Are you able to copy and paste half a dozen commands into the terminal in the correct order without missing any?

Are you using an equaliser as a hearing aid, or do you believe it can improve sound quality?

alsaucm is a command-line configuration tool for managing ALSA Use Case Manager (UCM) settings. It is still broken. This is how it works for you:

$ alsaucm -c U192k list _cards
ALSA lib main.c:1554:(snd_use_case_mgr_open) error: failed to import U192k use case configuration -2
alsaucm: error failed to open sound card U192k: No such file or directory

However, some mixer controls are available.

It’s usually easier to roll your own compile than to prod the official Debian packages into shape — assuming you don’t mind a bit of tinkering while the maintainers are otherwise engaged.

You can clone the latest version directly from the repository:

git clone https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf.git

UCM (ALSA Use Case Manager) is not inherently "broken," but its functionality depends on the availability of proper configuration files and hardware support. When UCM is not working or unsupported for a specific audio device, ALSA falls back to using generic drivers, which provide basic audio functionality but lack advanced features like audio profile switching (e.g., speaker, headphone, microphone routing).

UCM is not so much broken as it is… lacking a bit of attention. One might say the situation is not entirely ideal — though that rather understates the case. Most users manage to muddle through, patching things themselves, since raising a ticket tends to result in what one could politely call enthusiastic disregard.   

The system functions adequately, assuming one doesn’t mind rolling their own fixes while the maintainers appear to be on a long tea break.

SUMMARY

UCM (ALSA Use Case Manager) isn't broken per se — more neglected. The configurations lag behind modern hardware, and while maintainers aren’t exactly ignoring reports, responses are… glacial. Users often find themselves patching things locally or sourcing updated configs from Git, as distributions take their time catching up.

Bug reports exist, some with patches attached, but progress is slow. Debian and SUSE have accepted updates, and new versions like alsa-ucm-conf 1.2.15.3 are available upstream — but getting them into stable releases takes time. In the meantime, users roll their own fixes, which works, provided one doesn’t mind a bit of DIY.

So yes, it functions — just not without a little persuasion.

When the developers can't quite sort out the existing issues, the natural course is to introduce something altogether more ambitious — like PulseAudio or PipeWire — leaving the rest of us to carry on as best we can.

Ah, yes — removing PulseAudio can feel rather like the rabbi’s remedy: when life’s unbearable, bring in a goat. Things get worse, certainly — noisy, smelly, chaotic — but then, at last, you’re allowed to remove it. And suddenly, everything’s wonderful. No goat. Just the usual family fuss. Bliss.

So it is with PulseAudio. Install it, and the system groans under latency, glitches, and needless complexity. Remove it, and lo — sound works again. Not because it was magic, but because the goat’s gone.

A spot of perspective, really.

As noted in the GitHub issue
_https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf/issues/564#issuecomment-3016922013
when ALSA is broken, PipeWire users are affected — and AlsaTune may not resolve the underlying issue.

see above _https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=61493#p61493

ALSA UCM2 expects the configuration to be in /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/conf.d/USB-Audio/UMC404HD.conf when using the modern conf.d scheme.

From the official ucm.conf and documentation:

UCM2 uses conf.d/${CardDriver}/${CardLongName}.conf as the primary lookup path.
Your card’s driver is USB-Audio, so UCM searches in conf.d/USB-Audio/.
Even though you have UMC404HD.conf in /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/USB-Audio/Behringer/, it won’t be found unless symlinked into conf.d/USB-Audio/.

On Deadalus, the folder /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/conf.d/USB-Audio already exists, but it has only one file inside

$ ls /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/conf.d/USB-Audio 
USB-Audio.conf

$ file /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/conf.d/USB-Audio/USB-Audio.conf
/usr/share/alsa/ucm2/conf.d/USB-Audio/USB-Audio.conf: symbolic link to ../../USB-Audio/USB-Audio.conf

Try to create symlinks so UCM finds the config:

sudo ln -s /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/USB-Audio/Behringer/UMC404HD.conf \
  /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/conf.d/USB-Audio/UMC404HD.conf
sudo ln -s /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/USB-Audio/Behringer/UMC404HD-HiFi.conf \
  /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/conf.d/USB-Audio/UMC404HD-HiFi.conf

Then reload ALSA

sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils force-reload

Now alsaucm -c U192k list _cards may work.

Do you want to enable HiFi profile?

alsaucm reload

alsaucm -c U192k list _verbs

alsaucm -c U192k set _verb HiFi

Post the output of these commands:

dmesg | grep -i ucm   

whereis alsaucm

alsaucm reload

alsaucm -c U192k list _verbs

alsaucm -c U192k set _verb HiFi

amixer -c U192k controls

On Devuan 5 Daedalus, the BEHRINGER UMC404HD has limited UCM support — while alsa-ucm-conf is installed (version 1.2.8-1), there is no dedicated UCM config for the UMC404HD in /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/USB-Audio/Behringer/. It relies on a generic USB-Audio profile instead.

$ dpkg -l | grep alsa-ucm-conf
ii  alsa-ucm-conf       1.2.8-1       all          ALSA Use Case Manager configuration files

$ ls -1 /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/USB-Audio/Behringer 
Flow8-Recording.conf
Flow8-Recording-Hifi.conf
Flow8-Streaming.conf
Flow8-Streaming-Hifi.conf
UMC202HD.conf
UMC202HD-HiFi.conf
UMC204HD.conf
UMC204HD-HiFi.conf

The lack of a specific UCM file means:
No automatic profile selection (e.g., "HiFi" or "Pro")
Mixer controls might be incomplete in alsamixer

On Devuan Excalibur (or newer systems), support may improve if alsa-ucm-conf is updated — some recent versions include UMC404HD detection in the generic USB-Audio.conf.

Causal relationships are simplified models that approximate reality. Nature is nonlinear.

Consider this alternative hypothesis: "deafness and dementia arise together and amplify each other in a sort of resonance." In such cases, it may be impossible to establish a clear cause-and-effect relationship because both conditions influence and worsen each other bidirectionally.

Research supports this view — hearing loss is linked to increased dementia risk through pathways like social isolation, cognitive load, and brain atrophy. But cognitive decline also affects auditory processing, creating a feedback loop. Some studies suggest the relationship is bidirectional, with each condition accelerating the other.

Thus, rather than asking "which came first," it may be more accurate to see them as co-evolving, mutually reinforcing conditions — like resonance in a physical system — where separation into cause and effect becomes meaningless.

Low sound quality significantly worsens speech intelligibility for people with hearing loss. Poor audio, such as low-pass filtering or noise, reduces access to critical speech cues like high-frequency sounds and temporal fine structure, making it harder to understand speech — especially in noisy environments. Studies show that hearing-impaired individuals benefit less from amplified high frequencies if they have cochlear dead regions, and degraded sound further limits their ability to adapt to background noise, increasing listening effort and reducing comprehension.

Low-quality resampling in PulseAudio or PipeWire can degrade audio, especially for speech intelligibility in hearing-impaired users. By default, PulseAudio uses basic resamplers (like speex-fixed-0) that can reduce audio quality during sample rate conversion. This affects high-frequency content crucial for understanding speech.

Poor resampling adds distortion and smears transients, making speech less clear — a significant issue for those with hearing loss. Using high-quality resamplers and minimizing conversions helps maintain clarity.

One may wonder that the sun rises every day, but this seems to be a normal course of things.

If you want to use the BEHRINGER UMC204HD 192k as the default sound card, you can set it as default in ~/.asoundrc:

defaults.pcm.!card U192k
defaults.ctl.!card U192k

This configuration tells ALSA to use the U192k (BEHRINGER) sound card by name as the default for both audio playback (pcm) and mixer controls (ctl), which is a standard and reliable method.

Plug your Behringer into USB port

Post the output of these commands:

cat /proc/asound/cards

cat /sys/class/sound/card*/id

What is needed is "id" of your Behringer

For example, I have Intel HDA  (id: PCH) and iMic USB (id: system)

$ cat /sys/class/sound/card*/id
system
PCH

For Intel HDA:

alsamixer -c PCH

For iMic USB:

alsamixer -c system

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [system         ]: USB-Audio - iMic USB audio system
                      Griffin Technology, Inc iMic USB audio system at usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.3.4, full s
 1 [PCH            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7e10000 irq 31

This also works:

alsamixer -c 0

alsamixer -c 1

but numbers can change after reboot.

ALSA defaults to:

$ cat /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf | grep dmix.rate
defaults.pcm.dmix.rate 48000

This means all audio will be resampled to a 48 kHz sample rate using ALSA’s built-in low-quality resampler, or possibly a media player’s own low-quality resampler. The result may not sound good, but users with reduced hearing sensitivity might not notice the difference.

For more, see:
The Biological Risk of High-Frequency EQ
_https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=7750