REDDI, I'm a bit confused

[10cc]

I heard the sonic farm about a year ago. One issue we saw was that is has a noise issue. The sound they get, is partly from the tube that they use. BUT that tube has serious noise issues. So it seems.. My Reddi doesn't have that issue.
After a quik tube replacement. this one still worked flawlessly.. Courtesy of Peter M.

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Ouch! This reminds me of a time when we had a local show in Athens GA (thank god it was a musicians town) and I offered to go by and pick up the keyboard players stuff for him and the last thing I didn't load was his pelican box on my tailgate it had all of his cables, expression pedals and a Radial Duplex in it. I forgot to shut the tail gate and it fell out somewhere during the short six block ride to the venue.

We threw a lost ad up on CL and within a day a fellow hit us up with the box and all of the belongings. He said he drove up on it and just scooped it up. It was quite a relief, with the pelican box included I was looking at a few hundred dollars of replacements.

 

[JimmyM]

Read the OP, my attitude is that of confusion as what makes people want to pay $700+ for a DI box? Im not gonna lie, some of my responses have been less than polite but the thing is they are responses to peoples unhelpful and condescending comments to my query. Im sorry if you guys don't like my attitude but then again, you don't have to participate in the thread

Let's be fair...there's been plenty of snark coming out of you. Which is fine by me...I'm a big boy. But some people feel their house sound is worth $750. If you don't, that's fine, but snark and insulting those of us who do isn't going to win the Most Beloved Talkbasser award.

 

[primusfan1989]

Let's be fair...there's been plenty of snark coming out of you. Which is fine by me...I'm a big boy. But some people feel their house sound is worth $750. If you don't, that's fine, but snark and insulting those of us who do isn't going to win the Most Beloved Talkbasser award.

Again, my snarkiness has been a reaction to the comments of others as well as I'm not claiming innocence, I can be abrasive. Its a good thing I'm not seeking the validation of talks members

 

[BurningSkies]

And here I thought the REDDI was a bargain unit.

SOLO/610 - Google Search

 

[pravus]

For all the people that think the STFU comments are snarky: let's play a game. How about you catalog your bass gear and justify what you spent to us. Every piece. Every cent. I want to know why you paid so much for the garbage you have collected. I think you overpaid for trash. But that's just my opinion. Does it add anything to the conversation?

I feel like if you wanted a real discussion about the merits of a piece of gear you'd be asking for a comparison of its capabilities rather than the price of the individual components. It doesn't actually matter what a REDDI is made of. It could be large metal box with two wires in it. The people that buy them (and there are a lot) have decided that a pre-fabbed box with 2-wires works for them. What's important is that when they plug into it they get what they want out of it and when they were asked to fork over some money for it, they agreed.

Now you come along and tell them their judgment was bad because there's this cheaper, better box that also has 2-wires. But you see no one cared about the wires to begin with. The question you need to answer is: does it sound as good? But you didn't really ask that. You want to know why people are so stupid and pay more money for 2-wires than they should. People should just not be so stupid. Gosh. If you can't see why that's offensive, you have a long, tough road ahead of you.

And for the record I don't own a REDDI. I did what any sane, motivated bass player would do: I evaluated the product for my needs and made a purchasing decision. I said "no". I have spent $0.00 on REDDI products. They look great, though. I hear a lot of good things from the people that do own them. Sounds like they know what they are doing.

 

[svtb15]

I had one for a while.. That is the unit that i brought to a session. Grammy winning engineer. did Kirk Franklin and Metallica, Pantera.
We had that and a REDDI.. . Reddi won hands down. He told me to sell off everything. He bought a REDDI the next week.. The SOLO 610 is great.. PRO audio lunchbox style preamp/DI
But the REDDI just sat in a track better...

And here I thought the REDDI was a bargain unit.

SOLO/610 - Google Search

 

[JackANSI]

Here is my take on the P15 vs the REDDI. Have no dog in this hunt.

As a result of this thread I decided I wanted a tube DI. First choice was the P15 because of the reviews but mainly D/t the price so I PMed the guy who makes them and he promptly and professionally replied. He has a run of 15 being released and the will be in a few weeks and all are spoken for. He did offer to put me on the list and explained some people drop out when the time comes to finalize the order.

Waiting for something with the possibility of not getting it would drive me crazy so I respectfully declined. I am quite certain the P15 is a fine unit but in my opinion it essentially doesn't exist. (Yet.) Price no longer matters if you cannot buy it to fill an immediate need IMO.

Strange... same can be said about something in your signature too... (fEarful) Yet, that somehow passes your test.

 

[BurningSkies]

I had one for a while.. That is the unit that i brought to a session. Grammy winning engineer. did Kirk Franklin and Metallica, Pantera.
We had that and a REDDI.. . Reddi won hands down. He told me to sell off everything. He bought a REDDI the next week.. The SOLO 610 is great.. PRO audio lunchbox style preamp/DI
But the REDDI just sat in a track better...

... It sort of proves a point too. It makes the REDDI look like a real bargain in tone and performance by comparison.

 

[peterpalmieri]

Multiple options for DI/preamps at different price points and with varying options is really great. As bass players we've never had so many great things available to us, it's something to celebrate. I really love my Reddi and fully understand other folks will prefer something different.

 

[GregC]

Post #4
"Yes...$300 in parts. Plus the cost of labour, plus the cost of the building they are made in, plus the cost of the property tax, plus the cost of maintenance of said building, plus the cost of utilities (water, electricity, heating) plus the cost of shipping the parts involved, plus the cost of employee benefits, plus the cost of..."

A condescending reply about manufacturing costs (have quite a bit of manufacturing experience under my belt albeit not electronics manufacturing so the costs of doing business is not lost on me.

So given your experience, how much should the REDDI cost?

A real answer finally appeared by post #110
"The REDDI is actually unique as it is the only tube DI currently on the market so far ( that I know of anyway) that uses a real single ended output transformer. The primary side of the transformer is used as the AC load on the tube and has to pass DC current. This necessitates a larger and inherently more expensive transformer than in the typical circuit used in these boxes which is a resistor loaded tube, capacitor coupled out to a small transformer to balance and drop the output impedance (like the SVT-DI or the Demeter for example). Off the shelf transformers of this type run $200+ and typically don't have the extended low end response of the one in the REDDI. Good low end performance requires a lot of primary inductance and you need a large core and lots of wire to get that in a transformer with the air gap between windings required to pass DC and that gets expensive. I suspect that even at volume discounts that transformer probably costs A-Designs 200+ per unit. Then factor in all of the other parts and I'd bet that $300 is on the low side for that product. I've been working on my own unique tube direct box/preamp design and the price of any kind of custom case or even an off the shelf one would put you in the horrors. I'm looking at $120 for a Hammond half rack box, barely big enough to fit the thing into and I will have to do my own machining. Even at 1000 volume, a custom case would cost over $100.

At any rate, whether the REDDI's performance suits you or not is highly subjective but I don't think it's fair to dismiss it as "just" a tube buffered DI box, just as it's not fair to dismiss the P15 as "just" a B15 clone. I say this as a potential future competitor for both.

Out of all of these upscale DIs, the Avalon is still by far the most common, followed by the REDDI in my totally anecdotal experience. Every studio I've been to in the past 10 years has a U5."

You stated in your OP that the parts were less than $300, with no IMO, etc. It sounds like you were wrong. I'm sure you were quick to acknowledge that.

 

[vlad335]

Strange... same can be said about something in your signature too... (fEarful) Yet, that somehow passes your test.

Strange? Naw, I don't wait in line for a fEARful. I build them. Just about every cab in the old line up. Once put together a 15-6 in one night.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

So given your experience, how much should the REDDI cost?
You stated in your OP that the parts were less than $300, with no IMO, etc.

Every now and then you can buy one used in classifieds for $500 or so.

 

[Lowendtech]

I saw one used up here in the GWN for $850 Cdn. It sold fast. They're $1100 new here.

 

[JackANSI]

Strange? Naw, I don't wait in line for a fEARful. I build them. Just about every cab in the old line up. Once put together a 15-6 in one night.

I would probably have to wait in line since I don't build cabs regularly enough to do them justice, thus easier to buy already made.

Given a schematic and a board pattern I could throw together a tube preamp and wouldn't have to wait in line

Point is, it's still not immediate. I know you know what I meant

 

[Jim C]

If the REDDI is the best at a $745 price point, what would be your second choice for something less expensive?

If this jerk off didn’t post the above we probably wouldn’t have had the following 128 posts.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume the REDDI is #1 and the P-15 is #2 in the entree world of direct boxes.

What is #3 and #4?

 

[JimmyM]

My brain hurts.

 

[Lowendtech]

If this jerk off didn’t post the above we probably wouldn’t have had the following 128 posts.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume the REDDI is #1 and the P-15 is #2 in the entree world of direct boxes.

What is #3 and #4?

Rupert Neve RNDI is no slouch. Needs phantom power though. Sounds good. Can take the sound of your vintage all tube amp and send it to the board.

 

[Jim C]

Having spent years using and loving Neve consoles, I thought I would really like Rupert’s DI.
The DI shoot out I posted earlier didn’t make it sound all that great although it is at a much lower price point.

 

[svtb15]

In that shootout a few posts up. I dint think the NEVE DI sounded all that great.. At least not the fatness of the way a 1073 sounds.

Rupert Neve RNDI is no slouch. Needs phantom power though. Sounds good. Can take the sound of your vintage all tube amp and send it to the board.

 

[Lowendtech]

Having spent years using and loving Neve consoles, I thought I would really like Rupert’s DI.
The DI shoot out I posted earlier didn’t make it sound all that great although it is at a much lower price point.

In that shootout a few posts up. I dint think the NEVE DI sounded all that great.. At least not the fatness of the way a 1073 sounds.

Valid opinions both. I picked one up to try and compared to my VT BassDI and my WTDI, it is better. But I think in the long run, I will have a P-15 and send the Neve back. My goal was to be able to DI from my YBA-1A but the Neve actually picks up the fan noise from the amp so it's probably not a keeper. Might be more the amps fan than the DI but it's moot at this point.