Hello. I am new at this forum. I want to ask you guys what you believe to be the best soundcard from this two : Behringer UFO202 or ART USB Phono Plus ? I know that Behringer is using ASIO drivers which I believe to be more :hifi" than the generic drivers of the ART USB Phono Plus. Can you please "enlight " me which one should I buy at a fair price and why ? Or maybe there are other choices . I want the best sound card for recording from turntable, tapes and also to provide a hifi sound to my amplifier. Thank you very much .
I don’t think either one requires ASIO to work. They’re both simple digital converters. I don’t think there’s any question the Art is the better of the devices. Just having a volume control is a big plus.
We’re extraordinarily unlikely to find someone who has both.
Koz
Hello . Thank you for reply. I must say I am a bit confused. As you can see in the following link , Behringer is using ASIO drivers : http://www.behringer.com/EN/Support/U-Control-Downloads.aspx . As I saw in the ART user manual, this do not need drivers because it is recognized but the operating sistem . So the only difference you see bettwen them is the GAIN button ? Both of them use high quality converters ? Thank you.
Audacity as shipped doesn’t support ASIO, so the Behringer only works in Audacity without ASIO.
ART Phono Plus only has a headphones out, not RCA outs, I think. V2 has RCA outs.
Gale
I don’t think any of us is in a position to do exhaustive analysis and comparisons of the two units. This is a rag-tag army of volunteers for a free audio program. It’s not a corporation and it’s not a help desk. I can do reviews of stuff I actually own, but past that, I’m as much of a slave of the instruction books as you are.
To do what you want, one of us would need to own both and that’s very unlikely. I’m a fan of the Behringers because they’re tiny, cheap, simple, and appear to work right out of the box on all three operating systems. That’s very desirable. Somebody who owns the ARTS unit can drop in and talk about theirs. You need specialized equipment to test an RIAA amplifier and if somebody had a gun, I would do it, but it’s time consuming and awkward. The units do not come apart easily, so even though they may use exactly the same chipsets inside, it’s rare to find out.
The Arts community seems to be very happy with their units and the Behringer people seem happy with theirs. So it comes down to the knob.
Koz
Hello friends. Thank you for your replies. I saw that Art Usb Phono have a gain button which is very handy. I also have noticed that the recordings made with Behringer have low volume low and the channels are not at the same level (this is sure because of my turntable) but I have used the "normalize " effect to fix the both problems. Is this the right aproach to fix the both problems ? I am still interested to hear the pros and cons opinions about this 2 cards . Thank you .
The ART unit is in a sturdy metal case, which makes it the more rugged of the two and also offers shielding against electrical interference. The Behringer unit is in a plastic box - don’t tread on it. The ART USB Phono Plus v2 offers a lot more features and connections than the Behringer UFO202, but (not surprisingly) costs more. I use a UCA 202 from Behringer and I’m very happy with it. I’ve not tried the UFO 202.
I use the UFO-202 and am satisfied with it. The hiss level is somewhat higher than my PAT-4 but still below the inherent vinyl noise. Frequency response is on a par with the PAT-4. The big plus is the reduced desk space. It also doubles as a line-level input when needed.
– Bill
The ART USB Phono Plus is not a soundcard. It is a phono pre-amp and an A to D or D to A converter with a USB connection. Those features are why I bought it. I wanted to bypass the soundcard on my computer and not be forced to go through the “Line In” input.
Hello. Are you telling that I cannot use the ART box also for listening the music from my PC ?
The ART manual is available here: http://artproaudio.com/discontinued_products/discontinued_products/product/usb_phono_plus_v2/
It looks like you can use the device also for listening to music from your PC.
As I understand it, the Line Out on the Art Phono Plus is tied to the preamp input, so you can only listen to music from the PC on the headphones jack:
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Recommended_sound_devices#USB_Interfaces .
Gale
The current “Project Series” USB Phono Plus provides monitoring of the phono input, or the computer output or both via the headphone socket (switchable from the from panel with a separate monitor level control).
The RCA outputs are direct from the phono input which allows the unit to be used as an ordinary phono pre-amp without the computer connected but does not play back from the computer.
There are 2 optical digital connections, one for input into the computer and one for playback from the computer.
There is on S/PDIF co-ax input for input into the computer (when connected this overrides the optical input).