[LAU] Affordable well-working USB interface with low latency at 48kHz?

[David Kastrup]

Sam Kuper <sampablokuper at posteo.net> writes:

> On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 02:03:00AM +0100, David Kastrup wrote:
>> I think one guy has already gotten a Behringer interface new (I'd not
>> be overly surprised if it's some laptop-like USB1.1 chip of the "don't
>> expect more than 15kHz" kind with some somewhat more tolerable preamp,
>> which would not be the first time I've seen gear from Behringer where
>> the outside was more impressive than the inside) and there are more
>> dropout problems than previously (with my old Tascam soundcard) even
>> though it's on its own USB connector (hopefully on its own
>> controller/port but I don't know the laptop in person).
>> 
>> I'd not want to suggest anything for which I've not had good
>> experiences myself, and the budget would likely be at most around what
>> the Behringer cost new.
>
> I don't have personal experience of them, but I have seen many people
> post positive experiences of using the Behringer U-Phoria line of USB
> audio interfaces (UMC202, UMC204, UMC404, UMC1820), including under
> Linux.  I see them secondhand sometimes for very reasonable prices, but
> they are also quite cheap new and widely available.
>
> Apparently they are USB class-compliant, with low latency & reasonable
> build quality.  Audio quality reportedly close enough to Focusrite for
> most uses.  Here are some of my bookmarks:

That does not match my prejudices :) For my particular use case, sound
quality and to some degree noise floor are secondary considerations
compared to standard compliance, reliability, latency.  While I am
personally more of an audio quality buff with a focus on recording, if
the U-Phoria supposedly checks the boxes I need, that would be the
pricing on the cake.

I need to ask the exact model of Behringer that my one orchestra
colleague got.  That one's performance (regarding latency/dropouts) did
not really appear to improve upon my stone-age Tascam US-122L brick
(which you can throw basically in any bag without worrying about
anything breaking off).  Maybe something related to drivers.

-- 
David Kastrup