quality, it doesn't happen on my built in Realtek where I would expect more interference. Now this COULD be the crap cable I used or the positioning, I haven't tested it on ANYTHING else yet. I plan to test it on my proper AV unit in the lounge so I will report back if I notice any difference.

We have been using these for a number of years and they have been great. They sound perfect fo corporate work for interfaces with Teams and Zoom. Clear buzz free sound. The RCA outputs & inputs mean they work with most gear and they don't pretend to be anything more than what they are. Does what it says they will do. Light weight and great as a back up device that won't take up space in your kit bag. Be aware the monitor switch may cause feedback loops so we generally keep that off.

I am writing this review from the perspective of someone using it for some functionality in a domestic digital hifi system. This is a flexible piece of kit. Online reviews have identified to me that, apart from its professional recording/musician applications, it also has domestic hifi uses. (1) As a cheap and really pretty decent USB DAC to play music at a decent quality from your PC to your hifi (I haven't used this here) and (2) in order to provide an SPDIF TOSLINK optical digital output from a normal PC to go into another higher quality DAC. Online reviews have said this unit punches well above its weight in both these categories and has good analogue output measurements as well as lowish jitter in the digital domain. This apparently is because the manufacturer has bulk-bought a decent all in one chip that interfaces to USB and generates both a digital stream from this aswell as an analogue, and to boot the manufacturer has also implemented this all in one chip very expertly. So, what do I use it for? In my kitchen hifi I have a combined DAC/integrated amp powering bookshelf speakers. But the amp only takes SPDIF digital inputs and not USB direct from a PC. So I got this lovely little Behringer device which installs in win7 very easily as a soundcard (probably better to get their own drivers but windows does find some generic ones for you). In its properties in control panel in windows you have the choice to output 48khz or 44khz sample rate. I have run it at 44khz as I have been listening to 44khz redbook CD rips. What can I say it appears to correctly pass through an undamaged digital signal to my DAC/amp and it all sounds very nice indeed, like proper lossless digital audio, no hints of jitter or artefacts or any jiggery pokery with the digital material. I totally ignore the analogue inputs and outputs on this little device. It may be made of plastic but who cares, it does a low key but highly appreciated job at a very low price. If you need a USB->SPDIF soundcard/digital format converter for a PC, assuming you can live with the limited sample rates (44 and 48 khz) then I can's see how you would want to look much further than this for most day to day domestic audio uses.

this is a 16bit/44Khz device... some may say "Nahh, this is too old by today standards, not 24 bit, not 192Khz" etc... Well, depends on the case. if you are not a professional musician and you want to do some sound work without breaking the budget then this is something you will not regret buying. If you open it inside you may think that you are ripped off because it has so few components. But the quality you get does not match the appearances... Connected it to my HIFI without any input and there is 0 hissing or noise. recorded with nothing at the input and there is also no noise. This device is really very quite, so it will not degrade whatever work you want to do..I have not observed any distortion or issues. The frequency response also implies that it does not ad any colour to the reproduced sound. I have been using it connected to my HIFI and listen to music from my laptop. i also have a BT adapter that sounds great but AB testing shows that this one sounds much better . I have used it to listen vinyl rips from Youtube and the result is still breath taking (given that a vinyl rip was uploaded to Youtube, it was compressed and then played back through this - but the vinyl rip is from AudioPhill - if you know what that means). Overall, a great all around device. Do not underestimate the quality of the 16bit/44Khz

Using this to add analogue RCA/phono line-level connections between a 2007 iMac running Mac OS X El Capitan (it also works with MacOS Sierra on a Macbook) and an ancient Rotel RA-930AX amplifier's tape loop. I didn't want to use the iMac's analogue headphone and line-in ports and the amp doesn't have optical connections (being ~25 years old). The sound via the amp is significantly better than direct analogue output from the iMac and frees the iMac's speak for system beeps etc. Have not used any of the free 'included if you download them' software as I already have Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack. This works flawlessly with the UCA202 and can capture the USB audio from the amp's tape output (tapes and LPs), apply any processing (de-hum/de-click/de-noise) as needed before recording it and, if configured, sending the output back to the amp's tape input for monitoring. My testing has shown, contrary to the manual, the monitoring switch enables any input signals to be send to the Line-Out and headphones (optical out is only for USB-In audio, so no direct analogue to digital without passing via the Mac/PC). For example, the Line-In can be routed back to Line-Out, however if there is also a USB-In signal then both Line and USB In will be sent to Line-Out and headphones. With a ubiquitous USB 5v charger the monitor function can be used to add a headphone output to the Line-In though the maximum output level will depend on the headphones used. I also tested with a Synology NAS and Audio Station. The UCA202 is recognised as USB speakers and can be used to directly connect the NAS to the amp using Line-Out or, if the amp supported it, optical output. Overall, it's a handy device that performs well above it's cost. I'd recommend getting some shielded RCA/phone interconnect cables to minimise any interference to the analogue signals. I've just ordered the UFO202 to add a phono pre-amp option without needing the amp. That doesn't have the monitor feature* or optical output but between the two devices there is enough scope to connect many different ways and the NAS and iMac will sound better for them. *UPDATE: The UFO202 has monitor enabled so its Line-Out and headphone will always mix together the USB-In and Line-In signals. So an alternative Mac/PC sound out is needed to check any DSP adjustments to the audio. Initial test was good on the MM phone pre-amp. Therefore the UCA202 is the better option for a general purpose DAC+ADC 'tape loop' to connect an amp to a Mac/PC.

This works, ish. Be aware though, this is NOT the UCA202 inside, it's the Texas Instruments PCM2902. Troublesome if you need a full class compliant soundcard, like I did.