DI Boxes
Joe Kotroczo
I need something cheap and cheerful as a DI box.
Anybody tested the Behringer Ultra-DI DI400P? That thing is so cheap that
it's hard to believe they manage to make a profit on it. It must cost them
less than �5 to make. Can it be any good at that price?
Or should I stick wth the Behringer Ultra-DI 100 (which I'm told are exact
copies of the BSS AR133. At a fifth of the price.)
Any opinions?
Cheers,
Joe
--
Joe Kotroczo kotr...@mac.com
Ron
> Hello all,
>
> I need something cheap and cheerful as a DI box.
>
> Anybody tested the Behringer Ultra-DI DI400P? That thing is so cheap that
> it's hard to believe they manage to make a profit on it. It must cost them
> less than �5 to make. Can it be any good at that price?
>
> Or should I stick wth the Behringer Ultra-DI 100 (which I'm told are exact
> copies of the BSS AR133. At a fifth of the price.)
The DI100 certainly isnt a copy of the BSS AR133 there`s no comparison
either in construction or performance. I have both and the BSS knocks
spots off the Belringer.
However the DI100 isnt bad. The D120 is very noisy and overloads easily,
but is useful for use as a splitter or combiner.
I have no experience of D11400 but I expect it has a pretty substandard
transformer at that price.
The box which was claimed to be 'identical' to the BSS is the
Studiospares 'Active DI Box' which looks almost exactly like a BSS and
has a very similar external and internal layout, but far inferior
transformer and build quality. They suffer from the dreaded lead free
solder problem, mainly on the xlr sockets. They are also available
bearing various other brand names.
Studiospares no longer claim them to be the same unit as the BSS.
I have photographs somewhere comparing the internals of the BSS with
those of the Studiospares box btw.
I think the best DI I've heard is the Radial
On a budget, I`d go with the DI100 personally.
IMHO
Ron
Phildo
"Joe Kotroczo" <kotr...@mac.com> wrote in message
news:C6B0B22F.9D948%kotr...@mac.com...
> Or should I stick wth the Behringer Ultra-DI 100 (which I'm told are exact
> copies of the BSS AR133. At a fifth of the price.)
They're not exact copies but they are bloody good for the price. Thomann do
them dirt cheap but you might as well pop down the road to Studiospares and
get them there.
Phildo
Ron
the xlrs cracking away? Once they`ve been blanket bombed with the
soldering iron they are ok.
Ron
George's Pro Sound Co.
"Phildo" <Ph...@phildo.net> wrote in message
news:h6f110$hus$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
tops of the push button switches dissapear, but have never had one fail,
unlike my Radial JDI's got 3 dead ones that I haven't found the ambition to
send in, no bad solder joints so perhaps I will hump them to AES in NY this
year and give them over to Radial there
George
Ron
inadvertently knocking them, you can still swith them with a pen or the
tip of a little finger.
I`ve had a couple fail, one was a dry joint on the loom twixt front and
back pcbs, and the other intermittent turned out to be one of the
battery wires trapped and shorting out to the case. We have something
like 18 of them altogether, most of them 8 or 9 years old now, so it`s
not a bad failure rate at all.
Ron
Phildo
"Ron" <r...@lunevalleyaudio.com> wrote in message
news:RYadnSiswO5hmhbX...@bt.com...
Nope, have owned loads and never had a problem with them.
The Studiospares ones have a problem with the XLR connections coming loose &
falling inside the box.
Phildo
Arny Krueger
> Any opinions?
I've had to repair several of my Behringer DIs. One was shipped with an
internal connector hot-melt-glued partially disconnected. (!!!)
On balance, they were cheap and have been easy to repair.
Anybody who hasn't run into quality problems with Behr gear is either very
lucky, or lacks the experience and judgement it takes to know when products
are really good. I've got a couple of name-brand DIs and they have been
perfect, albeit at over three times the price.
geoff
Which one is the 8 channel 1U rack ? I've got one and it's fanatstic -
features and performance. It had a dead 3T regulator feeding 2 channels,
but that took 15 minutes and $3 to fix. Would have been a pain for someone
non-tecnical though.. Since then working well solidly for several years.
geoff
Ron
That's the problem I had.
Ron
Arny Krueger
news:M72dnYKrNL0HrBbX...@giganews.com
> Joe Kotroczo wrote:
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I need something cheap and cheerful as a DI box.
>>
>> Anybody tested the Behringer Ultra-DI DI400P? That thing
>> is so cheap that it's hard to believe they manage to
>> make a profit on it. It must cost them less than �5 to
>> make. Can it be any good at that price?
>>
>> Or should I stick wth the Behringer Ultra-DI 100 (which
>> I'm told are exact copies of the BSS AR133. At a fifth
>> of the price.)
>>
>> Any opinions?
>
>
> Which one is the 8 channel 1U rack ?
BEHRINGER ULTRA-DI PRO DI800 8-CHANNEL RACK D.I.
> I've got one and
> it's fanatstic - features and performance. It had a dead
> 3T regulator feeding 2 channels, but that took 15 minutes
> and $3 to fix. Would have been a pain for someone
> non-tecnical though.. Since then working well solidly
> for several years.
>
I have one but it hasn't broken yet. I also haven't had to use all of its
channels at the same time...
Phil Allison
"Joe Kotroczo"
>
> I need something cheap and cheerful as a DI box.
>
> Anybody tested the Behringer Ultra-DI DI400P? That thing is so cheap that
> it's hard to believe they manage to make a profit on it. It must cost them
> less than �5 to make. Can it be any good at that price?
** The big advantage of such simple, passive DIs is that there is
NO ELECTRONICS inside - so there is virtually nothing to go wrong !!
The disadvantage is that they it will not work well with every possible
signal source, either because their input impedance is too low or the
output level is too low.
Use them with items that produce line level audio - ie keyboards,
line outs on guitar/bass amps or any box of electronics that lacks a
balanced output to feed the PA and all will likely be fine.
> Or should I stick wth the Behringer Ultra-DI 100 (which I'm told are exact
> copies of the BSS AR133. At a fifth of the price.)
** Much more complicated and hence versatile - but way less reliable in
the long term.
Needs battery or phantom power to work, with all the risks that
automatically entails. Batteries go flat at inconvenient times, while
phantom power is often responsible for colossal bangs and intermittent
crackling noises if you are not very careful with set up and maintenance.
If you have no need for high input impedance or use with low level sources
( ie instruments with bug PUs ) then forget it.
..... Phil
Denny Strauser
> George's Pro Sound Co. wrote:
>> I find the ultra useable but not very rugged, battery doors get lost,
>> the tops of the push button switches dissapear, but have never had one
>> fail, unlike my Radial JDI's got 3 dead ones that I haven't found the
>> ambition to send in, no bad solder joints so perhaps I will hump them
>> to AES in NY this year and give them over to Radial there
>> George
>>
> Oh, I take the tops off the pad switches to prevent the talent from
> inadvertently knocking them, you can still swith them with a pen or the
> tip of a little finger.
>
The newer Behringer DI's don't have the option of taking off the pad
buttons. I always did that, but now the musos can pad down the DI's 40db
when they plug their acoustics in.
Denny Strauser
And, a significant ground fault/current problem will burn out the DI.
Had this happen a number of times.
Ron
Or worse, unpad them when they plug their accordian in!
Ron
Joe Kotroczo
Strauser" <dsdenn...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hey, they were 20 quid. The BSS AR133 are 5 times that price. Let's see how
long the Behringers last, maybe by that time I have some more budget to play
with.
--
Joe Kotroczo kotr...@mac.com
Denny Strauser
Don't get me wrong, for the price, I like the Behringer Ultra DI's. They
sound clean & are versatile - high output. If I was on a limited budget
& had a choice of DI's, I'd buy the Behringers. If a few die, so what.
At that price who cares. If I had no budget concerns, I'd choose
something else.
What I said about ground problems frying the DI is also true of wrongly
wired phantom power. This is made clear in the short user manual that
Behrenger supplies.
-Denny
Ron
I`ve had a couple die on me, I have some nice transformers out of an old
Canary mixing desk, so it was easy to reuse the case to convert them to
passive DI's, handy for keyboards and dj`s.
btw, you must be really careful not to let the Ultra DI's clip. if you
overload them (keyboard players are the worst culprits) they sound like
death!
ROn
Michael Dobony
I have used this cheap one with good success. It holds up well and not bad
for the price.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Zdirect/