Digital Drive: REVIEW: Behringer Ultracurve Pro 2496 DAC Processors by longtimequadowner Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

For Sale Ads FAQ / News / Events

Model:	Ultracurve Pro 2496
Category:	DAC Processors
Suggested Retail Price:	$379.99
Description:	24/94 digital EQ, A-D/D-A
Manufacturer URL:	Behringer
Model Picture:	View

Review by longtimequadowner on August 02, 2005 at 18:55:55 IP Address: 66.183.161.37

Add Your Review for the Ultracurve Pro 2496

---

This thing is a rediculously cheap $380 US (see here ). I posted the review under "Digital" because I'm using it as a home audio device. I don’t normally write reviews but in case I have to make an exception - if I can help any struggling audiophiles out there who are feeling like the digital chase is hopeless, for them I’ve got to get this one on record. I’ve had the Behringer for 10 days, and have kept it playing on repeat 24/7 to make sure it’s reasonably burned in. I’m fortunate to have a burnin disk specifically for the task, which I’ve used 2 or 3 nights overnight. I’ve seen some professional reviews of this system which I believe grossly under-rate this unit. If you just want to know the conclusion, even though I’ve really begun to despise digital, I love this thing’s transparent digital EQ, and also it’s very good internal DAC – it’s value is off the charts in my opinion. If you still want to read on, go ahead - it’s a long review!

My stereo history: I’ll keep this brief, but it’s important – I really hate the perennial equipment chase, but I have sympathy for those caught up in it because until I get my system sounding right I won’t quit either. The only time I get caught up in the chase is when I move – it’s amazing how radically different the exact same system can sound in a different room, and that’s where the Behringer has been a lifesaver for me. My systems and durations of use have been: [1] 5 years - going back to my university days, it was Quad 57’s with a Fisher 800C tube receiver in a 12x12 room – the room was so small when I reclined my lazyboy I couldn’t see the inner corners of the Quads – I was using them as headphones basically. The sound could be stunning but varied greatly due to room condition [2] 7 years - moved my stereo to a basement of a house I rented, room was about 30’ wide by 14’ deep – changed Fisher 800C to hotrodded Mission Cyrus I and never looked back [3] 5 years - moved into apartment with 22x15 LR – never got anything sounding good there, don’t know what it was but it just couldn’t be done. Even gave up on the Quad 57’s after a couple years, blew through close to $100k in the ensuing few years trying to equal them [4] 2 years - moved to a large house with 26x40 room – and even then there were no parallel side walls – amazing sound, Quad 57’s + heatkit W5M mono tube amps (rebuilt by Sheldon Stokes) + passive preamp and/or later a Heathkit AA-11 10 tube triode design pre. Stunning sound, even with digital using my 20 year old Denon DCD-1500 – sat in a 12’ equilateral triangle with my quads.

Had I stayed in that latter house with a 26x40 room and all those tubes, I’d have never re-entered the audio chase – in fact, I was scanning ebay to get duplicates of each component I was using so if one broke, I’d have another one in the closet. Now that’s a happy non-audiophile! But I did have to move, and landed in a 22x13 room (condo) – plugged in the EXACT same system I had in the 26x40 room in the same 12’ equilateral triange with my quads, and my god what a mess. I figured I was out of luck soundwise for the next few years, it was that bad. So, I decided to just plug in the minimum – my beloved Kenwood KT6040 tuner (reference quality with remote), a passive preamp, my Quad 303 power amp, and the quads, and wait until I move again. Luckily I can still sit in a 13’ equilateral triangle with the quads in my new place because they sit between room boundaries – so no rear wall behind the Quads for 8’ but here is a wall and sofa between them, and a wall 1’ to the left of the left Quad, and a wall directly behind my listening position.

So, I turn on my tuner in this new room and new minimalist setup expecting to hear nothing good, and wow – it sounds awesome! Light, airy, roomfilling, delicate and graceful, atmospheric, bass set way deep in the soundstage as per classic rock and smooth jazz mixes – stunning! True analog sound – soooo smooth and involving, the radio station has already been equalized it just right it seems. Then I turn on my trusty Denon DCD-1500 and I get the opposite, sterile thumpy turgid totally uneven sound that’s impossible to listen to – every percussive hit/bass note makes me wince. Seemed wiry and dry, centerfill faaaar too prominent. The tuner on the other hand had a beautiful even handed approach to the entire frequency spectrum with nothing exagerrated or recessed, and the centefill almost perfectly even with the left/right wings of the soundspace – but the Denon was a disaster at every level (as was every other CD player I tried – Cyrus CD6, Rega Planet 2000, Musical Fidelity small X dac/ps/tube buffer, Toshiba 3960, and more) – totally unlistenable compared to what I had in my previous room.

So, I figured Ok – you take 20 tubes out of your system, take your system out of a 26x40 room, and you find out what digital REALLY sounds like. After having tried the 3 brand new CD players mentioned above, I decided it wasn’t just my 20 year old denon at fault – they were all actually quite good on some songs on some dics, but overall, just not good enough – so even a new player won’t help. They seemed to get better as my expectations lowered, but then I’d turn on my tuner and want to give up on CD – how does my tuner DO that? Every song that played on CD I was analyzing sound looking for a glimmer of hope, but rarely listening to music. Can the Behringer really fix all that? Well let me tell you, it fixed far more than I would have EVER dreamed possible by merely using it’s very simple graphic equalizer in the simplest possible fashion (I haven’t even tried the parameteric EQ yet). It’s given me a new start down a brand new road, I now discount all my pre-Behringer experience with digital in my current residence.

Ways in which the behringer radically improved my system were:

[1] Overall smoothness – I have long admired my Kenwood KT6040 tuner for one outstanding quality (amongst others) and that’s the way it treats the entire frequency spectrum as a single integrated whole with no particular frequencies either exaggerated or recessed – when you find a radio station that is of like mind (like Vancouver’s rock 101.1 1960’s/1970’s classic rock or a good symphonic like CBC Canada or smooth jazz station like Seattle/Tacoma’s 98.9 smooth jazz) the result is absolutely stunning – I guess the equalization those stations use suited my room nicely. With the Behringer, I was able to duplicate this quality with ease – I simply went to the graphic equilizer and made a slow steady cut of the bass/midbass starting from 200Hz downward, 400Hz barely down, 300 Hz down more, and gradually increasing cuts right down to 20Hz where I have it cut to zero (why bother your amp and speakers with massive bass waves if it can’t be reproduced? I’m sure this was a huge relief to my downstream system that probably provided many fringe benefits). It’s easy to fine tune over time, just listen to music and when you come across a bassline that’s thumping away, find it’s frequency and adjust (the built in RTA – real time analyzer graph helps you spot the offending frequency) – it may sound weird just after adjustment but listen on, and it sounds right. The Behringer has multiple memories so you can store/restore settings easily, plus has numeric displays of each EQ setting so you can return to exactly where you were if you make a mistake. If you’re a confirmed basshead that cries heresy at the thought of turning the bass DOWN, you’d be surprised at how much better defined the bass lines are when the roomboom/overhang is gone – so much easier to follow basslines as it transitions and dances up and down the bass spectrum. I like bass to be the foundation, not the focus.

[2] Presentation of detail – notice I didn’t say “retrieval of detail” because the detail I crave to hear was probably always in there, but who could hear it? Mixed up with the boomy bass, overripe midbass, and clangy thumpy lower percussion, it was just a crowded mess. Now the fine detail lives and breathes in it’s own space in my room, and doesn’t have to play “peek-a-boo” with a collection of much louder noise stamping it out. This is especially noticeable in the centerfill – because there’s a sofa and wall between my quads, it really collected a lot of extra thump and bang into the centerfill – all I could really hear properly were the “wings” (stage left/right) but they were far recessed compared to the centerfill. Now, the centerfill is where I focus all my attention because there’s just so much going on there that I’ve been missing, and it’s in almost perspective with the wings (can only do so much with a sofa and wall between the speakers). And when the music does sprout “wings” in the form of a massive soundspace, it’s far more noticable now because it’s one big coherent smooth(er) picture.

[3] Coherence – I doubt there’s any speaker on earth more capable of presenting a single large coherent picture of a performance than the old quads and even a small increase in this ability is quite noticable – but a big increase is stunning and that’s what I hear. I’ve heard many speakers portray musical performances as nothing but a collection of sounds all over the place that come nowhere near merging it all into one single coherent musical performance that makes sense, exacerbated by exaggerated frequencies banging and clanging all over your room. Without that coherence all those individual sounds make it appear that the system is really coping well with this “complicated mess” by displaying it all and it is somewhat like being a kid in a candy store – “which sound should I listen to now, there are so many to choose from”! But that’s not a musical performance, that’s just a light show. When it all comes together as a single whole you can raise your level of consciousness to “see” it all at once, and see how all those sounds (that are still individually identifiable) become music. It seems to have a real “simplifying” effect. It’s like the difference between a well conducted orchestra and a poor one I suppose. The Behringer will take out the “hotspots” and “dropouts” to a large degree producing a nice coherent spread, unless you’re already in a perfect room. I don’t even have the auto-eq with microphone option – don’t feel I need it just yet.

[4] Soundstaging – a byproduct of increased detail realization (ie the tiny spatial cues that depict the soundspace) and coherence increase (ie the evening out of the centerfill with the soundstage left/right) and you find your best tracks going wider and deeper than before with no smearing – as you can probably guess. It’s that simple. Forward mixes put you right in the picture, and laid back mixes let you watch the whole picture at once. Everything seems more forward to me in my current room which has a wall directly behind me – can’t really fix that, but it can be quite intoxicating.

[5] Low volume fidelity – this is a lifesaver! Being a condo-dweller now I find with the Behringer that I can listen at MUCH lower volumes now because I’m not always wanting to turn it up to uncover all those nuances lost in the room boom (which was futile anyway since the room boom was always increased as well) – this is a dream come true, without this point I still wouldn’t be able to listen to CD’s where I live now. If you’re in a situation where you have to be careful not to bother others, you’ll love this capability.

As good as all the above points are individually, the overall effect is much more than the sum of the parts. Now don’t get me wrong, my current room with the Behringer is no replacement for my 26x40 room – it can’t make walls disappear – but when I listen to discs now that I recall from my 26x40 room, my heart doesn’t sink as it did pre-Behringer, and that says a lot. I’ve read of other digital domain room correction systems that they CAN make walls disappear to a certain degree, and you can buy an extermal microphone for the Behringer and use it’s auto-EQ function on your room, so maybe I won’t totally discount that possibility – but those other systems (ie tact) that make walls disappear work with phase response amongst other things, not just frequency response.

Now for the really good news – all this has been achieved using the Behringers internal DAC, and what a sweetheart this DAC is! As opposed to other rather brash players I’ve been using recently that emulate a soundspace by putting a few loud sounds here and there, the Behringer seems to completely fill my room with a smooth, graceful, delicate, detailed wall of sound (recording permitting) that routinely goes well outside the speaker boundaries, with a beautiful tonality. From Joni Mitchell, Grateful Dead, various atmospheric classic rock, even hiphop. I can listen to CD’s for hours on end, sometimes listen to the same one twice in a row – I still can’t believe it. Maybe it’s like catching a sleeper movie – one you expect to be bad but turns out great (I didn't even know if the Behringer HAD an internal DAC when I bought it) – but I just can’t get enough. Acoustic guitar is stunningly real, and now provides my very best demo material with the Quads (Grateful Dead HDCD disks even though the Behringer doesn’t decode HDCD seem amazing). One really gets the impression it’s relaying what’s “really on the disc” as a true no-nonsense professional product that’s not trying to sound like any audiophile subjective quality – it’s purely objective and I think will continue to be a good “acid test” to compare with any other external DAC I may try. If the source has a wide, deep, and stable soundstage that’s what you get from the Behringer’s DAC – and not a spotty stage with dropouts, but a nice even, full sweep of sound. If the source has a forward in-your-face mix that practically surrounds your listening chair, you get that too – I’ve got plenty of those, it’s like wearing headphones (Frank Zappa – Joe’s Garage!) – I’d be tempted to say it often sounds forward but I believe that’s the effect of having a wall behind your listening position – something I hadn’t before – the Behringer can only fix so much. It can be very nuanced, delicate and detailed with good highs, highs good enough that it can reveal new detail up in those nether regions. With pop mixes that use echo, you can hear each softly decaying echo bouncing off your walls – again, sometimes to an almost surround-sound effect. It may not be as laid back as vinyl fans would want, to them I’m sure it’s still identifiably digital – but still always manages to be listenable. Some albums I’d thought lost causes are now exteremely enjoyable. I’ve listened to many a song asking myself if it’s really worth putting the tubes back in my system – not that the sound is warmed over or anything, but certainly can be full smooth and spacious with no glare, probably be moreso if my walls weren’t so reflective. It never seems overly mechanical or etched in any way (after at LEAST 1 week 24/7 breakin). The built in DAC is good enough that if you’re thinking of buying a starter DAC under $1k I’d urge you to consider the Behringer if you feel you could benefit from room equalization – you get a very good DAC for free really, considering it’s real value is in the digital EQ. When you’re done with the Behringer DAC, you still get to keep the digital EQ and feed it’s digital stream to your new DAC! Note that I don’t listen to a lot of naturally miked acoustic music so I can’t comment on ultimate tonality, but it certainly can be vivid – and the quads always deliver a you-are-there kind of experience – the shock is they can do that with the Quad 303 with a digital source – I’ve generally always needed tubes with digital in the past. Note also that my transport machine is likely very good and a major contributor – 25 lbs, and those mid-80’s denon’s had triple beam lasers or something – I suspect it’s very good from what I’m hearing.

As for comparisons with other gear, it’s not a fair comparison because of the EQ provided by the Behringer so I can’t compare them apples to apples, but the Behringer “with EQ” in my situation bests all the above players I’d mentioned by no small degree, Cyrus CD6/Rega Planet 2000/MF Small X – and all those had the benefit of the MF tube buffer which I’d placed between my pre and power amp (I also used them all without the tube buffer). The Rega Planet 2000 for example seemed to excel at making older digital transfers more listenable than the others, but even in this respect the Behringer wins hands down and I can’t credit the room EQ for that because the bass on many of those disks is far from overbearing – gotta be the DAC – it reveals more music in some older digital transfers than I thought was there. Sadly many are still beyond help, they may still need tubes downstream. Compared to the Cyrus, which could be quite vivid in the midrange – the Behringer seems to be vivid from top to bottom. The MF was very much like the Cyrus overall. Overall though, when I was trying all the abovementioned new CD players they were all far, far from the mark for me with my Quad 303 amp – when I put in my Heathkit W5M tube mono’s (rebuilt for the Quads by Sheldon Stokes) they all got better by a rediculous degree (big shock, NOT) but still not good enough. But with the Behinger, I’m quite enjoying digital playback, nay “music” with even my Quad 303, something I’d have thought impossible with digital.

If you’re worried about tweaking endlessly with all that power at your fingertips, here’s my solution – come up with a curve that best suits your room over the widest variety of recordings, set it into preset #1, then make 3 or 4 more presets that are minor variations and set them into your next few presets. My first preset is “minimum bass” (yes you can give them names) and each one after is an exact replica, but with each and every reduced bass frequency up ½ decibal – so if things are sounding too “wiry” on “minimum bass”, I go up a notch or two – until I have bass warmth with no smear. You don’t have to do it song by song, but sometimes disk by disk. Easy!

To say I’m thrilled and relieved is an understatement! Room equalization is now indispensable to me. The Behringer DAC is more than good enough for me right now, at least until I hear a large chunk of my CD collection at least once around again - I almost always hear new nuance on discs I’ve played many times over the years. I’ve been listening for many nights straight now 3 to 4 hour clips, and have been surprised that some disks really aren’t as bad as I thought, and prior listens of the same CD’s would have had the advantage of tubes. I see no need to play with a more expensive DAC however am very enthused to ponder what a tube and/or nonoversampling DAC may do now when fed by the Behringer. I’d wager that no matter how good a DAC you have the Behringer’s EQ can still improve your digital playback substantially and transparently – of course, it’s improvement is more related to your listening room than anything else. With this 3 box setup, I can not only improve it by going with an audiophile DAC but I can also try different transports! Too bad I’m feeling like all this overpriced audiophile stuff is a big ripoff right now. The Behringer is $380 at my local Long & McQuade!!! I do have a Mark Levinson / Burwen Bobcat system on order though, said to raise digital to the quality of good analog – we’ll see – I ordered it before I picked up the Behringer.

Summing up (finally!), this product has raised my expectations of what digital can reproduce in the kinds of rooms most of us have to live in, and that’s the REAL point – it makes me feel like I’m one step closer to checking out of the audio chase in my new residence (meaning for the next decade probably). My whole system is down pat, nothing will ever change in my current residence – I may ultimately just need a great analog-sounding external DAC that doesn’t simply dumb down the signal with a “tube chaser”, and maybe not even that if my Heathkit W5M’s perform as I expect. Sometimes when I listen now I wonder if I should even bother with any tubes at all, but on other recordings help is still needed. In the audiophile world where the word “value” has absolutely no meaning, given the Behringer’s ultra-low price this is the best value I’ve ever encountered short of my Quads I suppose – you could easily pay more for a pair of interconnects.

If you buy one – don’t leave the store until you have an interconnect solution, my local Long & McQuade had pro audio cables 2m long that had RCA’s on one end, balanced on the other – only $20 per pair, I’m still using them! And be patient, plug it in – click the “bypass” button FIRST and make sure all digital processing sections are bypassed to start with, and let it break in for at least 3-4 days playing 24/7, but it doesn’t lose it’s glare until at least 10 days of 24/7 was my experience (on the 10th day it seemed like a different machine!). After 3-4 days click the GEQ (graphic EQ) button and start experimenting with it, leaving all else alone. That might just be as much as you have to do. I tried the “width” control for example, and although cool at times it can really mess things up, so don’t get carried away – I use nothing but the graphic EQ so far and that might be all I ever use. Also, if you get no sound out of the box, click the I/O button to choose your digital input source before you panic. And, read up on the memory recall function and start by “recalling” the 1st memory (factory defaults) so you’re starting fresh (shouldn’t matter though if you bypass all digital modules as mentioned above).

Review System: Denon DCD-1520 (large 25lb circa mid-80’s, very smooth stable operator, possibly a triple beam laser) as a transport feeding Behringer with Vandenhul opto-coupler optical, Creek OBH-12 passive pre, Quad 303 power amp (originally voiced to the Quad II power amps so is warmish – but still quite vivid), Quad ESL 57’s circa 1969 (mint unmodded). Behringer and transport both plugged into PS Audio “Ultimate Outlet” which itself was plugged into PS Audio P300 – this did seem to improve overall smoothness. Behringer on tripod of vibrapods.

Product Strengths: [1] Completely transparant equilization in the digital domain – if there’s any lack of transparancy I’m not hearing it and even if there is, the positive aspects of the cleanup it provides greatly outweigh any miniscule negatives. Produces an even frequency response from top to bottom which provides a host of other fringe benefits [2] Very good internal DAC you can easily use to get re-acquainted with your CD collection sans-bassboom while you save up for an “audiophile” DAC. [3] Has both an optical digital input (and output) and a balanced digital input (and output) – and you can switch between them, providing somewhat of a 2 input digital preamp [4] Great flexibility – you can try different transports and DAC’s while leaving your room equilization in place [5] Has wordclock socket if your transport supports that [6] Easy to use – actual faceplate buttons for all major functions, and a very informative LCD display to change settings within each major function – you can be very good at it on your first day of ownership

Product Weaknesses: [1] A big one if you are going to use the Behringer’s internal DAC – professional gear outputs something like a 7 volt (?) signal (most CD players put out 2.2 volts max) so the signal comes BLASTING through – your preamp may not go to low enough volumes for you, and may be overwhelmed by the signal – I don’t know anything about impedance matching and the like, so I can’t say the effect on your system (or may even cause damage? Doubtful, but some of these “fragile” audiophile products…) – my passive preamp handles it fine as I’m sure any passive would, but even touching the volume makes for LARGE increases in sound, and I have mine set on about 1/20th volume (however my system is very sensitive at the best of times, even with regular CD players it’s usually at 1/10th volume). I could never use my Creek’s remote volume because the volume jumps massively with even the slightest touch [2] Main analog outputs are balanced only, so if you’re going to use it’s internal DAC you’ll have to get balanced to RCA connectors if your preamp doesn’t have balanced inputs. There is an AUX output but they are headphone jack style. [3] Don’t know if it’s a weakness but when I moved the Behringer and the Denon transport to the PS Audio “Ultimate Outlet” which itself is plugged into a PS Audio P300, things seemed to improve nicely – I did this early on and never A/B’d it back, and at the same time I changed the components to individual shelves in my rack, so I can’t say for sure the source of the improvement - but I’ve always liked my P300 and the “UltimateOutlet” is claimed to preven digital feedback from getting back into the P300, so it’s benefits are probably real [4] Behringer is rack mount, has no feet – I have mine on a tripod of vibrapods [5] For the more sophisticated digital processing like limiter/compressor/dynamic EQ, feedback destroyer etc the manual provides short explanations of these functions, but largely assume’s you’re a pro-audio guy who knows what it’s all about – I haven’t a clue and doubt I’ll ever get use from them. [6] Not the Behringers fault, but optical connections are so loose that I don’t trust them, sometimes mine fell out and all I got was static – and once when I re-plugged it in, it seemed like every disk I played thereafter was even better than expected – I don’t trust those optical connections! [7] Slight software bug – whenever you recall a reset, the “width” control becomes un-bypassed, and you have to click the “bypass” switch to re-bypass it

---

Product Weakness:	See above
Product Strengths:	See above

---

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Quad 303
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Creek OBH-12
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Denon DCD-1520
Speakers:	Quad ESL 57
Cables/Interconnects:	Kimber Hero
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Various
Room Size (LxWxH):	22 x 13 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments:	None
Time Period/Length of Audition:	10 days owner
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	PS Audio P300, 2 PS UO's
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

---

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---