diff --git a/lib/triagens/ArangoDb/DefaultValues.php b/lib/triagens/ArangoDb/DefaultValues.php
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/lib/triagens/ArangoDb/DefaultValues.php
+++ b/lib/triagens/ArangoDb/DefaultValues.php
@@ -73,5 +73,5 @@ abstract class DefaultValues
     /**
      * Default value for checking if data is UTF-8 conform
      */
-    const DEFAULT_CHECK_UTF8_CONFORM = true;
+    const DEFAULT_CHECK_UTF8_CONFORM = false;
 }
set default value for UTF-8 checking to false

This causes a slight speedup for send/receive operations