Pls halp, need to upgrade my interface

[He's Dead, Jim]

Apologies if this could have been covered in another thread, but I've spent a while on Google and I'm at the stage where I think I need advice/input, not just information.

Right now I've got a Line6 UX1 interface. I'm just recording guitars and bass DIs through the instrument input and using amp sims. For recording acoustic guitars or vocals, I use my MXL 990 USB mic.

I feel like the quality of my DI tracks isn't very good, and my guitar has EMG 81/85s in it so the DIs are coming in at about -6dbf. I can turn down the volume, but it's a pain in the ass and I think I'm losing some of the attack. I want to fix this by hopefully getting something with a pad that produces better-sounding DIs as well.

But my conundrum is this: I'd be getting a Radial or Countryman 85, plugging my guitar into that, and hooking an XLR cable up to the UX1 from the DI XLR output- which would still leave my sound dependent on the mediocre Line 6 preamps, right? So I'd have to buy both a new, superior interface AND a DI box, which seems like a lot of money when I could just buy a Focusrite interface for $200 and get the whole package.

But if I purchase a whole interface, then I don't get the benefit of the very smooth and nice-sounding Countryman or Radial DI. So which do you guys recommend? Or is there a simpler way of doing this that I'm too n00by to grasp?

Thanks in advance. I would have posted in the interface FAQ thread, but the last response was in October 2012

 

[atoragon]

in the back of your line6 interface there are 2 line inputs that should bypass the internal preamp of your soundcard.
if you go from the output of your DI to the line input of the interface you should be independent from the line6 preamp.

 

[He's Dead, Jim]

in the back of your line6 interface there are 2 line inputs that should bypass the internal preamp of your soundcard.
if you go from the output of your DI to the line input of the interface you should be independent from the line6 preamp.

But the DI only has a 1/4 inch thru output, which would be totally unprocessed and therefore irrelevant, and an XLR output, right? So I'd need a 1/4 inch to XLR converter on the line input of the Line6...but then where is the preamp coming from? That would still be line level, right?

 

[deLuther]

Radial J48 will work with phantom power only, no batteries, most conventional DI boxes meant to be used with microphone input, hence there is significant level reduction, for line input it will be, most probably, too much.
For example Radial JDI (passive DI box based on Jensen transformer) have -22 db reduction due to transformer itself (see Jensen JT-DB-E datasheet).
In general you should use microphone input with phantom power for active DI box and just microphone input for passive one.

 

[atoragon]

I thought that the di was working with batteries/ac adapter. in which case it would have worked as a preamp alternative to the line6 one.