My new favorite blog .

http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/02/behringer-uca202-review.html

Holy moly, look at those graphs - all twenty of them!

Graph porn!

Interesting. Tks, Doc.

Yeah. They go for about $35 in Canada. I am going to pick one up but will have to wait a bit since both the UCA202 and UCA222 are out of stock right now (5-10 days). Go figure?

Thanks Dr House. Bookmarked as a favorite site.

This person seems to review affordable priced gear which is great (sometimes too affordable ). These reviews in his blog are MUCH better IMO than most specialized A/V review sites. The great thing about this device is that it can act more than just a basic DAC. The bonus is the headphone connectivity. Though limited to high impedance headphones for best performance because of its high output impedance of 50 ohms. It's not really suited for portable headphones which in turn are suited for portable FLAC/MP3 players.

If you read his Sansa Clip+ review you will see the importance for the lower output impedance of portable music players with certain headphones. The rated 1 ohm output impedance of the Clip+ vs. 7 ohm of the Apple iPod Touch and the non-linear frequency response variations that are exhibited with iPod because of this.

I was very interested in the Matrix HiFi Behringer vs High End Gear link where they blind tested an A500 and cheap Sony DVD player hooked up by corner store RCA cables and perched on an old wooden chair vs the $12,000 hifi setup. Excellent!

Here are some 3rd party measurements of the A500 and they are impressive. This amp delivers at that price and then some...

http://theaudiocritic.com/plog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=22&blogId=1

Thanks, Doc. I think I read that article, or one like it, a while ago. I'm wondering if the A500 can go below 4 ohms, can't find much info.

It will be able to go below 4 ohms. It should drive almost any speaker, however I would be leery driving a speaker that has demanding impedance and phase interactions that dip anywhere as low in the 2-3 ohm region. The amp would run very hot (scorching?) at the very least.

I remember that A500 review. The A500 does suffer some quality issues though, something about noise in the midrange frequencies on some units.

Are you referring to the distortion as you turned up the gain, thru 70% or so, Fred? not a prob if you use the master volume on your receiver and leave the 500 at max.

Adrian, if you examine the Audio Critic measurements on the PowerCube, you'll note that at 2 ohms the measurement was just under 20 volts, which would be equivalent to almost 200 watts(20[squared]/2).

Also, as has been mentioned if the level control(gain is fixed)was left at max, that wouldn't run into a problem.

Tks, John. The unit is rated to 4 ohms, so what do I surmise from the measurements below that number(1-2 ohms) in the powercube? it'll go below 4 ohms, BUT only for a very short time? the reason I ask is because I may want to use these amps in an active setup at some point, and they may go below 4 ohms(2.7 to 3ohms) on the bass drivers.

That test uses 20 millisecond bursts, which is a fairly realistic number for the brief transient peaks which actually occur in real music. It has nothing to do with possible overheating and shutdown if operation at very low impedances occurred over an extended period(an unlikely situation with nearly all speakers, which are well above their minimum impedance over most of their frequency range).

Not sure. All I remember is there was funny stuff going on at certain frequencies on some units.

If you want stability below 4 ohms, why not go with the Peavey IPR1600. Its class D so nice and efficient and has been bench tested at 2 ohms.

The only downside is that it has a fan.

In an active setup the Behringers would have a major cost advantage if you are trying to keep a budget especially when you have to run multiple/separate amplifiers. The Peavey is a very nice unit though.

The ART Audio SLA1/SLA2 look interesting and won't break the bank either($200-300 USD). Their fairly compact and the SLA2 will safely do 2 ohms according to spec. I believe ART is a division of Yorkville audio, so they've been around for a while.

Do you have any ideas on what you want to use for the active crossover?

These are nice:

http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/CX2310.aspx
http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/CX3400.aspx
http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/DCX2496.aspx

The last one is a bit overkill, but one can never have too much overkill.

Chris linked the DCX2496 which is what I'd be looking at. The Digmoda DDC552 combined amp/dsp/crossovers are also interesting but at quite a bit more $$.

Even though the DCX2496 is overkill, as I said. I'm impressed with how inexpensive it is.

(I've been thinking about doing some experimentation with active crossovers, and that's the model I had picked out too.)

Maybe add a crossover to your projects list, Chris?

It's there.

Making your own?

Well, a standalone DAC/DSP with an HDMI input that'll be able to function as a crossover (among other things).

But will it make toast?
.
.
.
Or dance naked in the moonlight?