Here’s a good shootout – the first one blind (and I’va had preferences, more to that later):
Here are some more, but not a blind test this time:
Ok, and it’s amazing how close they are, isn’t it? And to reveal my preferences: in the first one with the bass alone I thought “C” was the best, while together with the drums I clearly preferred “A” and also “D” (maybe in that order).
Don’t know if that was tested in a live situation with some 50 or more meter cable which would make a difference between some active and passive DI boxes (and basses, for a passive Fender Precision you’d rather have an active DI on these distances I think).
So my choice, considering that I also play an upright with a passive piezo pickup – and these want high impedance interfaces, preferably 10 MOhm, I’d either go with the Rupert Neve RNDI (which sounded the most “musical” in my opinion), or the Radial PZ-DI with which you can select the input impedance from 220kOhm, 1, and 10MOhm. The RNDI has 2.2MOhm in its “instrument” setting I think. Both cost about the same, “middle priced” which is under 300€/$. But maybe a 95€ Radial SB-4 “Stage Bug” (5MOhm input) would do almost the same job, and very nicely. And something like that fits into each bass case 😉
Also interesting: the comparison with a (very good) audio interface which shows that for normal home use and with asymmetric instrument cables about 3 or 4 meters long you wouldn’t need any of these. Just like Marco from the local music shop said: costly diminishing returns…
As always, thanks for reading.