UR22MKII volume output is CRANKED yet still sounds low

As the title says i have a ur22 connected to windows 10 rig running reaper… so everything runs well i have no recording issues at all its seems only during playback. i noticed that to get any sound out during playback the output knob on the interface has to be all the way up which doesnt seem right does it!?! Could it be windows throttling something because these speakers should rattle my house and yet its just audible…heck even passing cars drown out the speakers so what gives? I swear its something to do with windows but i have all the drivers set to my audio interface as discussed in other posts but nothing regarding the volume levels or in this case the lack there of

Any help would be appreciated
Best regards

What about the mix knob? Is it set fully to Daw?

The MK II has confounding and extremely disappointingly low output gain. I have one for iPad recording, but it doesn’t leave the house much. The original version was much hotter.

Chewy

Yeah it’s full on DAW

So you think it’s the audio interface,

I’d say it’s a good bet. I have used it with an external headphone amp, but mostly just crank it.

Interested in others’ experience with the MKII. The reduced gain was a pretty consistent criticism in the review-o-sphere when they first came out.

Chewy

No work around eh? I thought it was maybe windows and the ur22 drivers clashing or something, I guess it’s time to upgrade lol

I’ve read that some headphones work better with the MKII, but I don’t know what they are. The only workaround I really know of is to crank output both from the control room to just under where you get distortion or to use an external headphone amp.

To misquote George Harrison, “It’s a well-known drag.”

Maybe somebody else out there has better advice?

Chewy

Roughly same setup yet mine works fine.
What speakers are you using?
Are they active or passive?
Active ones (that have their own amp in each speaker) is what you want.
In which case they’ll have a gain nob on the back of them.
I can’t imagine using any studio configuration with just passive speakers.
The interface itself does not contain a huge amplifier as it is a compact unit.
I’m not going to recommend any type of in line amplifier as you really need to consider that choice carefully if that is something that you need. Using the wrong one can definitely blow everything up.

So with much thought and discussion with other audio heads, I have determined that I do need to run an amplifier to power my passive speakers, I was and have been using passive speakers which would explain my issues with my output volume having no gain or umph it’s funny that they should mention that when purchasing an audio interface you should consider whether you need active or passive speakers, on part of the consumer I’ll admit that the whole plug and play thing is to much hand holding as I don’t think I would of figured out my issue if it wasnt for the people of these forums and other audio heads as the marketing for these devices are pretty much " you like music buy this you won’t need anything else "

So thank you everyone

I’ll just mention that you might want to consider just getting what’s called - Flat Response Active studio monitors -
This is because each speaker has it’s own sound profile for example a pair of Sony speakers that are made for use with televisions might have a bass boost, mid drop and 5k range boost.
In order to check this you can google “[speaker name] frequency response” and you should see a graph for that.
Usually even the cheapest active studio monitors will be sufficiently loud.
The reason you want flat response speakers is so that if you’re doing any type of editing you know what the original sound profile is of the track that you’re editing.
It’s best to have a few options for example

  • flat response monitors
  • studio headphone
  • reference headphones (air pods or something)
    And of course it all depends on what you intend to do
    Frequency response for Yamaha Hs8 Active Studio Monitors