MXR M81, worth the money? Anything better?

[Steve Fox]

So correct me if I'm wrong. I was wanting to use this with phantom power (not plugged in) and use it as my DI. It should work for this purpose correct?

Yes. As long as the mixer can provide it the M81 will work just fine under phantom power

 

[Steve Fox]

And, if anyone feels like there IS a change in sound with the MXR M81 turned off, there is an internal switch to turn off the buffered output and make it a true bypass when not in use. The buffer, however, is totally transparent so I leave it on, preferring to have a buffered low-impedance output.

Not really. For a while I used mine as a secondary eq and had the internal dip switches set for true bypass. I didn’t notice any changes in the tone so I set it back to normal operation and left it there.

My only “grain of salt” is that I did run a tuner with a buffered output before the MXR.

 

[bordinco90]

View attachment 7307726Yes. As long as the mixer can provide it the M81 will work just fine under phantom power

Thanks for the reply. I just ordered one. I wanted this to use as kind of a sansamp, but with just a clean EQ. I owned a sansamp in the past and am not a big fan of overdrive or distortion. I just wanted a DI with some EQ settings that can be powered with phantom power like the sansamp.

 

[Steve Fox]

Thanks for the reply. I just ordered one. I wanted this to use as kind of a sansamp, but with just a clean EQ. I owned a sansamp in the past and am not a big fan of overdrive or distortion. I just wanted a DI with some EQ settings that can be powered with phantom power like the sansamp.

Glad to help! It’s a fantastic pedal that is difficult to get bad sounds out of. Enjoy!

 

[Frank Miller]

So correct me if I'm wrong. I was wanting to use this with phantom power (not plugged in) and use it as my DI. It should work for this purpose correct?

Sorry for the delay. I’ve been offline for a while.

Yes, the MXR M81 CAN be operated with phantom power and can be used as a DI - with the optional benefit of having tone controls if you need to use them. It’s a terrific unit and certainly a “best bang for the buck”. I consider it to be a Swiss Army Knife. Keep one handy and you’ll find all sorts of uses for it.