Which DI?

[djw1981]

At church we are getting some nice new keyboards and around the same time a couple of our ~15yo BSS DIs appear to be failing, so we were looking to get some stereo DIs to go with the new keyboards as an upgrade.

The BSS DIs are single channel and don't appear to be made any more; the Kark Teknik 2 channel DI;'s don't appear to be made or in stock anywhere at present; we found one Radial Pro DI2 which we have on a keyboard in another hall and don;t want to have to keep swapping it. 

 

So which brands / models of 2 channel / stereo DI are currently reliable and quiet etc. 

[themadhippy]

Quote

our ~15yo BSS DIs appear to be failing,

In what way? had problems in the past on the 133's  with the battery clip shorting out on the circuit board,bit of tape over the clip  and no more problems.

[p.k.roberts]

I've always had very good results with the products from Orchid Electronics. Solid, reliable, transparent and just 'do the job'.

http://orchid-electronics.co.uk/Dual_Micro_DI.htm

[Pete Alcock]

+1 vote for the Orchid DIs. Extremely robust and reliable, and no little buttons or switches to get accidentally mis-set.

[richard_cooper]

7 hours ago, djw1981 said:

The BSS DIs are single channel and don't appear to be made any more;

The 133 is still listed by BSS and is in stock at Thomann/Bax/DV247(others) and backordered until July at a few others. 

+1 also on the Orchid boxes, I've not used the dual micro but have some of the classics and have used the single micro and muting DI plenty, good stuff.

Edited May 15, 2022 by richard_cooper

[Bryson]

In my role as evangelist for Canadian-made products:  Radial make very nice stereo DIs:  https://www.radialeng.com/product/prod2

 

😉

[Simon Lewis]

I've had good results with the BSS DI boxes. The original DN200 ("rubber sleeved brick") has been updated to a smaller v2, and there's a number of variants in the newer lower cost series. Most are out of stock, though, as seems to be the case with several brands of DI.
I've used and liked EMO, but a quick check with Canford show them to be twice the price that I last paid for one.

At the moment, it seems that Radial are the best bet for being in stock, unless you want to check with Orchid...

Edited May 16, 2022 by Simon Lewis

[cedd]

All my DI's are LA audio and they've been fantastic. The 2 channel stereo one is passive and has a whole myriad of connectors. No bells and whistles, just no fuss decent sounding electronics. 

[sunray]

I don't use "DI's" very often but I do habitually use isolation transformers, especially between unbalanced items. I have 1:1, 1:1:1, 1:4 & 1:7 ratios so a decent range of step up/down available

When I do require to DI I simply use a transformer, totally passive and noise free, 10, 20 & 30dB pads have so far covered all eventualities.

If I was doing big rigs all the time I'm sure my thoughts and kit would change.

[Alec]

I'll echo many others and say that I've been very happy with my Orchid DIs.  I use the Stadard, Muting, Micro, and Dual Micro.

I also have no problem with Radial DIs - other than the price.

That said, most DIs do the job to a decent standard.  The only exception to this is, of course, the nasty Behringer DI-20.

[sunray]

19 hours ago, Alec said:

the nasty Behringer DI-20.

Oh goodness yes, I'd forgotten about those.

I was helping on a soundstage and we suffered clunks/bangs/feedback which proved to be a microphonic DI. IIRC that was the Behringer incident.

[timsabre]

Funny how those are so variable, I've got 2 in our church pa which have been chucked around every week for 10 years and still work perfectly.