What is the most value for money DI box?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Magarious
  • Start date Start date
Forget Behringer. Get a Countryman and you'll never need to buy another DI box.
 
I think the Groove Tube Brick is the best value for money in a DI. A bass player and I did blind A/B testing between the Brick and many other DI's including some that cost significantly more. It easily beat out DI's that cost a lot more.
 
Farview said:
You're trying to DI your speakers?
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I missed this. What do you mean DI the speakers? Typically, you'd plug your guitar into the DI and from there go into your amp.
 
No i jus want to DI my guiatr dude speakers i ment my guiar amp as the noise cums out of that!

Thx for your help!
 
MadAudio said:
Countryman Type 85 FET Direct Box. The thing's built like a tank. Not a budget item but worth every penny.
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I always cringe when I see this. Personally, the Countryman DI's sound wonderful, but built like a tank is only in appearance. I have had more than a dozen type 85's and ALL of them have quickly developed stupid build problems. NONE of the screws in them hold long and they lead to other incidental damages as a result. This is a common problem that many people are aware of, but often just live with. Sonically, they work very well. Once upon a time they were the best in category DI (at least in my opinion). Now however there are a couple of great contenders. First, the BSS AR133 DI. This one truly is built like a tank, costs the same if not less, sounds at least as good (and in my opinion a little better) and offers more features. Second, the Radial line up. Once again well built good sounding boxes. For an active one you are still in the same price range, but I actually like the Radial passive boxes better and they are less expensive to boot.

I still have a few Countrymans around because they are well known. I will not however ever buy another new one until they fix this wide spread well known build issue. Kind of like the Sennheiser 421 clip issues... Why on earth would they not have changed that yet?
 
xstatic said:
I always cringe when I see this. Personally, the Countryman DI's sound wonderful, but built like a tank is only in appearance....
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I guess I've been lucky in that mine has never been used in a live setting or by anyone else. But thanks for that post.
 
Magarious said:
No i jus want to DI my guiatr dude speakers i ment my guiar amp as the noise cums out of that!

Thx for your help!
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You are planning on pluging it into the direct out of your amp, right? I wouldn't plug it into the speaker output.
 
MadAudio said:
I guess I've been lucky in that mine has never been used in a live setting or by anyone else. But thanks for that post.
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I am glad that yours has not had a problem. It seems to me that for some reason the really old ones stay in tact a little better then the ones form the last 10 years or so. The rebranded Klark Tekinik ones seems to handle stuff better as well. It really is too bad that they suffer from such a simple problem because other then that they are really nice boxes.

One thing I do love about the BSS boxes that I did not mention is that they are stackable due to their shape and rubber sides. I guess all boxes are stackable, but the BSS boxes do not need to be taped together to keep them from slipping. Also, the BSS box has both 1/4" and XLR inputs and a on/off switch.
 
I have bought a whirlwind DI box now comming thoruhg post soon.

Thx for advice
 
I think those Behringer DI boxes are the best bet for the money!

They hold up well, and sound good. LOT's of features that many other DI's don't have.

Good value.
 
You could also build a DI Box for Pocket Change(Under $10) if you are electricly Inclined??

:)
 
Minion said:
You could also build a DI Box for Pocket Change(Under $10) if you are electricly Inclined??

:)
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Yeah, if you don't need tranformer isolation, or don't care about the quality of sound above say 8khz, you could.
 
Ford Van said:
Yeah, if you don't need tranformer isolation, or don't care about the quality of sound above say 8khz, you could.
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You don"t need a Transformer to Change the output Impedances, You can use a Basic Fet Impedance Buffer to Convert the High Impedance Source to a Low impedance output without affecting the Frequency responce and only introduceing maybe 3db of noise depending on the Fets used....

Many DI Boxes are Much too small to Fit a Output transformer in as well as the Circuit Board so many DI Boxes use a Fet Buffer or Opamp to change output impedances.....

Sort of like this:





Cheers
 

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Ford Van said:
I think those Behringer DI boxes are the best bet for the money!

They hold up well, and sound good. LOT's of features that many other DI's don't have.

Good value.
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This has nothing to do with Behringer bashing, but I certainly would not say that they sound good. In fact, I would say they sound pretty bad. They are modelled after the BSS ar133 DI, and have the same feature set. However, they have a muffly low end to them and a huge hf rolloff that gets very harsh. I have had a lot of people roll through with them that loved them... until we unplugged it and put the BSS in line instead. They were all amazed at how much tighter the BSS sounded and all of the smooth natural high frequencies that all of a sudden appeared. Then again, it should be that way. The BSS costs 5 times as much.
 
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