(Since I have received a couple of emails ask me to re-post my review
using html code for ease of reading, so here is the a re-formatted version of
the review. Not prefect yet, blame it on the horrible MS html Word converter.)
( This
review was spiced up by my good friend Vincent Luk who’s a better politician
than I. )
UC8024 – Sinks Boomy “Subs” Without a Trace
(geddit? German and U-571!)
Introduction
The
following is a hugely delayed Part II review of the Behringer Ultracurve
(UC8024).Just as with many things in life, a lot of unexpected things happened
over the last year and as a result, progress on the audio side suffered as a
consequence. But I guess I’d better post the review before Thorsten comes out
with his new DEQ24/96 review.
At
the outset, Thorsten piqued mine as well as many others’ interest with his very
good and detailed review on EnjoyTheMusic:
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0101/behringer8024.htm
To
summarize, there is just no way that I could match such a detailed and through
write-up so I will not even try.However, what I thought might be useful would
be to post my findings as I come from more of a layman’s perspective.
Executive summary in a FAQ format
i. What does UC8024 do?
–
it removes most of the coloration in your room.A good analogy is that before,
if you were having Thai-spiced fish or Indian curry fish, you are now served
Japanese sashimi (raw) fish.
If
properly executed, the sonic improvement can be as much as 30%. It will solve
most (if not all) your bass problems, you may now use floor stand speakers in a
relatively small room without booming(?).It also add body and presence to your
mid-range and further cleans up any congestion in the sound. In particular, if
you use a subwoofer, the benefit is towards the higher end of the improvement
scale due to this piece of equipment’s unavoidable by-product of accentuating
room modes.
ii. How difficult to set it up?
-
moderate (Digital IN/OUT) to fairly difficult (analog IN/OUT).Beware that the
UC8024’s interface was surely design by Microsoft and not Apple, which means it
is designed for aliens from Mars and not us mere Earthlings.
-
which IN/OUT shall I use?Digital or analog?
For
people with little or no pro audio experience, nor any level matching experience,
ONLY the digital option is viable!
In
addition, the analogue IN/OUT is NOT recommend for the layman as it is way too
complicated and convoluted. For the more experienced, the analog IN/OUT should
be used but only after the tweaks-replacing the stock cheapy (and I mean cheap)
capacitors with better quality ones such as Sanyo OSCONS.Be prepared for some
frustrations along the way.
iii. Any setup tips?
-
Read the manual a few times at the very least..
-
Situate your speakers into the corners to excite all the room modes, the
purpose is to get the max effect so that you can then equalize from that
basis.By placing your speakers into the corners, it should also improve the mid
and high range by better controlling the dispersions.
-
Remember to add Thorsten’s suggested curves (use the “LOAD+” function),
otherwise the flat EQ setting will sound too bright.
-
The UC8024 will grow on you, once you get it right, you will not want to take
it out of your system.
Last
but not least – do send Thorsten a thank you note for (1) discovering the
UC8024 for consumer use; (2) his suggested curves and (3) his details review
and tweak tips.
Here
is mine, ThanX Thorsten .
(Now
for people with a bit of spare time)
1. Â Â Â Â Â The
Sonic Impact of UC8024
My
room is relatively “good”, 4.5(L) x 2.5(W) x 2.8(H) meters, however even with
my bookshelf speakers, I have some very strong room modes at around 35Hz, which
I can’t get rid off.The bass is always too boomy and the mid-range is recessed.
Once
the UC8024 was setup correctly (no small task), and Thorsten’s EQ curves were
superimposed on the flat EQ curve:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Thunderstone_technical/files/TL Circuits/Ultracurve/
The
sound just become so much more “right”.The deep bass was still there but with
much better integration, definition and control, not congested like a lump of
mud before.
The
mid-range presence became so much more real, a sense that the music
conveyed/reproduced had more of a “concert” than a “hi-fi” setting.
However,
the changes wrought in high frequencies were not too significant though.
Overall
the improvement I would quantify upon my system as around 20% to 30%, which =
HUGE in my book.Just for you to get a sense of my rating system,to me in
general:
Improvement
from cables (interconnect, speaker, power cords) rarely exceeds 10%
Improvement
from over-sampling CD to non-oversampling is around 10%-15%
Improvement
from going solid state to EL34 or 300B tubes (no KT88 please) is around 20%-30%
So
you can now see IMHO the UC8024 indeed, effected a very significant and
worthwhile sonic improvement in my system.
To conclude - after using UC8024, I am bravely sticking my neck out here
but (ok, shoot me down if you want to ^_^), NO subwoofer can be set up
correctly without the assistance of a room correction device such as the UC8204
- no matter what setup method you use.
- the reason for my making this statement is quite simple. For every
room, there exists a fairly strong room mode that any subwoofer cannot fill in
the missing low bass without also boosting the bass at the room mode frequency. Â >
e.g. my room has a 35Hz room mode, which means I have a lot of bass
around 35Hz (i.e. too much due to the existence of the room mode) but too
little bass around 25Hz or 45Hz (i.e. too little as my main speakers cannot go
so low).
Hence, when I put in my Rel sub-woofer (it goes down to around 25Hz),
although I can fill up the missing bass around 25Hz and 45Hz, I also exacerbate
the room mode at 35Hz as the subwoofer is unable to only ADD bass at 25Hz and
45Hz and REDUCE or Not ADDat 35Hz, well that is, not until the arrival of
UC8024…
2. Â Â Â Â Â UC8024
before and after tweaks
The
digital IN/OUT is quite a lot better than the analog IN/OUT.The stock analog
IN/OUT makes the sound a bit too edgy, thin and bright.
But
in stock form, even just using the digital input, the sound is a little too
“digital” for my liking.
I
then upgraded most of the small electrolytic caps to OSCON, the large power
supply caps to Panasonic FC and the LM317 regulator to LM1085-ADJ.
The
has improved the UC8024 quite significantly and made the sound noticeably
smoother, warmer so it was well worth the effort.
If
you do not plan to use the analog IN/OUT, you do not need to read any further.
The modification up to this stage is good enough for day-to-day use
already.There may be a slight sonic degradation from adding the UC into the
chain (~5%), but the sonic improvement wrought by the UC far outweighs
(~20-30%) this.
The
stock analog IN/OUT is another story, it degrades the system by at least 10-15%
overall.It is dry and harsh, the typical “digital” sound.It cannot (IMHO) be
recommended for day-to-day use.
After
performing the mods as suggested by Thorsten (except the S&B 410 line
balanced transformer, a bit too expensive, maybe added later), and adding an
additional transformer for the power supply, the analog input can now at least
perform on par with the digital IN/OUT, and can now be recommended for
day-to-day use.
Please
note that changing the LM6172opamps (in DIP format) to SIL format is NOT easy,
and you have change 6 of them, so be prepared and set aside a good long Sunday
afternoon.
3. Â Â Â Â Â The
setup of the UC8024
You
really need to read and re-read the manual.It was written by engineers for
engineers –say no more.
For
digital IN/OUTs, if you have coaxial digital IN/OUTs in your system, make
yourself two special digital cables by following Thorsten instructions
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Thunderstone_technical/files/TL Circuits/Ultracurve/
If
you have balanced digital IN/OUTs in your system, you are fine.
For
analog IN, you MUST make sure the analog IN of the UC8024 receives a high level
signal (I tweaked my CD so the output is 6V p-p at digital max (0dB)). You can
check the input level by using the “Meter” function on the UC8024, if the meter
only shows -10 to -20dB at digital full scale, this input level is way too low
for UC8024 and you will lose resolution.
For
analog OUT, you probably will need to attenuate the output of UC8024, as the
pro audio level output voltage of the UC8024 unchecked, will most likely drive
the input of the consumer audio gear into clipping.The solution is to build a
simple voltage divider into the interconnect with a ratio of usually 1:2 or
1:3, the quality of the resistor used will matter here.
