Budget DAC Review: behringer UMC204HD

[Name]

Aren't the measurements on the Behringer better than on the IFI? Also the cost is less? RCA cables?

 

[RayDunzl]

Aren't the measurements on the Behringer better than on the IFI?

I didn't measure, haven't heard, and don't own either one.

Also the cost is less?

The Behringer is less cost, yes.

RCA cables?

Oh, I see now that it does have RCA jacks. I was thinking of the combination jacks on the front. My mistake.

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Buy one and see if you like it.

 

[Blumlein 88]

A friend has the $99 Emotiva Little Ego. Eventually I can provide some test results on it. I suspect it will be equal to or better than the Behringer for $99. Probably not a great amount better, and it is a DAC only. But it does hold some promise.

 

[Jinjuku]

Aren't the measurements on the Behringer better than on the IFI? Also the cost is less? RCA cables?

Yes the Behringer from a Jitter perspective measures better. The Behringer's output is only +3dBu (the standard is typically +4dBu). It may or may not drive your amp to it's max output. So ask your amp manufacturer.

It drives my system to levels louder than I can listen to.

I would split the difference and get the Presonus 2|6 for $199 as its outputs are the standard +4dBu.

 

[Name]

Presonus 2? Has it been measured as well?

 

[Name]

Has anyone measured the Odac Rev B?

 

[Name]

Blumlein88, a DAC only is fine... All I want is a DAC with RCA and/or 3.5mm input/output that is less than $300 and can objectively be proven to sound good (maybe I'm asking too much here, but I'm not the kind of person to have blind faith or be led by subjective feelings etc). If there is a dac for 20 bucks that meets my needs that's great. If there is a DAC that is at the upper limit of my budget and only slightly beats out the $20 DAC, then I want the DAC at the upper limit of my budget. I want the best I can afford. ADAC that supports more like DSD is an added bonus, but not necessary. I only require 24 bit 192 khz basically.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Blumlein88, a DAC only is fine... All I want is a DAC with RCA and/or 3.5mm input/output that is less than $300 and can objectively be proven to sound good (maybe I'm asking too much here, but I'm not the kind of person to have blind faith or be led by subjective feelings etc). If there is a dac for 20 bucks that meets my needs that's great. If there is a DAC that is at the upper limit of my budget and only slightly beats out the $20 DAC, then I want the DAC at the upper limit of my budget. I want the best I can afford. ADAC that supports more like DSD is an added bonus, but not necessary. I only require 24 bit 192 khz basically.

Well I haven't gotten to measure my friend's Little Ego yet. I have measured several pieces of Emotiva gear. They have always met the declared specs. I would expect it to meet your needs.

Now this again delves into the recording interface field, for $299 an Audient ID14 is going to be tough to beat. It will also record though one can use it as only a USB DAC just fine. You'll need a couple inexpensive adapters for RCA and one for 3.5mm output (but your headphones may already have such an adapter). It is only 96 khz capable however. Not sure how important 192 khz is to you.

The DAC has unweighted dynamic range of 114 db (117 db A wtd)

Will put out 3.1 volts on the preamp outs and has a good headphone output.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/iD14

https://audient.com/products-2/audio-interfaces/id14/tech-specs/

 

[Name]

The Emotiva looks nice

 

[Name]

Is that j test something I could do myself or do you need special equipment?

 

[Jinjuku]

Presonus 2? Has it been measured as well?

It hasn't here. Presonus enjoys a better reputation than Behringer. Not that it's a measurement.

Google is your friend.

Bottom line is most of the Pro-Audio products are generally from companies that have a larger engineering bench and their life blood is capturing and playing back of what artists produce.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Is that j test something I could do myself or do you need special equipment?

You need a DAC and a recording ADC. Feed a 1/4 sample rate tone (11,025 hz for 44,100 sample rates or 12 khz for 48000 sample rates or 24 khz for 96,000 sample rates). Make it near maximum and record.

The actual J-test also had a very low level 1 LSB square wave at 1/64th the sample rate. This was because such a combination would step thru all the bit combinations which could cause additional jitter in an SPDIF signal. For most other purposes the high level tone alone is about as useful.

 

[Blumlein 88]

It hasn't here. Presonus enjoys a better reputation than Behringer. Not that it's a measurement.

Google is your friend.

Bottom line is most of the Pro-Audio products are generally from companies that have a larger engineering bench and their life blood is capturing and playing back of what artists produce.

+1

 

[Name]

This might sound crazy, but I originally ordered an ODAC rev B, then I tried to cancel that order and ended up ordering the IFI IDAC2 demo unit. The ODAC ended up coming the other day even though the cancellation went through, and now I've also ordered the Behringer unit tested here... I guess I'm going to keep one or possibly two of these units. I wish I could find some third party measurements of the ODAC rev B. So far my impressions of it are good.

 

[Thomas savage]

This might sound crazy, but I originally ordered an ODAC rev B, then I tried to cancel that order and ended up ordering the IFI IDAC2 demo unit. The ODAC ended up coming the other day even though the cancellation went through, and now I've also ordered the Behringer unit tested here... I guess I'm going to keep one or possibly two of these units. I wish I could find some third party measurements of the ODAC rev B. So far my impressions of it are good.

Send it to amir, if the dogs don't chase the delivery person away he will get it and measure it.. well hopefully

 

[Name]

I may have to do that

 

[amirm]

I may have to do that

I am ready for it.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Amir has the better measuring gear, but you could use the Behringer to measure the other devices and get at least a comparative result. It might be a time sink though if you aren't somewhat familiar with that. Sending it to Amir might be easier and quicker. At least until camper van season comes around.

 

[amirm]

Amir has the better measuring gear, but you could use the Behringer to measure the other devices and get at least a comparative result.

I did a quick pass of capturing with Behringer and it had pretty high low frequency noise and I gave up. So not sure how good it will be in this sort of thing. I will get back to it some day and do more testing.

 

[Name]

So, I finally have all three, the IDAC2, the Behringer, and the ODAC rev B as of last night. I only had a couple hours, but I installed all the drivers, and did A/B listening tests with the output levels matched. The conclusion I came to was that the IDAC2 and Behringer sound nearly the same though there were some very subtle nuances I cant quite describe yet, but not enough to justify the added cost, so I am going to send the IDAC2 back. However, the biggest difference was between the ODAC and the Behringer. The first word that came to mind when switching back and forth between the two DAC's is that the Behringer is "brighter" and the ODAC is "Warmer". Funny thing is that when I did an A/B test between the onboard sound of my PC and the ODAC, I thought the onboard sound was warmer. My thought process on this was that the brighter sound exists perhaps because of less noise and that the noise adds in some so called "warmth" and also that the brightness may come from better dynamic range or something. Whatever it is, I can hear more detail in the background of songs and better vocal clarity. Furthermore, it is not just the "bright/warm" thing that I noticed different between the Behringer and the ODAC. I noticed that on extremely bass heavy tracks, with my SZ2000 headphones using the EQ curve I created with a 7db boost in the 15-40hz region, the bass fell apart much earlier on the ODAC than on the Behringer. I ended up with distortion with the ODAC where I could continue a little further on the Behringer before distortion in the sub bass ensued.