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Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => SR Forum Archives => LAB Lounge FUD Forum Archive => Topic started by: Nathan Schwarzkopf on August 18, 2005, 10:30:42 AM

Title: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Nathan Schwarzkopf on August 18, 2005, 10:30:42 AM
What up "sters", lab that is ,mixing boards, speaker stacks.


I not really in the biz of buying cheap stuff because it usually = junk.  But on this particular venture I have no choice.  I found a B@#$!%&* d100 and a whirlwind EBD1 both for around 30 bone.  Are there any cubix in the ruff or are these about my options.

Have lovely ones

Al K.
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Scott Helmke (Scodiddly) on August 18, 2005, 11:28:01 AM
The EWI DIs from  are quite good, and the passives go for $25 each.   (http://http://www.audiopile.net[/url)
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Nathan Schwarzkopf on August 18, 2005, 11:55:09 AM
thanks but I need them for tommaro to send on a small band gig I just picked up but I will keep that in mind for the future.

Al K.
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: John Horvath on August 18, 2005, 12:04:19 PM
I hate to use the B word, but you did say 'cheepie'.  I bought 2 of Behringers 2 channel DI's for my B system.  Both have been working great and believe it or not, don't sound too bad.  The link function has came in very handy.  Another good thing is the 1/4" jacks are metal Switchcraft style instead of those plastic things on other boxes.  All in all, it's a pretty good DI for around $25, ecspecially when considering you're really getting 2 DI's.
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Mike Sveda on August 18, 2005, 12:51:35 PM
I like the Horizon Staright Line 1's or Whirlwind EDB-1's for passive DI's on the cheap.
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Andy Spalla on August 18, 2005, 12:52:16 PM
The Whirlwind EDB1 sounds pretty good to me.
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Mike McNany on August 18, 2005, 02:21:38 PM
Don't know about the Whirlwind cheapee but the B active DI-100 is real good at picking up EMF from setting on amp heads. They work, just no shielding so placement is important.

Mike McNany
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Adam Kane on August 18, 2005, 02:29:43 PM
I'm a little scared of the DI100's at the moment.  I've had four in a row quit working on phantom power.  (9V bat sill works fine).  Had one go down on a bass guitar during a fairly important gig.  Won't use them at all now.

I second the EDB1's...great little boxes.  

adam
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Lee Patzius on August 18, 2005, 03:55:31 PM
Boomerweps wrote on Thu, 18 August 2005 14:21

Don't know about the Whirlwind cheapee but the B active DI-100 is real good at picking up EMF from setting on amp heads. They work, just no shielding so placement is important.

Mike McNany


The unbalanced input side of ANY D.I. is fair game. Even though an expensive DI may be shielded better internally, it ain't no match for that little section of unbalanced guitar cord picking up the buzz.

Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Steve Oldridge on August 18, 2005, 03:58:36 PM
My EDB-1's, which I picked for $15 ea (from Wisconsin I might add) are working jsut fine thank you  Cool

Steve
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: John Horvath on August 18, 2005, 04:10:43 PM
Has anyone here compared a EDB1 with an IMP2 in the way of sound quality?  I'd like to know the difference, because IMO, the IMP2 is a nicer package...Smaller box, metal jacks, and none of those crappy self-tapping screws that are bored into side of the EDB1.  Unfortunately, there's no pad on the IMP2, but how often do we need that anyway.
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Nathan Schwarzkopf on August 18, 2005, 05:39:10 PM
thanks yall for the info.  I opted for the EBD1's.  


Thanks Again

Al K.
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Andy Peters on August 18, 2005, 05:43:21 PM
LJP wrote on Thu, 18 August 2005 12:55

Boomerweps wrote on Thu, 18 August 2005 14:21

Don't know about the Whirlwind cheapee but the B active DI-100 is real good at picking up EMF from setting on amp heads. They work, just no shielding so placement is important.

Mike McNany


The unbalanced input side of ANY D.I. is fair game. Even though an expensive DI may be shielded better internally, it ain't no match for that little section of unbalanced guitar cord picking up the buzz.


The noise -- in this case, hum, not an RF buzz -- is caused by the amp's power and/or speaker-output transformers magnetically coupling with the transformer in the direct box.

It has nothing to do with the unbalanced cable connection.

-a
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Andy Spalla on August 18, 2005, 06:24:04 PM
Actually, I bought the EDB1 since it had a 20db pad. I use it for connecting my camera to my Town Hall's mic system since it needs a 20db pad.
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Lee Patzius on August 18, 2005, 07:21:25 PM
Andy Peters wrote on Thu, 18 August 2005 17:43

The noise -- in this case, hum, not an RF buzz -- is caused by the amp's power and/or speaker-output transformers magnetically coupling with the transformer in the direct box.

It has nothing to do with the unbalanced cable connection.

-a



My point was that a short section of unbalanced cord running through a transformer field, on its way to the DI, would not help the fact that the DI had a shielded transformer.

Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Andy Peters on August 19, 2005, 12:52:58 AM
LJP wrote on Thu, 18 August 2005 16:21

Andy Peters wrote on Thu, 18 August 2005 17:43

The noise -- in this case, hum, not an RF buzz -- is caused by the amp's power and/or speaker-output transformers magnetically coupling with the transformer in the direct box.

It has nothing to do with the unbalanced cable connection.

-a



My point was that a short section of unbalanced cord running through a transformer field, on its way to the DI, would not help the fact that the DI had a shielded transformer.


Unless the guitar cable was wrapped in a VERY tight coil with a very small diameter and a lot of turns, you won't get any magentic coupling between it and the amp's transformers.

-a
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Tim Padrick on August 19, 2005, 02:14:43 AM
Spend a little more and get something nice: http://www.radialeng.com/di-prodi-prod2.htm
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Lee Patzius on August 19, 2005, 08:58:37 AM
Andy Peters wrote on Fri, 19 August 2005 00:52

Unless the guitar cable was wrapped in a VERY tight coil with a very small diameter and a lot of turns, you won't get any magentic coupling between it and the amp's transformers.

-a



Andy, it doesn't take but one single pass through of any of our unbalanced cords, within the magnetic flux fields any of our stomp box wall warts, transformers, or portable power supplies, going to a high gain, high impedance input, to pickup hum.

I haven't tried it with toroids yet.

But I'm sure we've all experienced that noise from close proximity of numerous items, including console placement on top of old style heavy iron power amp racks, as one example, etc.

But especially with those high impedance guitar outputs, and even on my LOW impedance Roland TDE7K output cords, they are unbalanced, and I have to kick my cords away from their external power supplies on a regular basis (somehow they "like" each other).

I'm not sure where you are going with magnetic coupling as opposed to inductive coupling, both very similar, but different I'm sure. Like the difference between buzz and hum too.

Don't get me wrong, I totally appreciate your experience into these matters!
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Dave Ferrell on August 19, 2005, 11:30:38 AM
We have a couple of the active DI-100 boxes and have used them with decent results.  We also have a couple of the little ART X boxes.  They seem to work about the same.

Dave  
Title: Re: Cheepie DI's
Post by: Jakob Grimm on August 20, 2005, 01:27:48 PM
We have been using the Rolls DB-25 "Matchbox" for the past few years and they've never let us down yet.  I had a dual ART passive DB and one of the transformers literally fell off the board.  Not recommended...