Passive direct box recommendation

Hey guys,

I am looking for a passive direct box for the end of my pedalboard chain. (Immediately preceded by a Zoom MS-60B). I'm looking for warmth and fullness. I am leaning towards the Radial JDI, but I thought I would ask if you guys had any other recommendations. You tend to often hear of, have experience with, and recommend things I have never heard of before, which is what I LOVE about this place. I did find this direct box shootout, which I found incredibly helpful. If I were to go active, and had the money, I would go RNDI all the way. If I had the rack and the funds, it would be the Avalon.

https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/direct-box-comparison-bass-guitar/

I'm primarily thinking passive because I most often play in churches with inexperienced sound personnel and under-funded, sub-par sound systems, and have had issues with phantom power not working when I needed it in the past. And from what I've found, most of the good higher-end active direct boxes that require phantom power don't have a backup power option, except the Countryman which can be run on 9v battery if needed. But I haven't seen one - for example - that I could power from my 9v daisy chain or MXR Iso-Brick if needed in an emergency. Passive just seems like a safer way to go.

I don't want something big and fancy like a tube DI, because I want something pedalboard friendly.

Thanks

P.S. What about a Whirlwind IMP2? I never would have considered something so "cost-effective," but the reviews are positive, and I'm hard pressed to find significant differences in sound between it and the Radial. And $53 is pretty hard to argue with.

 

Sure. Thanks for the tip. I should say I’d never use it in studio. Having spent decades on the road and in studios, these days at best I would say I play at a hobby level, mostly in churches. So it doesn’t have to be the BEST or most expensive. But that being said, I am a tone snob. And I like to sound good. If I don’t feel like I sound good, it’s not fun to play. All of them have excellent reviews. I just wonder if the JDI really sounds four times better than the IMP2 to justify the four times higher price (while acknowledging that certain aspects of “better” are subjective).

 

Somebody pass the Bean-O, cuz I've got GAS! Lol. That is a gorgeous piece of equipment. At this point, I decided to just keep my Tech21 VTBass DI and use that as a passive direct box after the Zoom (as in, I don't engage the preamp. Just use it to connect stuff. The controls are all bypassed). It seems - at least practicing alone in my bedroom with a Rolls headphone amp - to be working really well. I like the fact that it has some very practical adjustments I can make to it, even when the thing is bypassed. Like it has the -20dB on the XLR out so it's not as hot, which helps my headphone amp not to fart out. Or a +10 to the 1/4" out. But if I need it, I can still engage it for some additional control. Even if I bypass the amp sim altogether with the blend knob all of the way to the left, when I engage it it gives me additional control over output volume and a 3-band EQ without having to scroll through the menus of the Zoom MS60B. It makes it really easy to make some changes on the fly, if need be. But I have yet to try any of this in a live scenario, and won't get a chance to probably for another month or so.

That being said, I'm still holding out for a good direct box. I would be curious to hear if there is a discernible difference in tone using the Tech21 vs using an actual dedicated direct box. I imagine there probably is SOME difference, even if it's negligible. If I were to buy a direct box, though, I'd probably stick with a passive one, only because phantom power at churches is so hit or miss . . . both in availability and quality/depependability.

 

(I should clarify that I did not decide to keep and use the tech 21 just because I think it to be a great decision. I decided to use it for now because I don’t have any money, LOL. And I am trying to save for a new bass currently. But once I do have the funds, I will revisit the subject.)

 

I figured as much. Good to know, thanks. As for using the VT as a boost, you don’t have to have it fully blended to do that. You CAN, of course, but you don’t have to. With the blend fully off (straight dry signal) when you kick it on, the volume knob and eq are active. In my experience, the eq knobs at noon are flat (there is no noticeable difference between turning the pedal on and off). The volume knob around 230 or 3:00 seems to be unity gain for me. If I wanted a boost, I could turn the volume up more and it would give me a boost when engaged, but still leave my core tone alone. Which, now that you mention it, is a really good idea. I'm going to have to try that.

 

Shortly before I started this thread, I listened to a direct box shootout in which the whirlwind Imp2 sounded remarkably similar to the JDI. Seems hard to imagine, considering the price difference. I’m sure there is more to it than that. But at the end of the day, all we really care about is does it work, and do we sound good? Among all of the boxes they tested, the really low cost ones sounded really low cost, and some of the higher end ones (especially the Avalon U5) sounded demonstrably better. But in that “middle ground” of cost, I was hard pressed to discern a significant difference that would justify another $100 or $200.

 

I gotta say, you are one of the many people on here whose opinion I hold very highly. I have seen you on countless threads. You know your stuff. So let me ask you, what is the difference between the Director and Imp2 to you? I googled that very question but got nothing. A better transformer? Better build quality?

 

I'm sure nothing compares to the REDDI. Or maybe the Avalon or other super duper tube or really high end direct boxes. But I don't have a super duper bank account, lol.