How big of a difference is a cheap D.I. box going to make?

[abaga129]

I hate to make a thread just for this but it is a question that has been bothering me for a while. I'm curious about how much improvement a D.I. will make in my situation.
My interface is a Tascam US-1800 which has a switch on the 1/4 input for guitar or bass. I'm not really sure what it does but I assume its like a D.I. box.

Would buying even a cheap d.I. such as the behringer ultra d.I. be benificial? I have always felt like something is missing in my guitar d.I.s. they have always sounded dull. My guitar is an LTD MH-250 with seymour duncan ahb-1's.

I'm hoping a D.I. is the missing piece. Unfortunately I can't afford an expensive D.I. at the moment but I'm not necessarily worried about durability.

 

[DullElysium]

PI'd stay away from the behringer di box. I bought one years ago thinking that altleast it can't do any harm.. I was wrong. The thing just added extra noise. Then i bought the radial di+x-amp kit. Works.

 

[abaga129]

That's what I was afraid of. If I can get it cheap enough, I may get it just to try because I've heard very different reviews of its performance/reliability

 

[JeffTD]

Even if it worked fine, there's a certain stress that would accompany the unit for me. Sitting there and tracking, knowing I was running my guitar into a Behringer DI would throw me off because I would just always be worried about quality degradation. Peace of mind and confidence in the gear is worth an extra $100 on something like a DI.

 

[deLuther]

Even inexpensive opamp with good bipolar power supply (i.e. +/-15 V) can do the job with low THD and noise

 

[abaga129]

If I could afford a Radial or Countryman, I would buy one in a heartbeat and a good D.I. is infact the next thing on my shopping list. But unfortunately since music is less of a job and more of a hobby for me, bills take priority. I was just hoping to make some sort of improvement before tracking my bands next single.

Not really sure what an opamp is but I'll look into that!

 

[deLuther]

Opamp = operational amplifier, one vital part of schematic of most active direct boxes.
Discrete preamps on transistors are not so convenient to design.

 

[JeffTD]

You'll spend more buying the Behringer and then eventually buying the Radial or 85 than you would by just buying the Radial or 85 to begin with.

 

[abaga129]

deLuther, I'm interested in the whole opamp idea and since I love DIY stuff do you know of any good resources for making one?

And yeah I know its more money in the long run, that's why I made this thread to see if there was any potential benefit to it. It appears not haha

 

[FarBeyondMetal]

I've been where you are so many times when buying gear. My suggestion is to use what you have until you can afford something of good quality. Buying something to "get you by" is almost always a waste of money.

Also, you are not even 100 percent sure that a high quality DI box would fix your issue. There could be a million reasons why your DI's are subpar apart from the recording gear. I would suggest trying to borrow a nice DI box, that way you can know if that will fix your issue or not and you can go from there.

 

[abaga129]

^
Thats a really good idea, I might know someone that has one.

 

[Trevoire520]

Going from a cheap interface hi-z to a cheap DI I wouldn't expect a big difference in quality tbh. As has already been said use what you have until you can afford something that you know will last. He who buys cheap, buys twice.