Behringer U-Phoria UMC204HD

I've had this interface for around 6 months now, so I feel like I can provide some useful insight to the quality/functionality of this product. Time will only tell if it continues to provide such value.

The good:

- Build quality is rather good. It feels sturdy enough, and having used it on the go, it has survived my rather bumpy trips very well.

- Sound quality is excellent. The pre-amps get to a very good level without clipping and background hiss is minimal. I've been able to record a lot of tracks with this interface with excellent results every time.

- MIDI support is great to have! I used to use an old outdated controller, so having the option on this interface is great. I can confirm it functions as expected.

- Headphone output is good. There's nothing fancy about the headphone output, but it functions well. The sound quality is quite standard compared to a more expensive sound card or seperate DAC setup.

- When the software works, it works relatively well. (see more in the cons)

The bad:

- Knobs/potentiometers feel a bit cheap. I don't expect them to last for decades, but they work well enough. They can be replaced if you have the tools, but it's something to keep in mind if you plan to use this for many years.

- Software is a mixed bag. It took me a fairly long time to finally get the software functioning in a way that I was happy with. This concerned sample rates between the driver and windows, alongside repear complaining about it to begin with. Driver support is decent from Behringer, but the drivers are incredibly basic. Latency is excellent, but it can be a pain to set up in the beginning.

- The glitches! It doesn't happen much, but there have been a few times where the interface simply doesn't switch the audio source properly and it requires a bit of a software reset. This happens especially if I disconnect the interface and come back with it another day. (maybe expecting it to retain my settings is a little too much to ask)

Overall, I would really recommend this interface! The sound quality is the most important element of course and I think you really can't go wrong for the price. I don't feel like I would ever need to spend 2x the price for a similar interface from a different brand. I am even considering upgrading to a higher end interface from Behringer, simply with more input options. Highly recommended for the price!

Thomann service was brilliant of course. Delivery and handling was excellent as always.

Брал на репточку. по сравнению с домашней скарлетт 2на2 есть несколько моментов:
-Преампы чувствительнее. если скарлетт клипует на 10ч гейна, на той же гитаре бехр в клип уходит с 9. Но! есть понижение входа, хотя показалось, что частотку и динамику поджирает.
-ИМХО дико неудобная система мониторинга. на скарлетт тумблер вкл/выкл, тут надо постоянно рулями ловить баланс. и возможно из-за этого 3й косяк
-Перегруз на выходе наушников. после 13ч начинает срать в уши. Тестил и в байерах 770 на 250 Ом и в сенхах ХД180. все одно. После 13ч звук перегружается. на скарлет такого нет.
Из плюсов-пара выходов на мониторы, МИДИ, инсерты и конечно же цена. Собрано качественно, крепко, правда крутилки длинноваты. Дрова свои и немного мудреные, чтобы снизить с 48 до 44,1 пришлось через стандартную вин панель "звуки" поменять, а так неактивно было.
В целом 4/5. для того чтобы на репе демки накидать-за глаза, да и в принципе и посводить дома можно.

I got this interface for using at home on days when my studio is busy with other projects. Just to be able to do some recordings at home, for fun, but it turned out to be much better than expected and has also been used for serious work.

Lets get the bad stuff out of the way first:

-Pots have started crackling after just a few months use. Very disappointing!

-Jack line inputs/outputs feel VERY fragile. Especially the outputs on the back. So far they work fine but this is the kind of quality you just KNOW is going to break. I'm surprised they haven't used better connectors. The headphone and XLR connectors feels ok though,

-After using the interface for a couple of months I started having some trouble with losing connection to the laptop/DAW. It just suddenly was "disconnected" in the middle of a session. It happens very sporadically, perhaps once every 10 hours of use. Still very annoying. I guess I can live with it for home use but it completely rules out any professional applications. If this continues I will have to consider returning the Behringer for repacement/repair but I want to test it with another laptop/DAW first to make sure the problem is not elsewhere in my setup. It does seem very much like the problem is with the Behringer though as I've never had these problems before with the same laptop/DAW.

-I wish there were two headphone outputs. Obviously not a problem when I work alone but there are situations when two headphone outputs would have been nice. Using a splitter to connect two headphones did not work very well. The output could not handle it, causing distortion. I guess you can't have everything at this price/size so not a huge issue I guess.

Ok, so the good stuff:

-Price! Insanely cheap and excellent value for money!

-Sound. Based on sound quality I can easily use this for serious projects. My intention was to get the Behringer just for fun but more and more often I find myself using it to do overdubs for serious projects. I honestly can't tell any difference in sound quality to comparable recordings I do in my studio on RME/SSL interface/converters. I should add that I don't normally use the internal Midas micpres in the Behringer. I have brought home a small rack of gear that wasn't used in my studio. Cheaper stuff like Warm Audio, FMR, Toft etc. And I have to say: The difference between this gear and the more expensive outboard gear in my actual studio is a LOT greater than the difference between the cheap Behringer and my studio's more expensive interface/converters. I should also add that the Midas preamps in the Behringer are totally fine, just a bit characterless for my taste so I prefer to use outboard transformer based preamps if possible. Still, the Midas preamps are definitely not useless like the Behringer preamps of the past. For example, these Midas preamp are FAR superior to the preamps in the ADA8000. I might also add that I absolutely LOVE the fact that Behringer has included inserts on this cheap little interface. This means it's possible to use outboard compression/eq even when using the internal Midas preamps which is a HUGE improvement compared to many other cheap interfaces.

-Size. This was important to me. It fits nicely in a backpack together with a laptop so I can go anywhere (provided there's electricity...) and work on my music.

-Stability... Well, like I mentioned I've had some problems with the Behringer suddenly becoming "disconnected". I'm still not 100% sure if this is a fault with the Behringer or something else in my system (although everything points at the Behringer). But apart from these incidents it has been VERY stable and running efficiently at acceptably low latencies/buffer settings. I'd say the laptop it is connected to is far more likely to be the limiting factor for efficiency.

-Zero latency monitoring. While there is no fancy on-screen mixer it still works really well with a single knob adjusting smoothly between monitoring playback or incoming signal. Great, simple solution that just WORKS.

So, what's the verdict?

I guess the long term reliability will decide whether this is a good investment or not. There are signs that the build quality isn't the best but it sounds VERY good and is VERY cheap.

I'm generally not a fan of recommending stuff that's poorly built but in this case I'm making an exception. I really feel Behringer has pushed the limits of what is possible at this price point. I might eat my words if my unit breaks down in a years or two but still:

Highly recommended!

Considering the price and Behringer's reputation (I might not be up to date on that matter because on Youtube they seem to make everyone happy — though perhaps some polarising algorithm is holding the big picture out of my sight) I was worried about preamps and DACs.
But I needed an interface quickly and had spent all my cash on repairing the amp that literally caught fire (killing my Tascam US 2x2 in the process, hence the hurry...).
I wanted to upgrade my sampling rate for sound design purposes (ultrasonic piezo recordings slowed down four times and still bright! — still on my to do list, sorry!).
I've owned a Xenyx analogue console about a decade ago and I remember the preamps to have been dark and noisy.

OK that's too much teasing: the Midas preamps have nothing to do with their Xenyx predecessors, they have a full flat spectrum allowing for very bright recordings and thus faithfully rendering your mics/machines' character (even if it's as bright as the line output from an old Fender silverface) — beautiful brightness means beautiful transients so they can be very punchy. But they're also very dynamic in the other meaning of the word: they have a killer headroom, I never heard their noise (I know it has to exist but my other gear buries it) and they can provide a ridiculous amount of gain (I've never turned the pot over 10 o'clock).
Same goes pretty much for the headphones preamp.
The weak part is the main monitor preamp: it has a good definition over the whole spectrum but doesn't offer much gain (it feels like an attenuator) and when pushed it produces a very loud hiss. I mix on headphones (and I'm not ashamed!) so that's fine with me but most people would probably find it annoying (hence the four stars for "sound").

The software is perfectly satisfying: no fancy interface (you pay for those so good news) but all the features I expected, plus a buffer going up to 4096 which I was missing with Tascam when mixing 100+ tracks with ~5/6 plugins each.

I won't take it on the road and that's for the better because the enclosure doesn't seem exactly bullet-proof — it's not plastic but it's very light and thin. That's why four stars at "quality".

I still gave a total of five stars because at such a low price you'd be a fool not to expect sacrifices at some places and I must say I'm very comfortable with Behringer's decisions regarding those sacrifices: the limited robustness won't prevent a normal use and despite everything I blamed the main output for I still manage to have my neighbours knocking at my door.

I'm happy I bought it. Hope that helps.