Is there a difference in sound from different direct boxes?

[scarygroover]

I had to borrow a few beringer direct boxes for a live band multi tracking session and they worked just fine. No problem whatsoever. I realized I need to buy a few DI's so I was wondering why some are way more expensive than the Beringer's and do they sound any better. I mean all it is doing is bringing the signal up right?

any feedback would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Michael

[dynomike]

All a mic preamp does is bring signal up. And they sure sound different. A direct box is a little different - it will change an unbalanced, high impedance, instrument level signal to a balanced, low impedance, mic level signal. A passive direct box will not actually amplify the signal whatsoever - an active one will. That said, I've been using my behringer ultra-di (di100) for a long while. They are wicked cheap and actually sound quite good I think. If you want something for say an acoustic pickup or a ... really good guitar... ? the countrymans are good, also radial makes some great ones. Their tube direct box (JDV?) looks totally kick ass... certainly better headroom on one of those. That is an issue with the behringer - lack of headroom on loud instruments.

Mike

[jebjerome]

Absolutely.

Better components and build quality. Many different circuit designs. Some are tube, some solid state. Some are active, some passive. Many have different additional options available like the Avalon U-5(I think) has some tone controls on it. Try a few different ones out and you'll likely notice substantial tonal variation between them.

[Punkity]

Yes there will be a difference. Often DI boxes do bring up the level, but the primary purpose is to match the impedance between an instrument output to a mic or line input (if you don't know what this is, go learn about it and learn about it now). Many are passive and do not amplify the signal at all. These usually have just a transformer inside of a box with wires leading to a mic output and an instrument split so you can still go out to an amplifier.

If the Behringer needs power, it is not a passive DI, but an active one. While there is a difference beween different passive DI boxes (different transformers can make a big difference) there is even a bigger difference between active ones because there is a bunch more components and design ideas involved.

[chetatkinsdiet]

Grab a few cheap ones, but it's probably a nice idea to have a really decent one around the studio as well. Not saying you have to shell out $500-600 or whatever the Avalon boxes run, but there're plenty in the $150-200 range that are great.
They also make nice cable extenders for those of us recording in houses and needing to make runs to other parts of the house to record stuff. Also, for things like sending a decent signal across your house for stuff like cue systems. When we record all over the house, we'll send the cue mixes to a direct box, then xlr all over the house to the various headphone amps.
Later,
m

[Scodiddly]

In theory there really shouldn't be much of a difference. A good DI will properly match a guitar to a mic line with flat response. In real life there's some variation, but not as much as the sort of difference you'd hear between, say, a dynamic vs. a condensor mic.

The Behringer DIs are OK, but not especially good. They don't ground lift very effectively, making them problematic with amps and such. My favorite bang-for-buck DI is the LDB-101 active DI from http://www.audiopile.net. For $50 you get a really solid DI.

[nestle]

I've noticed that everytime I've A/B'd DI's the good old Countryman comes up the winner. It simpily has a great sparkle and dynamic for some reason that I love. It's funny, the insides are shielded in some inpenitrable epoxy goo I think for top secret reasons. what is in these things?

[h.bilerman]

cheap DIs tend to affect the sound you are running to your amp. say you are runnning a bass thru a DI, and sending that signal to an amp as well, with plans to track both the DI & a mic on the amp....i have found that there is a significant difference in low end when plugging the bass directly into the amp, vs. going thru the DI, then to the amp....the low end disappears. the only DI this doesn't happen with, that i have found, is the JDI passive one (this includes the behringer ones i've tried). if comprimising the signal going to the amp is not an issue for you, then i'm sure there are several cheaper DIs out there that'll do the trick...

hb

[snatchman]

I've used the Behringer DI's ,I too thought they sounded fine until I got the Radial(passive Duplex),Groovetubes Ditto,Summit TD-100, Whirlwind HotBox. To my ears,there's a big difference is quality of sound. The Behringer sounds grainy and harsh in the mid and hi-end. To my ears, even though the Radial is passive and requires more gain,tops the list of the di's I have!

[penrithmatt]

the countryman is great,it holds it's own against many a more expensive box.well worth the money
our tech,Ken McKim makes a DI box under the name the Retrospec Juice Box.Tube,class A design.probably the best DI you will ever use.
cheers
matthew
www.allairestudios.com