Boss DI-1

[~BURNY~]

Anybody familiar with these?
Got one for free and honestly I think it sounds much better than my Type 85.
Stronger signal, less low end distortion.
Really pleasantly surprised.

 

[Spectivum]

interesting as it seems to have a low input impedance

 

[~BURNY~]

How do you gather this?
The specs on Boss website say nothing about it...
I'd be willing to measure it but I have no clue about the proper way to do it tbh.

EDIT: Found it: Input Impedance: 4.7MOhm

Lower than a Type 85 or Redeye indeed but not that low compared to many competitors in the same price range.

 

[Rex Rocker]

Is it active?

Honestly, in the matter of DI's, my Countryman doesn't sound all that different than my Radial ProDI with EMG's, but it's WAAAAAY noisier.

 

[Spectivum]

oops, my bad, wrong search.
manual says 4.7Mohm so that looks good then, I can imagine it would have a good sound
http://media.rolandus.com/manuals/DI-1_OM.pdf

 

[~BURNY~]

Is it active?

Honestly, in the matter of DI's, my Countryman doesn't sound all that different than my Radial ProDI with EMG's, but it's WAAAAAY noisier.

Yes, it's active.
In my experience, passive pickups are way more sensitive to load, be it DI boxes or cables than active pickups. I don't find my countryman very noisy but as I said, the Boss as a much higher output.

 

[deLuther]

Do you guys think that the larger impedance is, the better?
Of course I mean cases where impedance is larger than 1 MOhm, as in standard tube amp...
And, of course, I`m not mean situations where DI box splits signal to amp through THRU output, where larger than 1 M impedance can give result closer to guitar straight to amp.

 

[~BURNY~]

Do you guys think that the larger impedance is, the better?
Of course I mean cases where impedance is larger than 1 MOhm, as in standard tube amp...
And, of course, I`m not mean situations where DI box splits signal to amp through THRU output, where larger than 1 M impedance can give result closer to guitar straight to amp.

I am vaguely aware of the 10:1 rule and I know it's just a rule of thumb but I'm sure you are far more competent in electronics than I am.

There are probably many other factors at play and obviously 10Mohm isn't the be-all end-all for signal integrity.

Actually, I'm starting to think the Countryman is largely over rated because of it.

 

[deLuther]

10 MOhm can play significant role when plugged to amp, because in that case input impedance of DI-box and amp becomes parallel, so, in case of 1 MOhm both, you will have only 500 kOhm input impedance for guitar, while 10 and 1 M parallel will give 0.9 M.
Playing straight into 10 M will give high resonance peak for passive pickup, like guitar wiring with single 500k or larger pot nominal, which can be not always good.
Ideally DI-box input with THRU option should use different impedances: when nothing plugged into THRU output there should be 1 MOhm, when THRU connected to amp maybe there should be only OP-amp impedance (or FET input stage impedance and so on), which is far more than 10 M for many models.

 

[~BURNY~]

I rarely ever use the thru out when tracking these days personally thanks to ampsims. I prefer reamping later. I ended up using your mod for the ProRMP btw. Never looked back.

 

[deLuther]

I ended up using my mic/line/preamp as balanced/unbalanced converter, with cable from interface with unwired ground from one side, more linear response
Leaving ProRMP as backup solution for complicated ground issues.