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[Tim McCulloch]

It is possible to break Type 85.  I have 6 that went back to Countryman in 2021 for repairs/refurbishment.  Haven't used them since.

I'm surprised that the ProDI have not been 100% good for Alec.  I have 6 of those and 1 ProDI2 at the RoMoSo* and so far (10 months) haven't experienced a failure.

*Round Mound of Sound* now with l'Acoustic K3/KS28 rig.

Had to expand a bit on the Countryman story.  IIRC I posted about it here, but the short version is I packed 6 Type 85 into a USPS One Rate box, with a return goods form tucked in the box and a note to email me for settlement of costs.  Three weeks later I'm about to call and see what's up when I get a FedEx email, advising a package from Countryman Associates was on its way to me.  All six were repaired under warranty and I'm pretty sure one of them was almost old enough to buy a cocktail...

And other than testing them upon return, I've not used them.  I've got a couple gigs with Fender Rhodes pianos coming up so they'll get to see some stage time.

[boburtz]

Guessing my experience is abnormal but, we've had 3 Radial DIs for 18 months (2 x ProDI, 1 x ProD2), and have just had our second ProDI failure.

The first failure was at 12 months - no signal through the DI.  Then, last night, a distorted signal with no bottom end on the other DI.  Both covered under warranty from the retailer, but frankly a 100% failure rate on the ProDIs is just rubbish.

I've gotten Radial D2s that had one side DOA. I've had another whereby the switch broke internally and had to be replaced. Aside from that, we have a few dozen Pro DIs, ProD2s, Pro48s, J48, J48 stereo, JDIs, ProAV2, and HotShots that are all going strong. I love the form factor and they are solidly built, but they do seem to suffer from reliability problems from time to time. They are all built to the same quality standard, regardless of which transformer is inside of them. Some of the Pro48s have had the silk screening peel off with board tape.

[Jeff Lelko]

I too have had nothing but 100% success with Radial.  Alec, is it possible that you either got a bad batch or perhaps counterfeits?

[John Sulek]

Guessing my experience is abnormal but, we've had 3 Radial DIs for 18 months (2 x ProDI, 1 x ProD2), and have just had our second ProDI failure.

The first failure was at 12 months - no signal through the DI.  Then, last night, a distorted signal with no bottom end on the other DI.  Both covered under warranty from the retailer, but frankly a 100% failure rate on the ProDIs is just rubbish.

My former employer had a couple dozen, and my current employer has a over a hundred in pretty constant use/abuse. Haven't noticed any abnormal failure rate. Did have a ProD8 that needed the contacts in the nylon input jacks reseated.

[Matthias McCready]

I own about a dozen, and have had zero failures. My employer has about 100, and they get used heavily; I can count the number of failures on one hand!

Build quality seems pretty good to me. My only wish is that the Radial USB-Pro, had some sort of USB Con plug; that is a point of failure on that product, and I would happily pay a little more for a more durable version! I email Radial to request that product ever once in a while!

[Ike Zimbel]

Guessing my experience is abnormal but, we've had 3 Radial DIs for 18 months (2 x ProDI, 1 x ProD2), and have just had our second ProDI failure.

The first failure was at 12 months - no signal through the DI.  Then, last night, a distorted signal with no bottom end on the other DI.  Both covered under warranty from the retailer, but frankly a 100% failure rate on the ProDIs is just rubbish.

Back in the '90's when I was running a SoundCo, I had our electronics department design an equivalent to the JDI...with some enhancements. Backstory...to my knowledge the JDI is the DI circuit that was illustrated in the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement guide (and it's precursor...all Yamaha pro audio manuals from the 70's and 80's) so this was designed to that circuit. My enhancements were mainly in the form of a 10uf film capacitor instead of the electrolytic cap in the JDI and a PCB mounted Jensen transformer. Well, the DI turned out great, and measured flat from 10HZ to 50KHz, hence its name, the "DI-1050". But, we did suffer some failures, both due to soldering issues with big parts on a double-sided circuit board. The big parts were the Jensen transformer, and the big, boxy film cap, which both had trouble with the invariable impacts that a sturdy little box like that is going to have in regular use. So, to the point, if the DI's you are having trouble with have the PCB mount transformer, cracked solder joints could be the issue. If I had to do it again, I would use a transformer with wire leads, and solder the wires to the board.

[Scott Helmke]

But, we did suffer some failures, both due to soldering issues with big parts on a double-sided circuit board.

I've seen a small number of Radial DI failures, and one of the possible ways to kill one is to drop it just right so that the transformer breaks away from the circuit board.

[Mark Oakley]

I've seen a small number of Radial DI failures, and one of the possible ways to kill one is to drop it just right so that the transformer breaks away from the circuit board.

That has been my only problem with Radial DI's: my own clumsiness. If you're carrying a bunch while packing up and one gets away and hits the deck, the transformers are so large that they can break off the circuit board. I opened up all of mine and put in a block of "hard" foam between the top of the transformer and the case as shock absorption.

-Mark

[Ike Zimbel]

I've seen a small number of Radial DI failures, and one of the possible ways to kill one is to drop it just right so that the transformer breaks away from the circuit board.

If anyone has a broken one that they can post a pic of the innards of the box, I'd love to see it.

[John L Nobile]

If anyone has a broken one that they can post a pic of the innards of the box, I'd love to see it.

I just happened to have the broken one in my office.

https://ibb.co/Jyzf7jQ
https://ibb.co/7Sz1zS7

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