The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison

[BrentSimons]

This arrived.

View attachment 3731714

Noice!

 

[uwrossl]

@scubaduba Thoughts on the V2 Colour Box yet? Had a chance to mess with it?

Also curious how the Oracle is working out for you!?

 

[jacoby75]

@scubaduba Thoughts on the V2 Colour Box yet? Had a chance to mess with it?

No rest for the wicked.

 

[scubaduba]

@scubaduba Thoughts on the V2 Colour Box yet? Had a chance to mess with it?

Also curious how the Oracle is working out for you!?

I've had about 30 minutes with the Colour Box v2. From that brief time I can say it sounds very good. It can be clean or with plenty of breakup. It is harmonically rich. That transistor effect.

Tons of headroom and very quiet.

 

[never-enough]

I’m considering picking up a color box v2 to use mostly as an overdrive effect, in an fx loop of another preamp.
So, if you have any additional thoughts on the color box, I’d be very interested in hearing them.

 

[TonyP-]

Like somebody else said I’m complete (for now ) but I’m going to be checking out this thread.

RNDI for the win, JDI for passive backup and just to have something different.

 

[chadhargis]

Like somebody else said I’m complete (for now ) but I’m going to be checking out this thread.

RNDI for the win, JDI for passive backup and just to have something different.

I picked up an RNDI today off Reverb for a couple hundert. Gotta see what the fuss is all about. I’ve watched some comparison vids and I honestly can’t tell much of a difference. But when it comes in I’ll run two XLRs to my board. One from the SLO and one from the RNDI and see what the difference is.

 

[scubaduba]

I picked up an RNDI today off Reverb for a couple hundert. Gotta see what the fuss is all about. I’ve watched some comparison vids and I honestly can’t tell much of a difference. But when it comes in I’ll run two XLRs to my board. One from the SLO and one from the RNDI and see what the difference is.

You’ll hear it. Just don’t expect radical differences. It’s all in the nuances.

 

[scubaduba]

I’m considering picking up a color box v2 to use mostly as an overdrive effect, in an fx loop of another preamp.
So, if you have any additional thoughts on the color box, I’d be very interested in hearing them.

I spent a fair amount of time with the Colour Box v2 today and I gotta say, I’m impressed. It is very quiet. Closest to tube tone in a non-tube preamp I’ve encountered so far. Must be the Lundhal transformer. It is very full sounding and very, very versatile.

I don’t find much use for the HPF. The lowest setting of 60 hz is too high for me.

Nice form factor and easy power requirements make it pedalboard friendly.

 

[chadhargis]

You’ll hear it. Just don’t expect radical differences. It’s all in the nuances.

At the point I'm at now, where my board is packed with quality gear, everything is a nuance. Just like the Shaw being better than the SLO. It absolutely was, but in a mix, no one on Earth could tell the difference and the SLO was smaller, lighter, ran on 12v, and had some other features I liked.

If the RNDI sounds noticeably better, then I can toss it in my bag and go from the output of the SLO to the RNDI powered off phantom power (since that's your only choice in power). The other really nice thing about the RNDI is you can use it as a speaker pass through as well, which gives you a DI signal of your amp tone. Very cool! That could absolutely be useful.

 

[scubaduba]

The Colour Box v2 is really good. If you’ve been on the fence, give it a try. Super versatile. Big, huge tone.

 

[Bassworship1]

The Colour Box v2 is really good. If you’ve been on the fence, give it a try. Super versatile. Big, huge tone.

Do you like it better than your a Trickfish?

 

[uwrossl]

The Colour Box v2 is really good. If you’ve been on the fence, give it a try. Super versatile. Big, huge tone.

Was really hoping you WOULDN'T say that. LOL Going to have to give one a spin.

 

[jacoby75]

Was really hoping you WOULDN'T say that. LOL Going to have to give one a spin.

Did you come here expecting to somehow NOT spend money? You must be new here.

 

[Bassworship1]

Did you come here expecting to somehow NOT spend money? You must be new here.

Yeah there was a time I was really happy with 1 Stingray 5HH bass and 1 amp (Markbass CMD) and no pedals. That was before I strolled upon Talkbass years ago lol. Had no idea what great gear was out there in the world.

 

[jacoby75]

Yeah there was a time I was really happy with 1 Stingray 5HH bass and 1 amp (Markbass CMD) and no pedals. That was before I strolled upon Talkbass years ago lol. Had no idea what great gear was out there in the world.

I had a lot more money when I was blissfully ignorant of what was out there.

 

[Zbysek]

I had a lot more money when I was blissfully ignorant of what was out there.

Me too

 

[Ethereal Thorn]

The Colour Box v2 is really good. If you’ve been on the fence, give it a try. Super versatile. Big, huge tone.

Shame they didn't make a larger sweep on the high pass it would have been more useful for bass

 

[uwrossl]

I still feel like the HPF at 60hz is very usable but yeah... 40hz would have been a much better starting point.

I have been in very few rooms/clubs that call for more bass/low freq. It's usually a boom problem and 60hz is usually right in the ball park that I set my Broughton and then push the bass a bit on the amp. Keeps it low and tight. Have run it as high as 100 at several spots. Also though I never play 5 stringers so I don't toil around or ever want super low frequencies in my sound. No doubt HPF is an extremely valuable tool. Since getting the HPF+LPF from Broughton I've had next to zero problems dialing in a good live sound regardless of venue.

 

[scubaduba]

Yeah, I sort of take back my comment about the HPF. After messing with it more, 60hz is a pretty good spot. If you turn on the HPF you have plenty of room to boost the bass EQ without it getting boomy.

That said, if the Colour Box v2 was truly optimized for bass I would advocate for a range down to 30hz (like where the Thumpinator sits) or at least 40hz.