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New DI Day - Radial SB-2 Stagebug passive DI
- Thread starter mesaplayer83
- Start date
It's to do with input impedance. Often passive DI boxes can have low impedances that load down passive guitars, a bit like having a really, really long cables. Active DI boxes don't have this problem (and in very rare cases can have the opposite problem if you plug a low impedance source such as a keyboard into them) but obviously as downside they do need power.
We normally run our own sound and the Behringer XR18 we use has individual phantom power on every channel so I could happily use an active box, but when we work with other sound companies they're often really really reticent to provide phantom power, so having a passive box is useful.
It's nice to have choices.
We normally run our own sound and the Behringer XR18 we use has individual phantom power on every channel so I could happily use an active box, but when we work with other sound companies they're often really really reticent to provide phantom power, so having a passive box is useful.
It's nice to have choices.
I bought a Stagebug as a backup to connect to different systems. They are small and good quality.
Tried my passive P Bass straight to the board and then through the Stagebug, you can hear that you lose the highs when you don’t use the DI.
Radial make excellent products and I really like their tube DI but I bought an F-1X instead for the tonal options.
Tried my passive P Bass straight to the board and then through the Stagebug, you can hear that you lose the highs when you don’t use the DI.
Radial make excellent products and I really like their tube DI but I bought an F-1X instead for the tonal options.
I have a small pedal board setup that provides me plenty of versatility - the MXR preamp/DI is "off" most of the time, and in that mode it acts as a pre-EQ active DI - when switched on and set in post EQ, it allows me to tailor it for a particular bass... When I use more than 1 bass, sometimes I'll EQ my amp for one bass with the MXR "off", then dial in the other bass with it "on" - it makes for fairly seamless bass changes in the middle of a set...
I just bought the active stagebug off the classifieds. Nice and tiny little board you have there! I was also looking into the hpf, I see you have one. Would this work for my setup? Going direct with no amp?
It absolutely would work with your setup - I've used mine exclusively since getting it... I've played a fair amount of gigs with just that pedal board, and it worked extremely well...
Zombifying again... so apologies. The SB-2 is on my shortlist of DIs for my HX XL board (she don't like phantom down the line, so a DI is needed), along with the Art ZDirect. I play in drop G, so a 24.5hz fundamental. Radial's charts show a 0.5dB attenuation between 25-30hz.... whereas the Art offering is flat down to 20hz, but there's some QC and saturation concerns with the chinese made ZDirect. Would I realistically notice that half a dB attenuation down that low? Waiting for Radial's response at the moment before I pull the trigger.
jacoby75
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- Mar 11, 2010
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- Endorsing Artist: Mike Lull Custom Guitars, DR Strings
The SB2 worked "fine," but if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't cheap out on a DI. Once I upgraded to a better tube DI (which I realize is not an apples-to-apples comparison, but more like apples to Ferraris), the difference was night and day. Even a JDI would be better.
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The thread is alive!!!
The carts in your post are for phase response not frequency response. You would not hear 10 degree of phase shift at 20 hz or .5 db of frequency level change.
The tone controls on the bass and the pedals with shift the phase response much more.
As for the 25 to 30hz levels very very few sub woofers truly even go that low in the first place.
Top image is f response, bottom is phase shift. Thanks for the clarification. Worst case scenario, I give the global EQ on my HX a bump of 1dB at 30hz to compensate. Lower than 20hz and the HPF cuts it off anyway.