HI-Z??? Why not HI-C?

[keka]

Anyway i started too record my bass directly into my sound card.. I mentioned too my cousin that i ran it threw my blue tube 2 pre amp(the super old one).He got on my case because it doesnt have a HI-z input.He went too Fullsail for Audio engineeing and told me something he might as well said in spanish(i dont know spanish) Other than a little hiss i think it sounds ok..Do i realy need a DI box with HI-Z??If it sounds good thats all that matters right? Can anyone explain HI-Z and the importance of it too someone who doesnt speak spanish??

[Kiwiburger]

Hi or Lo impedance (Z) is about current loading on a circuit. The best instrument DI boxes and preamps have a Hi-Z input, so they don't load your pickups by forcing them to deliver too much current. Amps are around 500k, good preamps around 1M. The really excellent DI boxes (Avalon U5 etc) are as high as 3M.

 

Even without a Hi-Z input, cheap preamps usually err on the side of high rather than low. It's probably somewhere between 10k to 100k, so it will work. If you like the sound, that's the main thing. A higher impedance might get your a brighter sound, which may not be what you want to hear. Theory is one thing, liking what you hear in another.

[nystrec]

the blue tube's 1/4 inputs are Hi-Z

[geek_usa]

The inputs in my juice box are Hi-C.

[Phil O'Keefe]

On inexpensive preamps that feature a 1/4" input jack, that jack is nearly always high impedance (or Hi-Z), and is often unbalanced. On pro level stuff, a mic input and the line input might both be on XLR ("mic cable style") connectors, although some pro gear also has 1/4" balanced TRS (Tip/ring/sleeve, like you see at the end of a headphone; and as opposed to TS = Tip/Sleeve, like you see on a guitar cable) DI and line input / output connectors too. BTW, impedance is measured / stated in Ohms (a unit of resistance)... so those numbers Kiwi provided you with would all relate to Ohms.

 

Generally, what your cousin was getting on your back about is what is known as an impedance mismatch, where, as Kiwi mentioned, the impedance of the various devices are not optimized. But again, if you used a 1/4" input, you were probably using a high impedance input on that preamp, so no harm done. And even IF you do mismatch something, if you like the sound, that's what matters most.

 

Just don't ever try plugging a speaker level output into a line or mic input... THAT will almost certainly damage something.