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: https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-U-...ie=UTF8&qid=1509659923&sr=8-1&keywords=UCA222
The device is obviously made out of plastic but it is not as cheesy as that sounds. The metal red color makes it look like it is made out of metal. The UCB cord as you see is permanently attached so no tweaking with $1000 UCB cables is possible!
Functionality is pretty good given the headphone output, optical S/PDIF and aforementioned analog to digital converter. Unfortunately sampling rate is limited to 48 Khz.
For this testing I did my comparison against two other low cost DACs: the Topping D30 ($129) and Behringer UMC204HD ($79). Later, I also compare it to my laptop native output.
Measurements
Let's get into it with 24-bit/48 Khz J-Test signal which is just a sine wave for the purposes of this graph at 12 Khz.
Clearly the UCA222 underperforms the other two DACs by 15+ db in noise floor. And it adds some salt and pepper in the form of various noise/jitter spikes. Still, not awful. Just not as good.
For awful, we get to run our -90.31 db, 24-bit sinewave test. I first ran this test and got pretty miserable performance out of UCA222. So I thought maybe it is a 48 Khz only DAC so I tested it it at that sample rate. Alas, same sad performance was delivered:
The well-defined output in red/yellow is that of the more expensive Behringer UMC204HD. The awful, noisy, fluctuating output is from UCA222 DAC. In other words, it has no prayer of reproducing the low order bits of a 16-bit signal. Effective bit depth accuracy is probably in 13 to 14 bits.
Measurements Compared to Laptop Built-in Output
Seeing how the Topping D30 and Behringer UMC204HD set too high a bar, I thought I test it against the native headphone output of my laptop. This is from an older but very high-end Z-series HP laptop which retailed for over $2000 when I bought it a couple of years ago. I have done a ton of critical listening tests using its headphone output. So subjectively I know it is good.
Again, let's look at J-Test output:
The laptop's built-in "IDT high definition codec" indeed delivers high-definition performance! It has lower noise floor and total absence of any jitter/noise products! Yes, the noise floor is some 10 db higher than UMC204HD and Topping D30. But given the fact that it is "free", it is remarkably good. Needless to say, it easily outperforms the Behringer UCA222.
Now let's look at low level (bit) resolution again:
My laptop is in yellow and while the output is still a bit noisy, it runs circles around the horrid performance of the Behringer UCA222.
Headphone Listening Test
Using my Sony MDRV6 headphones, the UCA222 produced clean sound that never really got distorted even at max setting. Alas, it has pretty anemic output. Just eyeballing it, its output is half as much as the headphone jack of my laptop. While I can get my laptop to become way too uncomfortable for listening with respect to level, I can listen to UCA222 almost at max setting. Fidelity wise, the laptop seemed more authoritative although this may be just due to its higher output power.
I did not bother testing the RCA outputs subjectively.
Conclusions
The UCA222 is a dirt cheap DAC. It uses older style 48 Khz max sampling rate DAC which probably retails for less than the change in my pocket. Its measured performance ranges from "OK" to pretty bad. Seeing how my laptop beats it in every regard, I see no reason to recommend it. Spend a few more dollars and get the Topping D30 which remains my recommended DAC at these low price ranges.
As always suggestions, comments, corrections, bad jokes, etc. are encouraged.
The device is obviously made out of plastic but it is not as cheesy as that sounds. The metal red color makes it look like it is made out of metal. The UCB cord as you see is permanently attached so no tweaking with $1000 UCB cables is possible!
Functionality is pretty good given the headphone output, optical S/PDIF and aforementioned analog to digital converter. Unfortunately sampling rate is limited to 48 Khz.
For this testing I did my comparison against two other low cost DACs: the Topping D30 ($129) and Behringer UMC204HD ($79). Later, I also compare it to my laptop native output.
Measurements
Let's get into it with 24-bit/48 Khz J-Test signal which is just a sine wave for the purposes of this graph at 12 Khz.
Clearly the UCA222 underperforms the other two DACs by 15+ db in noise floor. And it adds some salt and pepper in the form of various noise/jitter spikes. Still, not awful. Just not as good.
For awful, we get to run our -90.31 db, 24-bit sinewave test. I first ran this test and got pretty miserable performance out of UCA222. So I thought maybe it is a 48 Khz only DAC so I tested it it at that sample rate. Alas, same sad performance was delivered:
The well-defined output in red/yellow is that of the more expensive Behringer UMC204HD. The awful, noisy, fluctuating output is from UCA222 DAC. In other words, it has no prayer of reproducing the low order bits of a 16-bit signal. Effective bit depth accuracy is probably in 13 to 14 bits.
Measurements Compared to Laptop Built-in Output
Seeing how the Topping D30 and Behringer UMC204HD set too high a bar, I thought I test it against the native headphone output of my laptop. This is from an older but very high-end Z-series HP laptop which retailed for over $2000 when I bought it a couple of years ago. I have done a ton of critical listening tests using its headphone output. So subjectively I know it is good.
Again, let's look at J-Test output:
The laptop's built-in "IDT high definition codec" indeed delivers high-definition performance! It has lower noise floor and total absence of any jitter/noise products! Yes, the noise floor is some 10 db higher than UMC204HD and Topping D30. But given the fact that it is "free", it is remarkably good. Needless to say, it easily outperforms the Behringer UCA222.
Now let's look at low level (bit) resolution again:
My laptop is in yellow and while the output is still a bit noisy, it runs circles around the horrid performance of the Behringer UCA222.
Headphone Listening Test
Using my Sony MDRV6 headphones, the UCA222 produced clean sound that never really got distorted even at max setting. Alas, it has pretty anemic output. Just eyeballing it, its output is half as much as the headphone jack of my laptop. While I can get my laptop to become way too uncomfortable for listening with respect to level, I can listen to UCA222 almost at max setting. Fidelity wise, the laptop seemed more authoritative although this may be just due to its higher output power.
I did not bother testing the RCA outputs subjectively.
Conclusions
The UCA222 is a dirt cheap DAC. It uses older style 48 Khz max sampling rate DAC which probably retails for less than the change in my pocket. Its measured performance ranges from "OK" to pretty bad. Seeing how my laptop beats it in every regard, I see no reason to recommend it. Spend a few more dollars and get the Topping D30 which remains my recommended DAC at these low price ranges.
As always suggestions, comments, corrections, bad jokes, etc. are encouraged.
