A question or two on various reamp boxes

[Thared33]

I heard using an active DI Box is a bad thing when you use passive pickups in your guitar, and that an active DI is best used with active pickups, and a passive DI is best used with a guitar that has passive pickups. Right? Hmm... Not too sure on that. I use passive pups exclusively (Dimarzio).

My RNP preamp has Hi-Z DI inputs... but hear me out here. If I DO get a DI Box that matches the impedance, what would it be like if I run my guitar to the DI Box (which corrects the impedance), then run into the RNP which ALSO matches up the impedance? If that were the case and it were a bad thing, I could maybe run into the mic inputs on the back using a 1/4toXLR cable and that'd help from running through two of those 'impedance corrections'. I think.

Running a synth directly into my RNP sounds fine without a DI Box, because it corrects everything right on the Hi-Z inputs. I heard that a DI Box would sound better, so that makes me curious if it's worth running my synth through a DI Box first and then into either the Hi-Z inputs or even possibly the mic inputs on the back of my RNP.

I'm thinking of either the J48 box (because the X-amp doesn't have a 'thruput'), or maybe something like the Countryman. I need to be able to monitor my amp in real time rather than hearing the clean DI track coming from my computer, so that's why I'd need something with a thruput.

This stuff can get confusing at times.

 

[Trevoire520]

You seem to be a bit confused about the difference between reamp boxes and DI boxes here.
DI boxes convert guitar/line level signals to mic level & impedance so they can be plugged into a mic preamp.
Reamp boxes convert line level signals into guitar level & impedance so you can send clean DI'd guitar tracks into a guitar amp.

A DI box converts your signal to mic level & impedance. So no you don't want to be going into a di and then into a hi-z input. This means you'd be sending mic level & impedance signal into a input thats expecting to see guitar level & impedance. This will cause a unpleasant colouration to your tone. You want to go from the DI output (xlr) to the mic input (xlr)

Your synth is a line level source, so should be going into a line level input, or through a DI box into the mic input.

For passive pickups you should be a getting a DI with the highest input impedance you can get (1Mohm or greater) to make sure there is as little colouration as possible. Examples of 1Mohm DI's are BSS AR133, Tapco DB-1A, MTR DI-3.

I'm can't remember the advantages/disadvantages of active vs. passive DI's. I think that actives can take a higher input voltage so are less likely to overload when using active pickups. And that actives are better for driving long cable runs. I believe the downside is that active DI's are a bit noisier than passive ones.

There's been alot of threads on the whole active vs passive DI thing. Do a search.

 

[Metaltastic]

Actually, an active DI is always better than a passive for capturing guitar DI's, the difference is if your guitar has active pickups the differences between a good active and a good passive DI are pretty much nil. But since you use passives, definitely an active DI is the way to go! (the two best are the Countryman Type 85 and BSS AR-133, just scour ebay and get whichever you can find cheaper, cuz they're built practically indestructibly!)

As for re-amp boxes, the Radial ProRMP is great at $100, and the extra $100 for a Cuniberti Reamp V2 nets you maybe an 8% improvement in tone (I speak from direct comparison ), so it's up to you whether you feel that's worth it!

And the J48 really is not that good, definitely inferior to the Countryman and BSS, I found it noisy and harsh!

 

[Metaltastic]

Source of info:

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/...-di-shootout-also-my-best-recto-tone-yet.html
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment/465146-big-re-amper-shootout.html

And the instrument inputs on the RNP are probably pretty damn good, but I would still buy one of the two boxes on ebay I suggested above, compare the two, and sell it if it's not noticeably better than the RNP in's!

 

[Thared33]

Very informative replies, thanks a lot guys!