Countryman 85 vs Presonus Firepod instr input, difference not so great!

[noarin]

So I've just bought my countryman 85 DI and compared it directly to my presonus firepod's instrumental input

What I noticed:
The countryman DI has a slightly but noticable lower signal than the presonus firepod.

And

They sound almost exactly the same. Voxengo CurveEQ shows extremely minor differences when I match them, and I wouldn't say that when I throw Amp sims on them that these differences are apparent or audible.. I doubt they´d be much more audible with real amps.

When I up the gain on the channel that the countryman comes into these differences remain the same.. basically I'd just as happily track my DI's with the Presonus instrument inputs then with the Countryman 85.

My signal chain is: Gibson Les Paul Studio+ (Passive pickups) -> Countryman instrument input-> Firepod instrument input and Countryman DI out into Firepod input.

This is no rant I love the simplicity of the countryman and it's ease of use with the phantom power and "through" function to the amp, because if you use an amp it's much easier to set it up this way (otherwise you would need a quality splitter to split the signal to the firepod instr in and your amp.

Ordering a Cuniberti re-amp very soon!

just my $0.02
Rob

edit: I'm pretty sure the countryman is 10 M Ohm and the Firepod instr. in is 1 M Ohm by the way

 

[Fragle]

interesting.
when i compared the profire610 hiZ in to the VTB1 HiZ in as well as the radial pro 48 DI box, the differences where quite apparent imho. prefered the profire610 by far.

 

[kramer1309]

hmm... clips if possible?
i was considering buying a firebox or an inspire .. wonder if they would behave the same (as good instrument input as your firepod - if it does sound that good without a DI box)

 

[noarin]

yeah of course,

http://stud.hro.nl/0762457/countryman.wav
http://stud.hro.nl/0762457/firepod.wav

these are the clean DIs, yes sloppy and out of tune, recorded simultaneously.

again same signal chain

I've set everything neutral, so no added gain on the firepod channel to compensate for the countryman's lower output. If you apply the same amp sim on both tracks the countryman will hence have less gain because of it's lesser input signal naturally.

am I hearing/doing something wrong? 'd love to know!
what do you think?

 

[Melodeath]

The Countryman is 10Mohm b/c you are "supposed" to use the thru-output and connect to an amp. This way your pickup acts exactly like it would if it was plugged into the amp directly, and you get a perfect DI.

By having such a high impedance, the Countryman is electronically "invisible," so to speak, and wont affect your pickups. If you don't use the thru-output, the Countryman's impedance will affect the reaction of your pickups. Same with the Firepod input

See if you find much of a difference if you use the thru-output.

 

[noarin]

I don't seem to understand your point, sorry..

I plug my Gibson into the INSTR in on the Countryman, than I connect a cable from countryman's AMP (output to amplifier) to my presonus firepod instr input channel 1 (as if my presonus was the amp!) then I plug an XLR cable into the Countryman which goes to channel 2 of my presonus firepod. Then I record 2 channels at once, one being the THROUGH or AMP from the countryman, which shouldn't affect the signal as it passes only through it and the second channel will be the XLR DId track, right? that's what I've done in the clips above..

and sonically they don't seem so much different. If anybody could re-amp them with an amp or sim and prove me wrong I'd much appreciate it

Correct me if I'm wrong This is what the manual said..

 

[noarin]

anyone?

 

[ParsonsMatt]

When I did my test, I used my A/B/Y box to split the signal into the Little Labs Redeye and Firestudio Project inputs, and then from the LL Redeye into the FSP's mic input. TREMENDOUS improvement. Seriously a huge improvement.

Try recording the parts separately if you can't get a real A/B/Y box before the reamper.

 

[Oak]

If you're going to test two DI-boxes against each other - plugging them both in at the same time would kind of invalidate the results, wouldn't it?

 

[noarin]

When I did my test, I used my A/B/Y box to split the signal into the Little Labs Redeye and Firestudio Project inputs, and then from the LL Redeye into the FSP's mic input. TREMENDOUS improvement. Seriously a huge improvement.

Try recording the parts separately if you can't get a real A/B/Y box before the reamper.

Thanks, I'm going to try this

and Oak, I still don't see how what I did was wrong, but I'm sure you can explain!

I thought if I send my signal into my countryman and via the through into the firepod that that was the firepod DI channel 1 and that when I connect the XLR-out of my countryman into channel 2 of my firepod that that would be the Countryman's DI, channel 2. Where did my train of thought go off the track mate?