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Behringer UCA202 for 20€ ?

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helpful_spinner

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Hello, and thank you for this wonderful site, and all the reviews and information.

I'm in a situation where i need a new amp for my Mission 764i speakers, that i've had for well, about 35 years now i guess. (i got them sometimes in my teens, i only know i didn't have a driver's licence then, and i think Metallica's black album was released about the time i got them..

The size is the most important factor, i have recently got a new mini-pc which is mounted behind one of my 3 large screens using a VESA mounting plate, and i have zero gadgets and zero cables on my table, or on my floor.

The place for the amp will be on top of one speaker, connected to the mini-pc via USB. I don't need hdmi arc, or anything fancy, just a USB DAC. Everything i do is in software, and i haven't owned a television for decades.

Now i'm very close to pulling the trigger on an Ayima A80, which is 200€ on amazon.de as of this writing. 200€ is kinda my maximum budget.

But one thing that really bothers me are the reports of the Ayima going into auto standby mode, and the usb popping sounds. My PC and all systems are on 24/7, the most i do when i leave the table is mute the sound from the KDE Plasma taskbar. I don't press on/off buttons on gadgets or screens.. ever. Apart from music i often listen to talk, like podcasts and live tv streams on low volume in the background, and missing the beginning of a sentence because something went on standby because there was no audio for awhile is a big no-no, it would drive me crazy.

Now to my question. For i guess about 20 years now, i've used a Behringer UCA202 to transmit sound from my desktop PC to my amp. It's spent time on the floor, rigger with zip-ties under the table, it's been stepped on, and suffered abuse in many many ways during the years, but the thing is, it just works. There is no popping sound, no auto standby, and the sound is perfectly fine. It works in whatever PC you plug it into. The little 'monitor' switch has periodically acted up abit, so that i would lose sound from one channel, and had to jiggle it back and forth abit, it's a small low quality switch.. But last years it's been fine again.

So i ask, what is wrong with it? If i would continue to use it, instead of paying for a D class amp with integrated DAC and all the issues related to their usb interfaces, i could get a simpler analog only D-class amp for much less than 200€. Has the Behringer UCA202 ever been tested here?

I mean it's about 20 bucks, and from my understanding has sold probably by the millions over the years.. I would be very interested in getting it measured :)

So that's my little rant and my question, thanks for any insight, and again, thanks for this wonderful site. Regards.
 
anonyless said:
have you seen this ?
www.audiosciencereview.com

Budget DAC Review and Measurements: Behringer UCA222

UCA222 is an extremely low cost DAC/ADC targeted at home recording consumers. For this review I measure its DAC and headphone output performance. This is an ultra low cost device retailing at just $30 with shipping included! As such, it is an "Amazon Choice" product...
www.audiosciencereview.com www.audiosciencereview.com
Click to expand...
No i missed that! Thanks so much
 
I use several, one at home for my study system attached to my laptop, a few more at our local radio station. As you said, it just works!

It's been measured, as mentioned above. The UCA222 is the same as the 202, with some additional bundled software, and a lurid colour.

S
 
sergeauckland said:
I use several, one at home for my study system attached to my laptop, a few more at our local radio station. As you said, it just works!

It's been measured, as mentioned above. The UCA222 is the same as the 202, with some additional bundled software, and a lurid colour.

S
Click to expand...
Lol, i'm reading that thread now, find myself laughing. Soon i'll be crawling under my table to check the serial code on mine hehe..

Still, from skimming the first page on that thread, it is a dirt cheap DAC, and i guess i have one of the older 'better' ones then, as i've had no issues with the sound.

But still, the Ayima A80 would have a 'decent' modern DAC, presumably another world completely compared to this.. hmmm... The auto-standby just bothers me
 
What would you recommend for driving my Mission 764i's? I would prefer my chinese D-Class amp to be 'pretty' like the Fosi Audio ZA3, but combined with the Fosi DAC that goes with it, it means well over 200 EUR, and need power brick for both units.. I'd love to have a decent DAC in a 'cable' format, that gets power from USB alone.. or something
 
helpful_spinner said:
Lol, i'm reading that thread now, find myself laughing. Soon i'll be crawling under my table to check the serial code on mine hehe..

Still, from skimming the first page on that thread, it is a dirt cheap DAC, and i guess i have one of the older 'better' ones then, as i've had no issues with the sound.

But still, the Ayima A80 would have a 'decent' modern DAC, presumably another world completely compared to this.. hmmm... The auto-standby just bothers me
Click to expand...
i used to have the UCA202 feeding optical / analog to Ayima T9 Pro . don't think the T9 Pro has auto standby though. anyway, it works, just limited to 48khz sampling rate. sounds fine (though i would not recommend the T9 Pro as i found it noisy)
if you want to get the best sampling rate out of your PC, get a 30$ DDC such as the SMSL PO100 (2024 version) - it's extremely small, does exactly what it should (get you SPDIF out), works perfectly with Linux (i'm running Fedora on my laptop)
 
I bought four UCA222s when they went on sale for $10 at Sweetwater -- they're handy to have around and, despite mediocre specs, they're entirely adequate for casual listening, e.g. movies and TV. The bigger, more versatile, and much better performing UMC202HD currently goes for only $70 -- it's what I've used for my serious music listening for years. A similar unit was tested here: Budget DAC Review: behringer UMC204HD
 
the UMC204HD + Fosi ZA3 would be about 270 EUR.. wonder how they would look when stacked.. the ZA3 + ZD3 would be about 370 EUR.. that's too much.. pretty, but too much.

Yes vanity is included here, i want my gear to look cool. It's a factor to me, as well as decent sound and price ofcourse.. but i don't want ugly black square boxes. The UMC204HD is beautiful to me because all those pretty little switches and professional looks.
 
I guess i've decided that a UCA202 is not good enough for me, the basic Ayima A80 would be much better than that in terms of the DAC.. But still, a USB powered separate DAC + Analog only D-class would be ok.. i just wish for an option of 200 EUR combined
 
helpful_spinner said:
I guess i've decided that a UCA202 is not good enough for me, the basic Ayima A80 would be much better than that in terms of the DAC.. But still, a USB powered separate DAC + Analog only D-class would be ok.. i just wish for an option of 200 EUR combined
Click to expand...
On what basis? The measured specs are more than good enough for transparency, so how would anything else be audibly better? The 202 also has an adequate ADC, quite good enough to digitise LPs, although I accept it's hardly SOTA.

S.
 
sergeauckland said:
so how would anything else be audibly better?
Click to expand...
Well that's a good question indeed. We all know Hi-Fi gear is sold alot based on 'human emotion', that's why people pay thousands of dollars for high end gear.

But still, even if i can't hear any difference, i would like something alittle more 'advanced' than a UCA202.. Just knowing the sound comes through a modern DAC like the one integrated in an Ayima A80 would make me feel better :p

Will i hear the difference? probably not.. but still, i might!
 
anonyless said:
if you want to get the best sampling rate out of your PC, get a 30$ DDC such as the SMSL PO100 (2024 version) - it's extremely small, does exactly what it should (get you SPDIF out), works perfectly with Linux (i'm running Fedora on my laptop)
Click to expand...
I guess your point here is if i have issues with the usb-c input on the Ayima A80, i could get a PO100 and use the SPDIF input instead?

I think that would actually be a very interesting solution. Get the Ayima A80 (because overall good bang for the buck), and then the PO100 could solve potential issues for additional $30.

edit: and the A80 has cool little display, because vanity.
 
Well this thread got abit off-topic, i should have done a search for the UCA202 before posting, sorry about that..

But based on the UCA202 thread, well, i guess i would like something a bit better.. The A80 with spdif input instead of usb seems like an option, but not sure how the auto stand-by would work with that.. but i should ask in the A80 thread.

Thanks to everyone for the input!
 
helpful_spinner said:
I guess your point here is if i have issues with the usb-c input on the Ayima A80, i could get a PO100 and use the SPDIF input instead?

I think that would actually be a very interesting solution. Get the Ayima A80 (because overall good bang for the buck), and then the PO100 could solve potential issues for additional $30.

edit: and the A80 has cool little display, because vanity.
Click to expand...
i was suggesting the PO100 only as a replacement for the UCA202. the A80 has USB input, no need for extra USB to optical conversion
 
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