Universal Audio Apollo, Rupert Neve Designs RNDI, Radial J48 & ProDI Direct Box Shootout 

Neve had nice open high end clarity, J48 overall balanced and present. Great clarity and still delivered good low end

Wow the RNDI blows them all clean out of the water.

Awesome demo! I preferred the Radial ProDI every time. I wish my Apollo x4 DI's had that sound!

I liked the Neve up until the acoustic guitar, then I began preferring either the J48 and the Pro for many of the remaining samples. The thing I like about the Neve overall though is I think it will give me the best signal for re-amping or processing

The RNDI is less nasally, which I prefer. Do you really want your mix to sound congested like it has a head cold? Or open like it can breathe?

I'm surprised that I prefer the J48 over the Neve RNDI every time in this demonstration and others!

1:36 1:44 1:53 2:02

hey Todd, amazing video my friend. Which one would you say its a litle bettr between the rndi and the j48 for passive pj bass and passive electric guitar ? thank you very much

Nice video, Todd. Quick question - when you say they were run into the DI and then inputed into the Apollo as a line input, do you mean you had run an XLR out of the DI boxes to a TRS in the Line inputs? Thanks!

These also sound great on synth and drum machines

I got the radial Pro DI few years ago and it is really transparent. I love it. But for instruments like a bass… I don’t like it too much because it loses a lot of low end…

Thanks for an awesome video! I am a keyboard player and everyone recommends a passive DI box for the keyboard. But I use a workstation keyboard-Korg PA3x with styles not only sounds. In styles have bass, guitar, drums.... tracks. Do you recommend the RNDI for this reason which is an active DI box(I think it is better for bass sound) and which option is best for me? At the moment I work with Radial JDI passive DI. But on RU-vid, I watched many videos with sound tests of different DI's, and from what I heard, I like RNDI a lot. Thanks!

the radial engineering JDI with a Jensen transorfmer would be very interesting - compared to a RNDI Neve ; )

I appreciate the effort to do this comparison though I find it difficult to tell the real differences when they’re all different takes

Strat 2nd 1:36 Apollo 1:44 RNDI 1:53 J48 2:02 JDI

J48 is very transparent and balanced it feels upfront too

I had a j48 but found it too bright and brittle. When I reamped it seemed like a different guitar was going into the amp. The neve sounded the most natural in your demos and didn’t add that high end plastic-y sound. I actually ended up going with a the JDI (passive) which doesn’t have the output of the active box but sounds more natural to me. I wish I had the money for the neve. I’ll have to save for it

Bet money nobody can’t tell them apart on a blind test 😆✌🏽

What a great video! Thank you! I have an active bass. Can I use the RND DI for it? Thank you.

J48 for elettric Guitar. Pro DI passive for acoustic Guitar and double bass. Neve for elettric bass

I recorded the audio files into Logic, cut and paste to adjacent tracks, and A/B'ed tracks through a bus with identical, typical processing (eq,compression, saturation). Volume matched. The tracks sounded identical enough that I could not justify buying any of these DI's to use over just going straight into my Apollo Twin for my P-Bass and Strat. If I added a bit of other tracks (drums, keyboard), any slight differences vanished. Perhaps if I compared original hi-rez files there would be a $$$ difference.

Whoa hey Todd! Maybe you remember me from Berklee. I just realized this video was yours about a third of the way through. I just got a cheap passive Behringer DI to see if it would help with some of the weird leveling issues I have sometimes and just improve sound in general in addition to removing some ground loop noise. Only had about an hour to experiment. I’m assuming it’s probably better having a DI anyway compared to the Apollo hi z instrument inputs? I know it’s basically doing the same thing.. but I’m just trying to do anything I can and it seems to be at least helping with noise or at least being more consistent. Hope you’re doing well!

Wich one do you or someone recomend for bass guitar?

How are you connecting the D.I. box to the Apollo X? Should ot go to the Hi-Z or to a different line in? I have apollo x8p so all combi Jack's except Hi-Z

Toward the end of the video (around @5:25 or so) you have a thumbnail at the bottom right of the screen, in which you are fingering two synths... If I may ask, do you also DI those when you are are capturing them? And if so... With what?

Can you confirm that the RNDI and J48 were properly level matched? If the answer is yes, the RNDI comparatively sounds slightly scooped and "further away", with a broader stereo spread. Meanwhile, the J48 sounds "closer" and more focused in the center. Would you agree? Also, I wonder how the Countryman Type 10 would compare to these two units.

How do you connect it to the Apollo?

What i wanted to listen: Apollo with DI box. Thank you so much. I suppose you don't using Unison on the Apollo exemples?

Seems like the Neve and J48 had way more low end where the Apollo and ProDI was a little thin in the low mids.

Neve 🎉

Wow...with basses, especially double bass J48 is cleaner winner. Then ProDI. It seems RNDI eats low-end

Neve

wow - listening for the electric guitar samples and they are all the same. Any small differences are probably more attributable to the way you played the example than anything else.