Behringer U-CONTROL UCA202 Ultra-Low Latency 2 In/2 Out USB/Audio Interface with Digital Output

This is my second device. I bought one ~ 7 or 8 years ago at the recommendation of an Audacity sound engineer on their forums. I wanted to record my college team's games from my stereo to listen to later. It worked perfectly for that. I am also able to stream videos or songs from my computer over my stereo system... much nicer than my computer audio. I can also plug in my headphones to the 3.5 mm jack on the Behringer unit to listen without disturbing my family.This unit is being used to stream audio for a small Church service & is working well. The RCA jack inputs and outputs are geared more to consumer level audio systems and works very well for that functionality. I have had my 1st unit for a long time & although it is made of plastic, and has been bounced around a bit from home to office to other places it has never failed me. It is plug & play so there is no need to install any software, though I highly recommend Audacity for doing the recording, mixing & perfecting the sound quality... eg digitally boosting recordings that were made at low volume level up to the maximum without clipping.The one thing to be aware of is the audio setup. You will probably need to click on that to switch the audio input &/or output to the USB device. Otherwise your computer may still want to output the audio to it's own speaker system, or to use the computer microphone rather than the stereo audio feed. Not a big deal, but it won't work without telling it which audio stream to use or which playback device to use.For a big commercial setup with balanced cables you would be better off getting a different audio interface with TRS 1/4" &/or XLR connectors, though you could use this unit with adapters.

I really can't complain about this item.The build quality is fine. It is all plastic, the cord is not detachable. The jacks on the back side of it are gold plated, the headphone jack is not.As other reviewers have said, there is no software in the box, you get to go download it. I haven't used any of it, it's not what I bought it for.What I wanted to do was have a real mic and a real mixer and two separate sound cards to separate game audio and Skype audio.Yes, I know I can change this in the Windows sound manager, but I like having my analog mixer!As far as my uses go, this was perfect. I plugged it in, set it as my default communications device, plugged the main line out on my mixer into the input. It works perfectly, and people on Skype have noted that it sounds great.Out of curiosity, I unplugged my normal SoundBlaster X-Fi Pro card and plugged my headphones into output on this interface. It seems to have no troubles with my Sony MRD-V6 headphones, and it sounded every bit as good as my SoundBlaster. Now, it sounds DIFFERENT, but it's still good. The SoundBlaster's output seems to have more low end response where the Behringer interface focuses more on the high end.Now, the Sony MRD-V6 headphones are pretty low impedance, so high impedance headphones may make a difference here. But really, plug the line output into a stereo channel on your mixer and use your mixer's headphone amp.If you're looking for something you can plug your matching Behringer mixer into and record stuff or have a crazy setup for Skype, this thing is great. I could see this being used for some small recording, but it really doesn't seem like an overly professional device, having just unbalanced line inputs and outputs. For a professional recording, you might want an interface with XLR inputs. But, if you're in a small band and want to do some quick recordings, this can run from an aux send on your board.You may want to buy a couple Hosa Cable CPR201 Dual 1/4 Inch To RCA Cable - 3.25 Foot to plug this into your mixer.

I bought the UCA202 to substitute for my computer's built-in sound circuitry to drive my office stereo system. It works very well; the noise floor is lower and the sound seems much clearer and more transparent.Installation was easy. Win7/64 found the drivers and installed them automatically and changed the default audio output device to the UCA202. A new volume control appeared in the icon area at the right of the taskbar, giving access to a mixer and various sound "enhancements" (right-click on the icon).Basically, the device converts the computer's digital sound output to a stereo line-level signal available via a pair of standard RCA jacks. A normal double RCA cord with plugs at both ends then connects the device to your receiver or any other piece of equipment that expects a line-level signal. There are also a pair of RCA line-in jacks that seem to be intended for other line-level signals to be mixed with the computer's sound. The too-brief manual is not entirely clear on this! There is also an S/PDIF digital output.One note: The level of audio output from the UCA202 has to be controlled from the computer (for example, the volume control icon mentioned above). The unit has its own thumbwheel-type volume control, but this affects only its headphone output via a standard 1/8" mini-jack. There is also a small slide switch to route the input signal "directly to the headphone output." Again, I'm not clear what difference this makes but have no need to find out! For those with more complex needs than mine, a better manual would be welcome.To clarify the product page, the unit comes with no software, not even drivers. All the software mentioned is readily available on the Internet. Custom drivers are available at Behringer.com.In short, the UCA202 was easy to install, works as advertised, and offers good sound for my purposes. A bargain.