I have a Cubase 8.5 Pro software (8.5.30 64bit) that work with a UR824 audio device, with the last firmware update (V. 2.11) and with the last driver (V. 2.0.4).
I turned the Control Room and the Direct Monitoring on.
When I enable the listen mode on a channel
I listen a very poor quality audio (such as when direct monitor is off).
Instead, if I enable monitor on a track audio I listen well (as it should be).
Also, if I i turn the Direct Monitoring off the listen mode send a good audio (such as when direct monitor is off)!
The “Issues resolved” section in the release notes of Cubase 8.5.30 contains:
BON-18356: Fixed an issue where Direct Monitoring state could not be correctly set for certain Steinberg Audio Hardware devices.
I think that this issue is not fixed. The Direct Monitoring state is not correctly set for UR824 devices.