best direct box

[jrhoden]

can anyone suggest a good direct box?....

hows this one?..Behringer ULTRA-DI DI400P Passive Direct Box

[tc4b]

Radial makes an excellent product, though it's quite a bit more expensive. What exactly will you be using it for?

[vicenzajay]

Simon Systems - little known, but exceptional DI (think U5 quality). Not cheap, but quite a bit less than a U5.

Presonus Tubepre - not a full voltage tube device, but check it out on basstasters.com...it did VERY well against very expensive competition.

Jay

[pohaku]

For a passive direct box, I really like the Radial JDI.

For something with a little more color, I like the GT Ditto (these have gotten cheaper since they put out the Brick).

For an over the top direct box, the Millennia TD-1 is excellent - you get twin topology DI, and you get a single channel of Millennia mic preamp, two band MIllennia EQ, and reamp capability too. Oh, yeah, and knobs and lites galore

[tc4b]

Originally Posted by vicenzajay

Simon Systems - little known, but exceptional DI (think U5 quality). Not cheap, but quite a bit less than a U5.

I googled it but couldn't find it... can you post a link? I'm curious...

[pohaku]

It's kind of festive - seems to match the season!

[Roguetitan]

Originally Posted by jrhoden

can anyone suggest a good direct box?....

hows this one?..Behringer ULTRA-DI DI400P Passive Direct Box

Ya the Behringer will work just fine for ya.
Their DI's are Pretty solid.

[xstatic]

What kind of budget are you looking at? On the cheap, you can get decent DI's from Rapco, Whirlwind and CBI. For a mid priced box you can get good quality and a better sound from BSS, Countryman and Radial. If you are looking to spend a pretty decent amount of money there are tons opf options like DW Fearn, Avalon, Manley etc...

What exactly are you using it for?

Personally, I would avoid the Behringer. They overload easily and sound horrid when they do, they tend to have real longevity issues, and they just don't sound that good. I have a dozen of the BSS DI's which at least visually is the DI that Behringer has blatantly copied. I can not tell you how many times I have done the comparison to show various artists just what the difference in quality between them is. Every single one of these artists has been able to instantly and distinctively tell the difference in sound between the BSS and the Behringer. The BSS has a tighter and richer low frequency response, and the highs are much more extended, yet smoother and more pleasing at the same time. It is the kind of thing that even through PA monitors which is where most of these tests have taken place the difference was substantial.

[Superhuman]

I use a passive Radial DI, it's great, never had a problem. Got in a bundle with an active Radial reamping box - really cool piece of gear. Great quality equipment but not the cheapest.

[Torpid-x]

As the cheapest yet most versital set-up I could find on my low budget, I use the Behringer UB802 mixer $40 at musicians friend. I use one of the mic pre's for my guitar so I can boost the signal, and as long as you don't turn the gain past 1/2, the pre's really are "invisible", they get noisy at higher levels but, you shouldn't need any more than 1/2.

as a bonus you get an extra pre for a mic or a second instrument + 2 more pasive channels (4 channels with 3 band EQ) + 2 sets of output with there own level controls, one can be used as a headphone amp or to a second, well, anything that takes audio input. oh, and phantom power for condenser mics.

I bought it for my condensor mic and discoverd it's DI capabilities in experimentation. I rarely mic my amp anymore.

I'm assuming your on a tight budget because of the box you were looking at. the $20 options don't offer much IMO.

[Roguetitan]

Originally Posted by Torpid-x

As the cheapest yet most versital set-up I could find on my low budget, I use the Behringer UB802 mixer $40 at musicians friend. I use one of the mic pre's for my guitar so I can boost the signal, and as long as you don't turn the gain past 1/2, the pre's really are "invisible", they get noisy at higher levels but, you shouldn't need any more than 1/2.

as a bonus you get an extra pre for a mic or a second instrument + 2 more pasive channels (4 channels with 3 band EQ) + 2 sets of output with there own level controls, one can be used as a headphone amp or to a second, well, anything that takes audio input. oh, and phantom power for condenser mics.

I bought it for my condensor mic and discoverd it's DI capabilities in experimentation. I rarely mic my amp anymore.

I'm assuming your on a tight budget because of the box you were looking at. the $20 options don't offer much IMO.

I use that same setup for practice because of how functionally easy it is to begin a recording track however I would not hesitate to use it for a production demo, as a matter of fact I have a girl coming over this weekend to lay some vocal tracks and this little mixer is probably what I will be using

I have to say that I also have a couple of the ULTRA-DI DI400P Passive DI Boxes and they are an excellent source to convert an instrument 1/4" HiZ cable to a LXR Low Z cable plus the Aux 1/4" out can be used for monitoring or a headphone amp or a guitar amp or whatever.
If you need more of a signal boost than the Mixers phantom power or if you want a little tubage to your signal you can always hook up an ART preamp behind the DI. pretty cheap stuff but it all works very well for a home recording setup.