The Grace Designs Alix could be another option. Has EQ also. Says it’s for acoustic guitars but I emailed Grace and got a reply back saying it would work for any electric instrument, but nothing more specific than that. Doesn’t build confidence when you use electrical guitar and bass for almost everything.

DI XLR out has line or mic level output

3 different impedance settings. HI: 10MΩ / MED: 1MΩ / LOW: 330kΩ

Those Z's would be fine for the pickups on acoustic or electric guitars. Even if it's an acoustic (or any other instrument) with a piezo just set it to HI / 10MOhm, that's a good setting for that type. Either of the other two settings will be fine for elec bass or guitar or for the electromagnetic pickups on acoustic guitars these days. You can try both settings and see which one you like better
I think that's why you got such a generic reply, with those settings it will work well on those instruments or pretty much anything inc. acoustic guitar pickups

I kinda thought so too in terms of loading the PU’s properly. The way they advertise this product is odd to me, it seems like a sleeper DI box that is a Swiss Army knife that allows you to hit converters directly with line level and gives you EQ options etc.

And if it is up to par with Grace’s reputation for quality and transparent tone..

I guess you could put it this way. I accidentally stumbled across this device not realizing it’s an acoustic preamp/DI. And now I’m sitting here think wait a minute.. this box would be awesome for recording if it wasn’t just for acoustic type of pickups…
Some places it’s called “acoustic preamp” and others it’s called “instrument preamp”

Maybe some people on here have used it?

Anyone tried the Radial HDI? Looks interesting but I just wonder if you're willing to spend that much on a single channel of DI there must be others you'd consider first, eg like a single channel mic pre using the Hi-Z input.

Speaking of which, I started using my Clarett+ 8Pre recently and saw a good review of the instrument inputs. Anyone have comments on it?

Haven't tried the Radial HDI, but I previously used their JDV (both mk3 and mk5 versions), which was their previous "high-end" DI. Honestly, for what the HDI costs, I would recommend going with the Undertone GB tracker. It sounded better than the Radials I used to use, and it has amazing functionality as a reamp device as well.

Not really making use of it at the moment, but I have tested the Hi-Z DI input on my Audient iD12mkii. It's pretty impressive, sounded cool with just my strat.

It came with an Amp Sim, a nifty selection of cabs and a bass cab or two. Those I haven't gotten around to testing. I believe the latency of the interface is not ideal for monitoring the Amp Sim plugin while recording, but it is what it is.

Also came with a pretty good soft synth and a cool but rather limited soft mellotron, and licenses for everything. Just the one DI, but one totally worth using.

I used Countryman since the 70s. In the new century, Radial JDI, JD2, JDV, JD7 and a redeye.

The HDI is pretty nice. Not something I need but I was very impressed by it. Good colour box & comp that works well on everything.

I use the JDI religiously and got rid of all my fancier ones.

When a product has a little window to view a starved 12AX7, and now, also for me, when it features a “color” control, I begin to loose interest.

Which product are you talking about?

I got my musician neighbour friend (wow, that was a good effort by spellcheck, it reckoned "Brighton") to play some acoustic guitar with a pickup into my 8Pre with the input in DI/hi-Z instrument mode and I have to say it wasn't bad at all, full bodied lows and mids with a detailed but smooth top end, no complaints there. It was a good Maton guitar and pickup so it damn well should be good, it certainly didn't mess it up anyway. Doesn't get noisy at high gain either

The active Radial I'm using is their PZ-DI, IMO that's a better choice than the J48. Not just for the extra features but there's something I notice about it that's a subtle improvement over the J48.

The JDI is a good passive based on a Jensen xfo but for my money the cheaper ProD2 is a good choice. The Eclipse transformers are slightly less bright when driven hard and IMO are a good match for hot signals from drum pads, backing tracks, keys etc. For stage use I find they tend to be set too hot so this DI is a good match

I took it to mean the HDI since it has a "colour" control. And I agree, what's that supposed to mean objectively? If it sounds too green do you brown it up a bit? I can't stand those cutesy meaningless labels on expensive gear... Makes them look like they're actually just ordinary gear but tarted up with attention -grabbing bait, trying to cash in on the high prices of the high end market whether it belongs with it or not. For all I know it might be just as good as other stuff in its price range but stuff like "colour" knobs just puts me off. In another thread someone posted about an expensive compressor with "chi" control and I think "mu", what a load of unmentionable

Over the years, I’ve come to recognize and love the “color” of lots of classic gear. But, I only expect each piece of gear to excel at one color.

Audio marketing is comedy, it’s not a new thing.

It’s just a distortion knob.

Audio gear in 2030:

ShimmeryHendrix A1142
WARMNESS SWITCH - AIRYNESS CONJOINER - COLOR1/2/3 - KM84 GENERATOR
Danish Gymnasium Reverb
Gain now in Hexabels

I modified one of these:

To function as a Bass/Keyboard DI:

It now has two inputs (for "active" or "passive"), and there is a
transformer-balanced line-level output (TRS).

(There are also now switches for ground lift, etc. (but it can still be used in the original topology if need be).

I run it in the (so-called) "bypass" mode (meaning that it takes the signal directly into an FET, then straight to the output section), so most of the circuitry is not used.

(I also liberated that poor starving tube so that it might well serve humanity elsewhere).

The front now looks like this:

Something I hadn't realised about the PZ-DI: if you press the pad switch the input impedance becomes 50kOhm. You generally only need the pad for line level outputs like keyboards, drum pads etc so if you're using that the 50k setting is a good choice. I generally use passive DI's on sources like that but I'll a/b my PZ-DI and passives on a line input and see what happens.

For my Beyerdynamic M160 (ribbon mics) they need to be on a short lead before they get to a buffer/pre-amp or the capacitance robs all the top end so I've been using an sE DM2 TNT, which also allows me to switch the input impedance and ribbons like a higher Z. But it has 100k and 10M settings too, so at a pinch with an adapter they can stand in as a DI. They're a pretty simple circuit but I'll try it, again compared with the PZ-DI on similar settings.

Also wondering if anyone is using a Clarett+ interface as a DI using the Hi-Z switch on the first two channels? EDIT I totally forgot that I did try this and posted about it before, but at the time I didn't have another DI with me to compare with on the same guitar.
If anyone does use that input I'd like to hear what you think

One issue I've heard of with the PZ-DI is that the LPF is set too low, at 3kHz. But it is a gentle roll-off, AFAIK 6dB / octave so to get reasonable attenuation up where you hear all the hiss it needs to start fairly low. It's not just for noise reduction but for tone shaping, taking the edge off some of the thinner sounding piezos. Radial probably designed it with some particular source in mind, they advertise it as their "orchestral" DI so I'm guessing the most popular piezo contact pickups for orchestral instruments.

One DI I'd love to get my hands on would be the Grace guitar pre-amp/DI's. Those LR Baggs Para DI's were very popular with touring acoustic guitar players at some venues I worked at. They've got some great features like the notch filter calibrated to the strings/notes of the guitar, but they weren't the world's nicest sounding circuit. The Grace stuff I'm told is sounds better and has powerful controls too.

I'll get a chance to try the Hi-Z/DI input on a friend's Clarett+ 8Pre on Monday, he's got the same unit I do. It's got good mic pre's for its price point but the Cirrus Logic converters IMO are its best feature. I'll try and grab some takes on my other DI's while I'm at it to see how it stacks up and my friend has a classic old Countryman. They used to be on a lot of the riders back in the day, let's see how they go against the upstart Radial (PZ-DI's are essentially a version of the J48 as I understand it)

For character I tend towards my GAP 73 DLX or Thermionic Culture Rooster 2's DIs. But if I want clean I use one of my homemade DIs, I have a few of 'em. all using a Sowter 4243 Transformer. Very quiet and clean.

Very cool, thanks for this post. I was going to post tonight asking for opinions on favourite DI transformers and here's something I can use.
But while I'm here, I'm interested if anyone has an opinion on the Eclipse xfo's in Radial's cheaper units vs the Jensens. There must be many models of suitable transformers just in the Jensen brand too

Can you try to describe the tone of each?

Hmmm, very interesting. I've never heard anyone say that.

Certainly...
To me all the DI's on the list share one word: Musicality.
1. REDDI = Epic, Heroic and Cinematic
2. Avalon = Clean and clinical, with tone engaged it's a Tone King with 1000 faces
3. Telefunken = Round and Lush
4. Radial = a DI

:-)

It's a great DI but it's not a tone box like the REDDI and others. It just helps give things a little more oomph and detail and doesn't sound as wimpy as plugging straight into a Hi-Z on an interface.

I use it to hit the transformers on my pres because even if they have a DI input it usually doesn't come in through the input transformer unless you're using XLR/Mic level.

I rarely track guitar without it though, even if I'm using an amp.

lately, i've been using the klark dn-1414 again - along various models from radial of course...

I have the Clarett+ 8Pre, and I also have a Focusrite Isa Two. I briefly compared the preamps and DI of both, and the Isa Two is clearly superior. Playing guitar on Neural DSP plugins, the difference between the two was evident.

I'm sorry if this has already been discussed, but I find little information on the subject. When thinking about combining DIs and other bass equipment such as Sansamps preamps, Darkglass pedals or even real amplifiers, how best to combine or think about DIs?
For example, I have a Sansamp GED-2112 (which has two channels, the drive channel and a "Deep" one, which supposedly emulates tube saturation) and I was using an Avalon U5, but now it is having problems and there is no support in my country and I'm thinking about purchasing a REDDI. So I'm wondering if the combination of Sansamp's Deep channel and REDDI wouldn't be redundant, and I would end up having two bass channels with similar tone, instead of having 3 distinct channels to mix, as I had with the Avalon U5.

Anyone have experience with the capi DIs? Specifically the big red...

The DI's (which essentially are very high impedance circuits) I use are simply the ones in my audio interfaces like the SSL12 and Audient iD44 mk II. Advances in chips and circuit design really make a separate DI box quite unnecessary.

Thanks for this, I'm glad to hear your experience. I've got the same interface but not an ISA, though I'm not surprised you could hear the difference. The Cirrus Logic converters in the Clarett+ are its best feature IMO. The pre-amps are good for a home studio interface but they don't hold up to high end units. If you have good external DI's or pre-amps then connecting those via the line input is the way to go.
I've found the Hi-Z mode of the inputs adequate on that interface but a quality DI or mic pre made a real improvement