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Need a Direct input box...


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I own a couple of these and for their price they work well. I think Rolls gear is pretty well built.

 

There are much better DIs around if you have the budget for it. they are sonicly better, pass lower freqs, don't overload (saturate) as easily and have better shielding (noise rejection).

 

As an alternative in the same price range you might try these from audiopile

 

Audiopile.net

 

I have done business with Mark & Liz (audiopile) in the past and have had nothing but great results.

 

 

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This is not the first comment I've seen that active DI's can be problematic. I have one (actually a rack mount of eight channels), I purchased it to take the place of four Rapco 'little black boxes' passives, mostly because I have occasional use for both the +20db boost and the -30db cut features), as well as the ground lift.

 

What are the issues with active DI's?

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Originally posted by jnordyke

This is not the first comment I've seen that active DI's can be problematic. I have one (actually a rack mount of eight channels), I purchased it to take the place of four Rapco 'little black boxes' passives, mostly because I have occasional use for both the +20db boost and the -30db cut features), as well as the ground lift.


What are the issues with active DI's?

 

 

The active DI boxes I had were very noisy. I had them only a short while, sold them, and then got replacement passive units.

 

Ed

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Since the keyboards already have the "active" part of the active DI built in, adding another active section can increase noise, you have the issue of needing phantom power (or additional power source), the difficulty of achieving true ground (pin 1) lift function with some designs, the potential for very loud pops when the balanced connection is plugged or unplugged, the sometimes limited overload point on some units are just a few of the problems that active units have. If you need the active DI because of the higher input impedance (buffering) for things like passive pick-ups, then the trade offs can be well worth it for an improvement is the sound, but for active sources, the improvements are generally minimal no non-existent with decent passive transformer isolated DI's.

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Here is my question: our keyboardist/acoustic guitarist plugs directly into our mixer using a couple 30 ft instrument cables (even though he is never more than 15 ft away from the board). He uses an Ovation guitar with on board preamp. Could we expect an improved sound from his instruments if we had him patch into a passive DI first?

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The improvement for the keyboards would be in the elimination of any hum or buzz you might encounter with those inputs.

 

Depending on the Ovation preamp your guitar has, you might find better level matching by using a direct box. Also, some versions are pretty high output impedance so it may indeed sound better too.

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