Ultimate Bass DI Shootout!

[stonecoldbass]

Hey guys,
I was lucky enough recently to get my hands on a bunch of top class DI boxes including:
Tonecraft 363 Tube DI (!!)
REDDI
Avalon U5
TAB Funkenwerk V71 DI
Rupert Neve DI
So I decided to do a bit of a comparison test of all these boxes alongside my own humble equipment; a Markbass Big Bang and a Mindprint Envoice Channel strip. I play a fingerstyle groove and a slap groove through each unit to give you an idea of how the respond to transients, long notes etc;
The most startling thing I found was actually how well my 'prosumer' units stood up to the big boys, not a million miles away to be honest. Upon closer inspection, the dedicated units are more detailed and solid in the fundamentals though, so they do justify there price tag...mostly
I would be more than happy to take any of the boxes to a session as they all do their job extremely well, just with slightly different flavours and features.
All audio files are available for download from [url="http://www.basslessonsmelbourne.com"]http://www.basslessonsmelbourne.com[/url] so you can listen to them in your preferred environment.
Which one is your favourite???
[media\][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwHR-wONYMc[/media][/media]

[Mykesbass]

To be honest, the only two I could hear any difference from were the Tonecraft which happened to be my favourite and the Neve which sounded just a tiny bit thinner/weaker than the rest. But then we are talking such crazy tiny amounts, and yes, your MarkBass and Mindprint certainly didn't disgrace themselves.

Nice, concise demoing style by the way.

[stonecoldbass]

Hey Mykesbass, thanks for checking it out, glad you dig the vibe. You're right the differences are pretty small and if you don't have decent headphones are speakers it can be hard to spot any differences at all! It's really interesting to see what you get for your money, and also how far you can go with just consumer level gear too.

[Badass]

Thanks for this comparison test.

[roman_sub]

Good comparison. The REDDI is my favourite, I just love the way it shapes the low end. On gearslutz I think someone described its sound as "wet titties"... and that actually makes sense....By the way the right channel was clipping in my headphones for all fingerstyle samples.

[stonecoldbass]

Yeah the more I listen the more the REDDI is sticking out as my favourite. I will investigate the clipping issue, but I haven't had any other reports and seems strange that would occur as they are all mono signals converted to stereo so should be equal in both channels.Thanks!

[LukeFRC]

conversely I've just listened on my macbook speakers (ill come back with some headphones ) and was surprised I could hear such differences!
The Neve di box (unsurprisingly) reminded me of the warwick hellborg preamp I had.

[mrtcat]

Really like the tonecraft and the reddi but was also pleasantly impressed with the Markbass too. Great review.

[funkle]

I suspect once you get to a moderate quality level, the preamp matters less than the player. The tonal differences are there between preamps, but nothing that couldn't be replicated by EQ or software to me. Scott Devine has an expensive BAE preamp he's acquired recently, and a Vanderkley Aurora head before that, but before that he just had a good old Markbass head. He sounds pretty much brilliant no matter what he's recording through.

Creativity and practice trump gear, I think.

[stonecoldbass]

[quote name='funkle' timestamp='1442956606' post='2870988']
I suspect once you get to a moderate quality level, the preamp matters less than the player. The tonal differences are there between preamps, but nothing that couldn't be replicated by EQ or software to me. Scott Devine has an expensive BAE preamp he's acquired recently, and a Vanderkley Aurora head before that, but before that he just had a good old Markbass head. He sounds pretty much brilliant no matter what he's recording through.

[u][i]Creativity and practice trump gear, I think.
[/quote][/i][/u]

^^^^^ THIS! ^^^^