Behringer UCG102 USB Guitar Link

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 an excellent unit that works extremely well for the function I needed. I use it to take 8 analogue track outputs from my multitrack tape recorder (Fostex R8) straight into my DAW (Reaper).I can then edit the tracks to my hearts content. Such a cool unit for such a low price..perfect for me. Well built with good support should you need it. Highly recommended.

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.