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The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison

#3,521
Micah thinks he's found a way to retrofit the current Oracle preamps with the DI. May have to be a TRS jack as opposed to XLR on the retrofits. Transformers are about 6 weeks out and he's going to give it a go once he gets them. I've never used a TRS jack as a DI but would assume there are TRS to XLR adapters readily available.

Must add that I'm still totally digging the Oracle. This could end up being a permanent honeymoon phase. I'm addicted to the heft and clarity it adds along with the pillowy bloom to the notes. Controls on it are very easy to get used to and there's a bunch of killer tones on tap in this box. Get to try it with the band this weekend.
 
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#3,525
uwrossl said:
Micah thinks he's found a way to retrofit the current Oracle preamps with the DI. May have to be a TRS jack as opposed to XLR on the retrofits. Transformers are about 6 weeks out and he's going to give it a go once he gets them. I've never used a TRS jack as a DI but would assume there are TRS to XLR adapters readily available.

Must add that I'm still totally digging the Oracle. This could end up being a permanent honeymoon phase. I'm addicted to the heft and clarity it adds along with the pillowy bloom to the notes. Controls on it are very easy to get used to and there's a bunch of killer tones on tap in this box. Get to try it with the band this weekend.
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The LA-1A has a TRS balanced output also, and I had procured a short cable to connect directly to the snake. Worked fine. I prefer having the Oracle and the RNDI between there though, so now I'm just using the unbalanced out to the Oracle.
 
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#3,526
tedsalt said:
The LA-1A has a TRS balanced output also, and I had procured a short cable to connect directly to the snake. Worked fine. I prefer having the Oracle and the RNDI between there though, so now I'm just using the unbalanced out to the Oracle.
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I'm sure the new versions will be rearranged internally to accommodate the XLR and just the retrofits with the TRS. I have confidence that Micah isn't the type of person that would send something out into the wild that wasn't up to snuff. So it's good to hear about these other devices that do it as well. Hopefully he can make it work. If not I'll be picking up the RNDI myself. I do love the clips I've heard of that combo.
 
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#3,527
uwrossl said:
I'm sure the new versions will be rearranged internally to accommodate the XLR and just the retrofits with the TRS. I have confidence that Micah isn't the type of person that would send something out into the wild that wasn't up to snuff. So it's good to hear about these other devices that do it as well. Hopefully he can make it work. If not I'll be picking up the RNDI myself. I do love the clips I've heard of that combo.
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It's a great combo, highly recommended. I hope Micah's transformer out is as good. Rupert knew what he was doing!
 
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#3,532
SteveC said:
It is interesting. I’ve never had much luck with Tech21.
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ianrossbass said:
Neither have I. I've said elsewhere on TB that often some of my favorite sounds are Tech 21, like Marco Hietala, but I always bought the wrong products. In a way I feel like I'm just living one long reactionary arc to having bought the Bass Driver DI and continuing to see them every day. That's how much I dislike that thing. :roflmao: You can get good sounds from them. It would be unfair to say otherwise. You have to go searching, though, and the result is always another variation of ...um, Bass Driver DI.
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Try one, if you can. I didn't have much luck with the BDDI (which I liked but found not so versatile) and I can say the Q\Strip is a complete different beast.
 
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#3,534
Rocksolid said:
And Quilter, and they got belted for it. I think mind sets are changing.
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To be fair, the criticism of Quilter was well-justified in my opinion: When they designed their "Bass Dock" cabinets (specifically the 1x10" cab), they foolishly didn't leave enough clearance to connect an XLR or Speakon cable. So that one design decision, locked them into an ecosystem of TRS outputs and 1/4" speaker cables. If they had built just an extra inch of clearance into the Bass Dock 1x10" cabinets, so that the rear panel of the head was more easily accessible, then Quilter could use XLR out and Speakon like most other brands.

I'm a HUGE Quilter fan, but this was just flat out a bad design decision. Even the power cable barely fits; look at the sharp 90 degree bend on the blue connector. Not good.

2.jpg


I think it's telling that, in Quilter's official demo video for this cabinet, they have the head sitting on top of the cab, as opposed to demonstrating the docking feature. ;)

Sorry for the off topic rant! :(
 
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#3,535
CatOnTheBass said:
To be fair, the criticism of Quilter was well-justified in my opinion: When they designed their "Bass Dock" cabinets (specifically the 1x10" cab), they foolishly didn't leave enough clearance to connect an XLR or Speakon cable.
Click to expand...

Just throwing this out there, but any chance that some odd-ball 90 degree connectors could solve the problem? I agree, really botched design if they didn't take this into account.
 
#3,536
jimfist said:
Just throwing this out there, but any chance that some odd-ball 90 degree connectors could solve the problem? I agree, really botched design if they didn't take this into account.
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If you used 90 degree connectors then, if you were using the Bass Block as a "normal" head (sitting on top of a cabinet) the cords would all stick straight up in the air, which would look really weird. So for asesthetic reasons you would probably want two different sets of cables: A set with straight connectors (for when you are using the BB as a standalone head) and a set with 90 degree connectors (for when you are using it "docked" in the cabinet).

I own a couple of Quilter heads, but not any of their cabinets, so it's a moot point for me. Hope I'm not coming off as too big a complainer. ;)
 
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#3,540
CatOnTheBass said:
To be fair, the criticism of Quilter was well-justified in my opinion: When they designed their "Bass Dock" cabinets (specifically the 1x10" cab), they foolishly didn't leave enough clearance to connect an XLR or Speakon cable. So that one design decision, locked them into an ecosystem of TRS outputs and 1/4" speaker cables. If they had built just an extra inch of clearance into the Bass Dock 1x10" cabinets, so that the rear panel of the head was more easily accessible, then Quilter could use XLR out and Speakon like most other brands.

I'm a HUGE Quilter fan, but this was just flat out a bad design decision. Even the power cable barely fits; look at the sharp 90 degree bend on the blue connector. Not good.

View attachment 3897380

I think it's telling that, in Quilter's official demo video for this cabinet, they have the head sitting on top of the cab, as opposed to demonstrating the docking feature. ;)

Sorry for the off topic rant! :(
Click to expand...
Well actually, in your post that is a BB800 (which I own) and that has an xlr line out (and in) on the back ironically.

I was thinking the Interbass Preamp pedal which has a TRS (when there seemed to be probably enough room for an xlr) and also the newer BB802 on which they moved the xlr line out from the back panel to a TRS on the front. Both of these TRS outs are doing double duty as a line out/headphone out.
**EDIT** even more astounding is that balanced out is the ONLY out to be used as either a balanced out or out to your rig. The other out is to drive a cab. So the routing options are extremely limited considering what it is supposed to be - preamp/routing tool.
6-quilter-interbass-outputs-2.jpg

1.jpg
 
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