ProSoundWeb Community

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Pages: [1] 2 3 4   Go Down

Author Topic: New DI purchasing advice  (Read 17959 times)

Kristian Stevenson

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 94
  • Lynchburg, VA
New DI purchasing advice
« on: May 04, 2014, 10:39:51 PM »

Hello all. We are needing to purchase new DI's this summer to replace a large (10+) inventory of old/broken Countryman Type 85's. These have been repaired multiple times and continue to fail. They are used 3 times a week but only go from the work-box (stored in a closet) to the stage. Needless to say, I am not happy about the durability and reliability of the Countryman's.

What I'm looking for is a durable, universal, and quality sounding DI. We are looking at Radials as I've heard good things and am leaning towards the J-DI. We are also considering the Whirlwind IMP JT. We have a large inventory of Whirlwind IMP-2's for small system events and rarely have any problems out of those.

Are there any other DI's I should consider? Any experience with the ones mentioned above?
Thanks guys!
Logged
Kristian Stevenson

Richard Turner

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 551
Re: New DI purchasing advice
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2014, 11:50:06 PM »


+1 on the JDI built like a tank, does what it promises to do.  Just as most any Canadian engineered thing should

also the jdi duplex is basically 2 of them in one chassis but I've seen quite a few pairs of JDI twinned using gaffer tape.

have a look at the stage direct active DI as well from Radial. has a tuner loop/mute, noiseless switching 2 stage low cut and phase flip on the through to amp,  pad and the mute can be triggered by a regular momentary remote switch as well if you want to hide it  for a super clean on stage look (it has 2 led's on it mute and phantom power)

cable factory might be another brand to look at, I've not experienced them personally but reviews are favorable
http://www.cablefactory.com/catalogue/CF-Catalogue-devices.pdf

I've also seen quite a few of these LRbaggs para accoustic DI's but you may or may not want to allow that much control on the lip of the satage.

http://www.lrbaggs.com/preamps/para-di-acoustic-preamp
Logged
Looking at retiring. Local PA market has shrank to 2 guys with guitars and bose l1 compacts or expecting full line array and 16 movers on stage for $300... no middle left going back to event DJ stuff, half the work for twice the pay.

Tim Perry

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1251
  • Utica-Rome NY
Re: New DI purchasing advice
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2014, 12:27:45 AM »

If you are having that much trouble with DI failures it would be a safe bet its due to abuse.

Might as well get cheapies and keep replacing them when they get trashed.

Rapcos seem to hold up just fine for me.
« Last Edit: May 05, 2014, 01:23:48 AM by Tim Perry »
Logged

Samuel Rees

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1879
  • Washington, D.C.
Re: New DI purchasing advice
« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2014, 12:55:24 AM »

Countryman DI seem pretty durable to me. So do the radials of course, but I'd be surprised if you found them to be of a dramatically different build quality.
Logged

Dave Dermont

  • Forum Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 376
  • From The Great Pocono Northeast
Re: New DI purchasing advice
« Reply #4 on: May 05, 2014, 01:13:27 AM »

Hello all. We are needing to purchase new DI's this summer to replace a large (10+) inventory of old/broken Countryman Type 85's. These have been repaired multiple times and continue to fail. They are used 3 times a week but only go from the work-box (stored in a closet) to the stage. Needless to say, I am not happy about the durability and reliability of the Countryman's.

What I'm looking for is a durable, universal, and quality sounding DI. We are looking at Radials as I've heard good things and am leaning towards the J-DI. We are also considering the Whirlwind IMP JT. We have a large inventory of Whirlwind IMP-2's for small system events and rarely have any problems out of those.

Are there any other DI's I should consider? Any experience with the ones mentioned above?
Thanks guys!

I have to say that the Countryman is on my personal Reliable/Universal list of DI boxes. How old are the ones you are replacing? I suppose nothing lasts forever.

That said, the Radial JDI would be a good choice.
Logged
Dave Dermont

Warning: Dates on calendar may be closer than they appear

Steve M Smith

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3381
  • Isle of Wight - England
Re: New DI purchasing advice
« Reply #5 on: May 05, 2014, 04:00:26 AM »

Another option if you know of any electronic hobbyists or engineers is to gut out the insides and have a new circuit built.

It's not rocket science and is what I would do.

It is my opinion that the majority of DIs are too big.  I plan to see if I can make a phantom powered only version which will fit in an XLR barrel so it will be the same size as an XLR to jack convertor.


Steve.
Logged

Bill Schnake

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 141
    • Schnake Sound
Re: New DI purchasing advice
« Reply #6 on: May 05, 2014, 07:40:07 AM »

Hello all. We are needing to purchase new DI's this summer to replace a large (10+) inventory of old/broken Countryman Type 85's. These have been repaired multiple times and continue to fail. They are used 3 times a week but only go from the work-box (stored in a closet) to the stage. Needless to say, I am not happy about the durability and reliability of the Countryman's.

What I'm looking for is a durable, universal, and quality sounding DI. We are looking at Radials as I've heard good things and am leaning towards the J-DI. We are also considering the Whirlwind IMP JT. We have a large inventory of Whirlwind IMP-2's for small system events and rarely have any problems out of those.

Are there any other DI's I should consider? Any experience with the ones mentioned above?
Thanks guys!
+1 on the Radials.  We have been using them for about 5 years with no issues.  For an in-expensive DI we keep several of the Rapco/Horizon DB-1 DIs.  They work fine for acoustic guitar and piano, however they don't have a pad on them.

Bill 
Logged
Bill Schnake

217.670.1328    Office
217.553.2278    Cell
Schnake Sound, Inc

Experience, Expertise, Professionalism and Reliability

jason misterka

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 310
Re: New DI purchasing advice
« Reply #7 on: May 05, 2014, 07:44:07 AM »

Countryman DI seem pretty durable to me. So do the radials of course, but I'd be surprised if you found them to be of a dramatically different build quality.

They look durable but don't act durable. We stopped using them as well due to a 100% failure rate. 3/3. Some multiple times.

Jason
Logged

Lyle Williams

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1558
Re: New DI purchasing advice
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2014, 07:45:49 AM »

Another option if you know of any electronic hobbyists or engineers is to gut out the insides and have a new circuit built.

It's not rocket science and is what I would do.

It is my opinion that the majority of DIs are too big.  I plan to see if I can make a phantom powered only version which will fit in an XLR barrel so it will be the same size as an XLR to jack convertor.


Steve.

They need to be about the size they are to house decent transformers.

The ones that don't have decent transformers are still trying to look like they do.
Logged

David Sturzenbecher

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1966
  • So. Dak.
    • Sturz Audio
Re: New DI purchasing advice
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2014, 07:58:02 AM »

The best

http://lbpinc.com/DI.html 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Logged
Audio Systems Design Engineer
Daktronics, Inc.
CTS-D, CTS-I
AES Full Member

ProSoundWeb Community

Re: New DI purchasing advice
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2014, 07:58:02 AM »


Pages: [1] 2 3 4   Go Up
 



Site Hosted By Ashdown Technologies, Inc.

Page created in 0.039 seconds with 25 queries.