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Active DI Box Location

Baker69

Baker69

Mar 24, 2008
2,048
1,149
UK
#1
Hi guys,

I've just ordered an ART Dual X Active DI Box and was thinking of putting it on top of my amp, is there a potential problem in doing this as I have read somewhere that you can get a hum if you do this due to it being so close to the amp?

I would prefer to put it on my amp if possible due to all the wires coming out of it rather than it being on the floor. I haven't received it yet so I can't tell whether it will create a problem or not, but obviously where it ends up going will decide on what length connecting cables to get for it.

Thanks.
 
#2
Well I used the ART DI Box last night for the first time, set it all up on top of my amp and everything worked ok until the sound check and my bass channel was putting a radio station through the PA!

We didn't have much time before the show started so we quickly replaced my (Digital) wireless for a standard cable and all was fine. I don't know why the wireless unit was causing the interference, I could sort of understand if it was an Analogue wireless system but mine is digital and works on 2.4ghz? I have never experienced any problems before with the wireless in the 3 years I've been using it.

Had we more time I would have tried a different channel to see if that resolved the issue, but we have another show this Saturday and won't have the opportunity to try and identify the problem before then. Has anyone experienced a similar problem? Our sound guy suggested it could be a lead acting as an antenna and picking up the radio signal. Could it be something as simple as a lead? I will be using the same leads at the next gig, so hopefully it was just a local issue, but will try setting the wireless to a different channel beforehand anyway.

This also leads me on to my original posting, i.e. was the problem caused by putting the Active DI Box on top of the amp?

Any suggestions or ideas would be welcome. :hmm:
 
#3
At the gig last night I set the DI Box on the floor, used the same Wireless channel as before and didn't experience any problems whatsoever.

Perhaps there was some interaction between the wireless unit and the amp circuitry when The DI Box was on top of the amp? Don't know really, it may have just been a one-off situation.
 
#4
Baker69 said:
At the gig last night I set the DI Box on the floor, used the same Wireless channel as before and didn't experience any problems whatsoever.

Perhaps there was some interaction between the wireless unit and the amp circuitry when The DI Box was on top of the amp? Don't know really, it may have just been a one-off situation.
Click to expand...

I would suspect the cable between your wireless receiver and the DI on the first night. On the second night you either used a different cable or in moving it around you made an iffy solder joint or something more solid. I doubt the position of the DI was what made the diff.
 
#5
don't think that just because its "digital" that it is not subject to operational laws as UHF in respect to frequncies...if someone told you different when you purchased this then they did you a severe disservice.

in fact i have come across this many times and in many places. there is actually sooo much more things running on the 2.4 band that in certain places its almost full...think about it, you have wireless routers, Bluetooth, just think about every mobile phone...

in theory, for example for all you know is that someone could of been listening to the radio on their phone and their phone happened to be transmitting it somewhere on a the same exact part of the 2.4 pie...

which wireless unit have you got???

i also agree that i doubt that it is the DI box...but stranger things have happened...and to be honest...i highly doubt that it is the cable...this is pretty rare that this would present a problem, also it certainly isn't unheard of. but i doubt that its the cable...
 
#6
The wireless unit is a Line 6 G50, it has performed faultlessly for the 2 or 3.years that I've been using it, and this happened the first time I use it thru a DI box. I suspect it picked up something through one of the leads, if we had time I would have tried swapping channels but we were late setting up and people were coming into the room so didn't have time to try that.

As I said it was fine at the next gig using the same cables and same channel, the only difference being that the DI box was on the floor and not on top of the amp.

It could have picked some stray radio signal somehow but i understand it uses an encrypted signal. I've heard of a couple of reports of people having problems in the house with their WI FI but apart from that they're extremely good systems and should be unaffected by any outside sources.
 
#7
Baker69 said:
Well I used the ART DI Box last night for the first time, set it all up on top of my amp and everything worked ok until the sound check and my bass channel was putting a radio station through the PA!

Any suggestions or ideas would be welcome. :hmm:
Click to expand...

At the gig last night I set the DI Box on the floor, used the same Wireless channel as before and didn't experience any problems whatsoever.
Click to expand...

Send that DI back, and get a Countryman 85 or Radial J48 DI - you can set them on top of you amp or wherever you want.
 
#8
Have heard good reviews on the Radial DI boxes, unfortunately I do not have that sort of money to spend on a DI box. The ART Active X box that I bought also has very good reviews and at a quarter of the price.

I do not believe the problem was with the DI Box.
 
#10
The only DI I ever ran across that picked up noise from being placed on top of an amp was that Behringer copy of the BSS DI. It sounded okay, but it would pick up noise pretty easily.

I"m of the school that believes somehow the cable between wireless receiver and the amp or DI is the culprit.

I just spent a while with my Radial J48 DI amplifier placed on top of my EBS Fafner amplifier and I can't get any noise at all (Used my Fender American Standard Precision and my MM Ray). I also tried it with my wireless rig in the, err, mix (a Lectrosonics R400a receiver, Lectrosonics SMQV transmitter). No noise at all. I try to be meticulous with my cables.
 
#11
Geri O said:
I"m of the school that believes somehow the cable between wireless receiver and the amp or DI is the culprit.

I just spent a while with my Radial J48 DI amplifier placed on top of my EBS Fafner amplifier and I can't get any noise at all (Used my Fender American Standard Precision and my MM Ray). I also tried it with my wireless rig in the, err, mix (a Lectrosonics R400a receiver, Lectrosonics SMQV transmitter). No noise at all. I try to be meticulous with my cables.
Click to expand...

I agree, I think it was a cable as well.

The experiment you did at home wouldn't work, it was fine at the gig until the sound guy put it through front of house, can't replicate that situation at home.
 

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