Best DI Box $200 and under?

[Nickweissmusic]

How a bout the Hartke Bass Attack pedal... a guy came and auditioned for my main band last year and used one for the audition and he sounded quite excellent... it's cheap too.

Looks to me like James Genus on SNL uses a Hartke combo at least as his stage monitor, and I've never heard a better live TV bass tone, so certainly couldn't hurt to try.

 

[bafonso]

This thread is really making me curious about the RNDI. Not good... I don't see many on classifieds so that's the positive part

 

[Bassworship1]

Sweetwater has them on 36 months same as cash right now for the RNDI and other DI's. I'm thinking about getting the RNDI after alot of research on them .

 

[bafonso]

Sweetwater has them on 36 months same as cash right now for the RNDI and other DI's. I'm thinking about getting the RNDI after alot of research on them .

I can't justify buying a new di for color given that I already have a j48, pedalpunk and the di out from my markbass amp. Would only jump on a second hand. I suspect I'd sell the j48 even though it can be very handy for non guitar sources.

 

[Nickweissmusic]

RNDIs sure look nice, I've always been wary of phantom DIs though. I play a wide range of venues and never wanted to rely on phantom from the house, you never know what quality board, or sound guy cooperation level, you'll come across. You can of course use a phantom power unit, but that's a hassle I'd rather not worry about myself, and another piece in the signal chain. I'm also iffy on a box with zero tone shaping, I find features like high pass and phase reverse to be useful, but I play acoustic guitar and ukulele as well. if you're strictly an electric bassist those features aren't as critical.

 

[amper]

If I wasn't already perfectly satisfied with my Countryman Type 85, I wouldn't have any problem with using a Radial. However, I don't really understand this idea that anyone should buy a passive Radial JDI first, in preference to a Countryman Type 85. I've been doing pro audio, both live sound and recording, for 30 years. I have never once had a Countryman Type 85 fail on me. The bloody things are built like tanks, and the circuit is potted in epoxy, too. It is called the Type 85, incidentally, because it was designed in 1985, so it has been on the market as long as I have been doing sound. I'm sure that at some point in history, someone must have experienced a failure, but really, that would be so rare as to be nigh unbelievable, I think.

 

[rodv66]

Just got my two notes le bass. The white noise coming out of it is horrible. Really bad on the b channel and when on cold fusion. This thing is going back tomorrow. Really thought this was a high quality product.

 

[Nickweissmusic]

If I wasn't already perfectly satisfied with my Countryman Type 85, I wouldn't have any problem with using a Radial. However, I don't really understand this idea that anyone should buy a passive Radial JDI first, in preference to a Countryman Type 85. I've been doing pro audio, both live sound and recording, for 30 years. I have never once had a Countryman Type 85 fail on me. The bloody things are built like tanks, and the circuit is potted in epoxy, too. It is called the Type 85, incidentally, because it was designed in 1985, so it has been on the market as long as I have been doing sound. I'm sure that at some point in history, someone must have experienced a failure, but really, that would be so rare as to be nigh unbelievable, I think.

A great DI is a great DI, and countryman doesn't mess around. The OP has an active Warrior and wants to spend $200 or less, so a passive Radial Does the trick. If it were a passive bass I'd definitely recommend spending more on sometime active, but that's not necessary, JDI's are excellent.

 

[peterpalmieri]

I would only add that the marketing gods seemed to imagine up this golden rule that you need an active DI for a passive bass and a passive DI for an active bass.

While many basses that are active have an active passive switch with unity gain settings. A JDI works well with a P bass and there really is no active DI that doesn't work well with an active bass because both are active.

So if you are reading this thread as a way of developing a baseline of knowledge don't take this imaginary golden rule for gospel

 

[mjmeche]

Here is another that I have that works really well. DBX db10
dbx db10 Built like a tank, shielded very well

 

[SteveC]

A great DI is a great DI, and countryman doesn't mess around. The OP has an active Warrior and wants to spend $200 or less, so a passive Radial Does the trick. If it were a passive bass I'd definitely recommend spending more on sometime active, but that's not necessary, JDI's are excellent.

I used a JDI with a passive Geddy Lee jazz and it was fine.

 

[bafonso]

I used a JDI with a passive Geddy Lee jazz and it was fine.

It can be a problem if the mixer you're going into has crappy mic preamps and struggles with the higher gain needed, that's all.

 

[Nickweissmusic]

It can be a problem if the mixer you're going into has crappy mic preamps and struggles with the higher gain needed, that's all.

What he said . There are few situations where a JDI isn't a good fit, like if you have a low output bass, into a bad board, but in a pinch it will work for anything. For a hot active bass, it's ideal. And I should add, I almost never use my JDI at all any more, I use my Firefly on anything with a 1/4 plug, active or passive.

 

[SteveC]

I'm just saying that a passive bass and passive DI isn't necessarily a no-no.

 

[Nickweissmusic]

Well I guess I'm not a good Radial fanboy, because I didn't even know there was a JDV mk5. Interesting... I definitely like the price tag vs. the Neve 5017, but not sure I like that it doesn't have separate outputs for the 2 inputs, only blended outputs or 1 channel on at a time. I'm going to have to look deeper, but being able to send 2 separate phase aligned signals to the board (like for acoustic guitar mic/piezo) from the Neve seems to make it a winner. Darn, thought I just saved $500.

 

[CapM]

Well I guess I'm not a good Radial fanboy, because I didn't even know there was a JDV mk5. Interesting... I definitely like the price tag vs. the Neve 5017, but not sure I like that it doesn't have separate outputs for the 2 inputs, only blended outputs or 1 channel on at a time. I'm going to have to look deeper, but being able to send 2 separate phase aligned signals to the board (like for acoustic guitar mic/piezo) from the Neve seems to make it a winner. Darn, thought I just saved $500.

The Neve demos online sound great for guitars, especially acoustic. Could it also serve as a good bass DI?

 

[lowfreqgeek]

If it hasn't already been shared, this may be useful.

 

[Nickweissmusic]

The Neve demos online sound great for guitars, especially acoustic. Could it also serve as a good bass DI?

I'm sure it kicks ass for whatever you put into it yes, a review I read of it said it was very warm and pleasant on bass, never tried one myself. It's not a high priority but I love the fact it has a Comp and you can phase align a guitar and amp outside the DAW. It's not perfect though, since when you do that, you have to blend the signals into one output. Not sure how useful it would be for me in the long run, but I don't have a great mic pre, so it's on the "someday" list.

 

[Nickweissmusic]

If it hasn't already been shared, this may be useful.

Yep, they all sound really good. The JDI was the only passive tested, put out a little less amplitude and then the others but held its own even on the passive P Bass. Cool to hear, thanks for posting. There was a shootout a couple years back that Tony Levin did for Bass Player or some other magazine, with I'd bet 10 boxes, I'll post it if I can find it. At a certain level, they're all going to get the job done, with some very subtle differences. And we all know, what sounds incredible on its own, doesn't necessarily come through that way in the mix. The RNDI sounds like the second coming, but I wouldn't doubt the thinner JDI would be as easy or easier to work with in a mix. Who knows. Now if he threw in a $20 DI, that would be interesting

 

[lowfreqgeek]

Yep, they all sound really good. The JDI was the only passive tested, put out a little less amplitude and then the others but held its own even on the passive P Bass. Cool to hear, thanks for posting. There was a shootout a couple years back that Tony Levin did for Bass Player or some other magazine, with I'd bet 10 boxes, I'll post it if I can find it. At a certain level, they're all going to get the job done, with some very subtle differences. And we all know, what sounds incredible on its own, doesn't necessarily come through that way in the mix. The RNDI sounds like the second coming, but I wouldn't doubt the thinner JDI would be as easy or easier to work with in a mix. Who knows. Now if he threw in a $20 DI, that would be interesting

I remember that Tony Levin DI demo. The cool thing about that was that he read down his parts on several instruments without any monitoring, so there was no influence of each particular DI in the way he played the parts. His Neve still came out on top, but some of the others fared well.

As for Brady's demo, he did a good job of playing the same prepared part as closely as he could for each DI and instrument. The demo was designed to demonstrate comparable DIs, and there's not a bad DI in the bunch.

Personally, I've owned and/or used (mostly owned) a JDI, J48, JDV, Countryman Type 85, Aguilar DB900, Groove Tubes Ditto, Manley Tube DI, Avalon U5, Demeter VTDI, various Sansamps, Whirlwind IMP2, and several others I can't think of. I still own the J48, DB900, and Manley. For the OP's purpose, the JDI/J48/Countryman (and RNDI) all get the job done within 98% of each other.