Rupert Neve Class A Fet DI introduced at NAMM

[maisbass]

I posted this in the events forum as well…

This looks really sweet. It can take instrument as well as speaker (up to 1000w power amp). It's powered by phantom power… And the price point is fantastic ($265.00).

And yes I already ordered one.

Check out the details here:

Invalid Link Removed


Sounds really sweet!!!

 

[10cc]

I'd like to A B it with. Radial JDI

 

[sadowskyguy]

I'm interested....

 

[maisbass]

I'm hoping this will be on par with the Avalon U5 or the Reddi. I ordered one earlier today so hopefully I will get it soon!

I'm especially intrigued to try using it with the speaker input.

 

[BassHappy]

I posted this in the events forum as well…

This looks really sweet. It can take instrument as well as speaker (up to 1000w power amp). It's powered by phantom power… And the price point is fantastic ($265.00).

And yes I already ordered one.

Check out the details here:

Invalid Link Removed

Sounds really sweet!!!

Hey Maisbass

Thanks so much for posting this. Didn't know Rupert had something this cool up his sleeve. I have been reading a lot thanks to JimmyM and all the others talking about the Reddi, but I haven't had a chance to hear or fool with one. I have always been a Neve Freak though and this sounds amazing to me, and stopped me dead in my tracks - especially for the price.

I know the Reddi apparently has some magical tube thing going on that that everyone seems to swear by, but I would love to hear this A-B'd with the Reddi to at least get a sense....

I will keep an open mind, but man, I am much more excited about this I have to say....

Rupert man, he has never let me down on any level and I am REALLY excited to hear this box....

 

[Basshappi]

I'm interested as well. Neve is a genius so this this is probably awesome.

 

[JimmyM]

Man, this seems to be the year of the boutique DI. Neve's got this one, Roger Baer has a new tube DI in development, A-Designs has 2 new solid state preamp/DI's, a new dual mono REDDI in a rackmount, and a new high-gain REDDI that will work as a preamp, and who knows what else is coming out? Add in all the other stuff that's already out there and the high-end DI competition is about to get insane.

Anyway, yeah, I'm all about the REDDI, but I think it's cool that bass players are taking their FOH signal more seriously to where so many DI makers want to tap into that market. I've never understood buying a great bass and amp only to throttle it all with a $100 DI. That's always been the worst part of playing bass for me...being forced to use crap DI's instead of micing my cab.

 

[maisbass]

Yeah it's definitely exciting for us and I'm glad we are finally being recognized for our FOH tone concerns.

I never tried a Reddi, but I use a Monique pre which has a cinemag transformer and tube for the DI. The DI does sound fantastic. I'm just curious to see if the Neve will sound better.

Actually I used to use the Avalon as a pre and always loved the way it sounded, but never liked the weight and size.

I'm hoping that the neve will provide that extra oomph to my tone using it between my power amp and speakers. I'm also curious if it will enhance my stage tone even more, even though I am truly happy with my tone these days using Monique.

I guess we are always wondering will it sound even better if I ??????? LOL! The G.A.S. never ends!!!

 

[BassHappy]

Yeah it's definitely exciting for us and I'm glad we are finally being recognized for our FOH tone concerns.

I never tried a Reddi, but I use a Monique pre which has a cinemag transformer and tube for the DI. The DI does sound fantastic. I'm just curious to see if the Neve will sound better.

Actually I used to use the Avalon as a pre and always loved the way it sounded, but never liked the weight and size.

I'm hoping that the neve will provide that extra oomph to my tone using it between my power amp and speakers. I'm also curious if it will enhance my stage tone even more, even though I am truly happy with my tone these days using Monique.

I guess we are always wondering will it sound even better if I ??????? LOL! The G.A.S. never ends!!!

Hey Maisbass

As Jimmy and I had discussed previously, I have always used the DI tap off of my Eden Metro for "live", with what I consider to be excellent results. There are a number of "live" CD's and commercially available bootlegs I recorded that way. In fact, when we did the XM live broadcast, we tried out the Avalon and our engineer - who has many big name credits - preferred the direct tap of the Eden and decided against using the Avalon.

When I met Dave at Aguilar in Brooklyn a number of years ago he told me his basic design philosophy was to make a box that was basically a Neve console circuit that he maximized for Bass Guitar, hence the DB680. He gave me one at his cost that day and I still use that box as my studio piece, along with a Summit Audio tube limiter. A couple of folks on TB have kind of challenged this as nothing but marketing hype - but since Dave told me himself - that is good enough for me. My friend Neil Dorfsman carried a small studio rack around when he lived in New York anytime he was working. He only carried a few boxes, but one of the pieces was a DB680. He used it to record both McCartney and Sting and literally dozens of bass players. That is pretty good company and again, good enough for me. Neil moved to San Diego a couple of years ago, so I am not sure what he is up to in that regard currently.

Ken Scott was a Trident freak and wouldn't record on anything else, so all of our early work was Trident - but we tracked our latest record "The Muse Awakens" on a killer old Neve console and I had a chance to AB the console module vs. the Aguilar - and the difference was incredibly subtle. Most of the difference is the fact that the Aguilar when set flat, still has a couple of pleasing but subtle bumps EQ wise. Scope it and you will see. I posted here long ago if anyone knew how to dial the Aguilar db680 to flat, but no one knew. I run incredibly close to flat so Neve EQ isn't an issue for me - I wouldn't use but a tiny pinch here and there and the Aguilar does just fine. I would never take the DB680 on the road, but this new Neve box sounds like a fantastic solution for me.

YES, the G.A.S. never ends!

 

[Mark Reccord]

I'm sure that this is a very good DI as is everything RN puts his hands to, but it's still subject to the limitations of phantom power and I'd be very (and happily) surprised if it didn't give up something sonically compared to the U5 or REDDI.

The ones to compare it to are the J48, Countryman Type 85, BSS AR-130 and the like.

 

[maisbass]

Hey Maisbass

As Jimmy and I had discussed previously, I have always used the DI tap off of my Eden Metro for "live", with what I consider to be excellent results. There are a number of "live" CD's and commercially available bootlegs I recorded that way. In fact, when we did the XM live broadcast, we tried out the Avalon and our engineer - who has many big name credits - preferred the direct tap of the Eden and decided against using the Avalon.

When I met Dave at Aguilar in Brooklyn a number of years ago he told me his basic design philosophy was to make a box that was basically a Neve console circuit that he maximized for Bass Guitar, hence the DB680. He gave me one at his cost that day and I still use that box as my studio piece, along with a Summit Audio tube limiter. A couple of folks on TB have kind of challenged this as nothing but marketing hype - but since Dave told me himself - that is good enough for me. My friend Neil Dorfsman carried a small studio rack around when he lived in New York anytime he was working. He only carried a few boxes, but one of the pieces was a DB680. He used it to record both McCartney and Sting and literally dozens of bass players. That is pretty good company and again, good enough for me. Neil moved to San Diego a couple of years ago, so I am not sure what he is up to in that regard currently.

Ken Scott was a Trident freak and wouldn't record on anything else, so all of our early work was Trident - but we tracked our latest record "The Muse Awakens" on a killer old Neve console and I had a chance to AB the console module vs. the Aguilar - and the difference was incredibly subtle. Most of the difference is the fact that the Aguilar when set flat, still has a couple of pleasing but subtle bumps EQ wise. Scope it and you will see. I posted here long ago if anyone knew how to dial the Aguilar db680 to flat, but no one knew. I run incredibly close to flat so Neve EQ isn't an issue for me - I wouldn't use but a tiny pinch here and there and the Aguilar does just fine. I would never take the DB680 on the road, but this new Neve box sounds like a fantastic solution for me.

YES, the G.A.S. never ends!

Wow that is pretty impressive if there was only a subtle difference! I never played through the Aggie. Thanks for the info!

 

[maisbass]

I'm sure that this is a very good DI as is everything RN puts his hands to, but it's still subject to the limitations of phantom power and I'd be very (and happily) surprised if it didn't give up something sonically compared to the U5 or REDDI.

The ones to compare it to are the J48, Countryman Type 85, BSS AR-130 and the like.

Yes I would agree that I would be happily surprised too although I have not tried the reddi yet.

But if it does compare how great will be to be able to carry a much smaller unit in your gig bag and not have to worry about power either? Pretty sweet.

 

[BassHappy]

I'm sure that this is a very good DI as is everything RN puts his hands to, but it's still subject to the limitations of phantom power and I'd be very (and happily) surprised if it didn't give up something sonically compared to the U5 or REDDI.

The ones to compare it to are the J48, Countryman Type 85, BSS AR-130 and the like.

Hey Mark

If it's all the same to you, I would prefer to compare it directly to the Reddi. It may not be apples and oranges at all as you seem to suggest. It's all about ears, not circuitry or tubes.

I have an inherent trust in everything Rupert - just as you seem to have a very refined opinion on your Reddi or U5.

Ultimately, I am whispering into the wind, as I have not tried any of the three as of yet - I have been happy with the results I get from the Eden tap.

But, I will get to it....

 

[BurningSkies]

Yeah it's definitely exciting for us and I'm glad we are finally being recognized for our FOH tone concerns.

I never tried a Reddi, but I use a Monique pre which has a cinemag transformer and tube for the DI. The DI does sound fantastic. I'm just curious to see if the Neve will sound better.

Actually I used to use the Avalon as a pre and always loved the way it sounded, but never liked the weight and size.

I'm hoping that the neve will provide that extra oomph to my tone using it between my power amp and speakers. I'm also curious if it will enhance my stage tone even more, even though I am truly happy with my tone these days using Monique.

I guess we are always wondering will it sound even better if I ??????? LOL! The G.A.S. never ends!!!

This is the only reason I'm not interested...I love the Monique DI and while Neve always makes beautiful things, I don't know that I see it being worth using instead of the one that's in my preamp.

 

[maisbass]

This is the only reason I'm not interested...I love the Monique DI and while Neve always makes beautiful things, I don't know that I see it being worth using instead of the one that's in my preamp.

I Totally understand what you're saying but there is a reason for my curiosity. I am waiting for my M700 Power amp to arrive. There have been many comments in the M 700 thread how it has improved their tone.

So using this logic I am very curious to see if there will be any improvement taking a D I signal from the M700 via the Rupert Neve. It may wind up being a wash or perhaps not even sounding as good as the Monique DI, but that is the whole fun of trying new things.

Also I don't always use my Monique on every gig. Sometimes I leave straight from work and don't want to risk leaving Monique in the car, so I bring another amp instead. I figured the neve would be good for this application at the very least.

 

[Lo-E]

I have been happy with the results I get from the Eden tap.

It's said that the enemy of "good" is "better". Bassists spent decades being quite happy with the results from the Countryman Type 85. Why? Because it's good. Really good, in fact.

When folks started paying closer attention to DIs and tayloring them to their tastes, a whole new world opened up and people are now treating DIs the same way they treat amps and preamps and cabinets. The first time I recorded with a J-48 I was knocked out by how great it sounded. A few years ago I played a recording session through a TubeWorks 4001, which I was not familiar with at the time. It sounded fantastic (and the engineer was not all that good, quite honestly, so I have to assume the TubeWorks sounded good). The 4001 was not an especially expensive unit, but it sounded great. I was similarly impressed with the U5 (which certainly IS an expensive unit) the first time I recorded with one.

So, does this mean that my old Countryman 85s or your Eden tap aren't good any more? Absolutely not. They sounded good then and they sound good now. There are just more choices now - more flavors to pick from. Some are, in fact, "better" and others are just different. I still use my 85s all the time and I'm still quite happy with the results. That said, if somebody hands me a different (quality) unit and says "Here. Plug into this.", who am I to argue? These days, there's a good chance it's going to sound pretty good.

I'm glad to see Rupert jump into the DI scene, as I agree that just about everything he touches sounds good and he tends to bring a lot of innovation to his products. I'm also glad to be living and playing during a gear renaissance when so many truly great products are available to us from so many makers in so many price points. It's a good time to be playing bass!

 

[Mark Reccord]

Hey Mark

If it's all the same to you, I would prefer to compare it directly to the Reddi. It may not be apples and oranges at all as you seem to suggest. It's all about ears, not circuitry or tubes.

I have an inherent trust in everything Rupert - just as you seem to have a very refined opinion on your Reddi or U5.

Ultimately, I am whispering into the wind, as I have not tried any of the three as of yet - I have been happy with the results I get from the Eden tap.

But, I will get to it....

I think maybe you've misconstrued my comments a little. By all means it should be compared directly to the other boutique mains powered DIs, though l would suggest that the ones I mentioned are the Neve DI's most direct competition. Inherent trust in RN's designs is as it should be. The man is a genius. My intent was not to cast any doubts on that at all. However, while ultimately it is all about the ears, as an engineer with background in audio design I do have some experience correlating circuits with audio performance. Phantom power has some serious limitations as to what sort of audio circuit can be hung off it and as such any phantom powered box is likely to give up something vs. a well designed mains powered one because there are a lot more design options. And perhaps RN has found a way around all of that and come up with something special. I certainly can't wait to get my hands on one of these.

 

[JimmyM]

Personally, I've only been OK with the Countryman. Happier to see it show up than a Whirlwind Imp 2, but that's about it.

 

[Lo-E]

Personally, I've only been OK with the Countryman. Happier to see it show up than a Whirlwind Imp 2, but that's about it.

Personally, I'm happier to see it than quite a lot of lesser boxes (Whirlwind, Berhinger, Ross, etc... and I see these in use constantly at small clubs, much to my dismay). For it's time, the Type 85 was revolutionary and all the top pros were insisting upon them. You're used to using a Reddi so, naturally, I don't expect you'd be thrilled by a Countryman now, but you've been playing a long time, Jimmy. Think back to before you had ever heard a Reddi, U5 or any of that such. Think beck to when the only step up from a Countryman was either plugging directly into a high-quality channel strip or using an Alembic or Demeter preamp (not really a fair comparison anyway, because a DI is not necessarily a preamp). How did you feel about the Countryman then?

Note that I'm not, in any way, trying to debunk your statement - you hold a whole lot more credibility on this forum than a lot of people - I'm just trying to put another perspective out there and, maybe, liven up the discussion.

 

[JimmyM]

Personally, I'm happier to see it than quite a lot of lesser boxes (Whirlwind, Berhinger, Ross, etc... and I see these in use constantly at small clubs, much to my dismay). For it's time, the Type 85 was revolutionary and all the top pros were insisting upon them. You're used to using a Reddi so, naturally, I don't expect you'd be thrilled by a Countryman now, but you've been playing a long time, Jimmy. Think back to before you had ever heard a Reddi, U5 or any of that such. Think beck to when the only step up from a Countryman was either plugging directly into a high-quality channel strip or using an Alembic or Demeter preamp (not really a fair comparison anyway, because a DI is not necessarily a preamp). How did you feel about the Countryman then?

I never used a DI until the 90's if I could help it. Up until then, I always mic'ed my amp or ran stage volume and only used a DI when working with an unfamiliar soundman who insisted on it. That said, I can't poop on the Countryman. I own one. Sounds great through a tube amp's speaker output.