Anyone have experience with this DI? I'm looking for something to beef-up/improve my stereo synths when recording.
Any thoughts on this piece of gear?
Any thoughts on this piece of gear?
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Rupert Neve Designs RNDI-S
- Thread starter WG Plum
- Start date
There are some reports of them being a quality DI. Being a DI without a tone shaping section, I wouldn’t expect magic but if hit hard enough to saturate the transformer stage you might get a little color out of it. Whether or not you like that particular color will be a personal preference.
If you were to compare to DI's and you aren't looking for distortion or EQ differences:
In an uncontrolled test, the DI that is louder will sound better.
It will sound "beef-up/improve" by just being louder.
Keep that in mind while you try these things out. If one sounds better, try turning the other one up a little more and see if they don't just end up sounding the same.
No experience with the stereo-version, but the regular RNDI is pretty amazing. I never knew a DI could sound musical, until I tried the Neve. It's been my only DI for years now. I use it on bass, but also on cheap synths, drummachines and guitars. Everything just sounds better through it.
As fine a DI as you can buy until you are looking for something to add a bit of character to the tone.
Like anything, you can spend absolutely as much money as you want to spend in quality DIs. The RNDI, the Radial J48 and JDI, and the Countryman Type 10 are as good as they get in their category (small footprint, reasonably priced, outstanding tone and reliability) before you get into the more boutique types of DIs.
I love the REDDI Tube DI for bass and acoustic guitars. I own a REDDI and I hardly ever leave home without it. It does add a bit of color to the bass tone that I really enjoy. I haven't tried them on keyboards. But for $900, I'd be leaning toward the RNDIs ($300 for mono, $500 for stereo at Sweetwater). I have played bass and heard good acoustic guitars played through RNDIs and I really liked the sound. I want to add an RNDI or two to my small PA collection of DIs.
Like anything, you can spend absolutely as much money as you want to spend in quality DIs. The RNDI, the Radial J48 and JDI, and the Countryman Type 10 are as good as they get in their category (small footprint, reasonably priced, outstanding tone and reliability) before you get into the more boutique types of DIs.
I love the REDDI Tube DI for bass and acoustic guitars. I own a REDDI and I hardly ever leave home without it. It does add a bit of color to the bass tone that I really enjoy. I haven't tried them on keyboards. But for $900, I'd be leaning toward the RNDIs ($300 for mono, $500 for stereo at Sweetwater). I have played bass and heard good acoustic guitars played through RNDIs and I really liked the sound. I want to add an RNDI or two to my small PA collection of DIs.
I love the RNDI (I own the mono version since years), but when I would want to beef up for recording and you don't need a DI to play live, considering what you pay for the stereo RNDI, I would rather buy two budget 19" comps from Warm Audio or Klark Teknik that can be stereo linked. Fast Fet like the 1176 style comps or slower like the LA2A tube based comps is to your taste.
This is strictly for at-home recording, so that's definitely something for me to consider. I use Scarlett 18i-20 and do have a little space in its rack for something like a stereo pre or linked mono pres.
If you're wanting to add more color on the way into your Scarlett I would go a different route than a standalone DI. Specifically I would use a preamp known to saturate well such as a 1073 or clone. Alternatively an EQ, in the box or in the analog domain may be a good choice for adding beef as you mentioned.
Seventh Circle is great but their Neve circuit isn’t actually a 1073 clone according to the original circuit designer’s comments on Gearspace. It’s meant to be a clone of a different Neve module which is no less appealing but close comparisons will reveal some differences with 1073s and clones, for better or worse.
I very briefly considered building 16 channels of Seventh Circle preamps but ultimately decided that their proprietary format was a little too unique compared to 500 and 19” formats. Their prices used to be low enough to offset that concern but they’re on par with many DIY 500 series modules of comparable quality and build complexity.
My fault the N72 is closer to a 1272 Neve , in any case they sound great for the price.
They do sound great. I like their stuff a lot. I’d argue that they used to sound great for the price but anymore their prices aren’t all that different from someone like Capi. Obviously Capi doesn’t offer anything with a Neve flavor but it’s a good comparable for a highly desirable circuit clone in a DIY module format, and it happens to be the module format that has become standard unlike Seventh Circle which is its own thing, for better or worse.
For me I never cared about them conforming to other module specs , never even thought about it ? , I got 2 of the N72 , 2 A12's and 2 J99 , they all sound good , I got mine maybe 15 yrs ago it was a good deal back then
The issue for me with conformity is that if the chassis ever fails you can’t swap out for a new one other than their proprietary one. They also very nearly disappeared and weren’t supported until the company was effectively rebooted. That made lack of support a scary proposition when compared to a 500 chassis which is practically ubiquitous at this point.
15 years ago they were a screaming deal. You definitely bought at the right time. Back then there wasn’t anything comparable.
I did not know about the proprietary chassis design , Ya I remember checking in a few yrs back and they were almost gone. Who else makes similar designs ? like a 1073
You can find a million 1073 clones in 500 and 19” format. Heritage and BAE are the most common names, but there are others like Phoenix as well. I’ve got a Heritage Audio TT-73 for sale in the classifieds right now, which is a desktop format. I’ve moved away from the 1073 “thing” in favor of cleaner Jensen style front ends similar to your J99 modules, otherwise I’d happily continue rocking the TT-73.
THE ONES i SAW were in the $1500=2k BAE is about $1100 or so, N72 is $450 built + $250 for the chassis ( I didnt do a deep search ) for my super clean pre's I have a Sytek 4 ch unit 70db gain for overheads, room , Ribbons etc. , J99 is similar with more color
The BAE and Heritage stuff isn’t a fair comparison to the Seventh Circle stuff. For a better comparison you need to look at Capi or other DIY module types.
I got a RNDI (mono), it is a wonderful DI. Tight lows, pleasant high frequencies compared to other DIs. If it was just to record bass and money was not an issue, I'd get a REDDI or a UA Solo610 which really give you a perfect tube sound but it is a lot more money. (I actually own the REDDI plugin which is nice on bass). Alternatively, I record through a Summit Audi 2BA221 which has a nice tube tone.
