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BassPlayer.com >> This Month >> Tech Talk - May 2008

Tech Talk - May 2008

| May, 2008

One of the key upgrades SWR touts in its revamped Redhead combo is its tube DI. We’re more familiar with tubes in an amp context, but tube DIs are relatively rare.


A DI is a device designed to interface a bass (we’ll stick to bass applications here, although DIs are used all over the band) with a mixer or mic preamp. It converts a bass’s high-impedance, instrument-level signal to a balanced (for noise rejection), mic-level, low-impedance signal appropriate for a mixer. A passive DI uses a transformer to achieve this conversion, but the transformer type results in the DI having a low input impedance—making passive DIs less than ideal for passive basses, which like to “see” a high input impedance for maximum fidelity. A powered or “active” component (either a tube or transistor) buffers the DI’s input, raising its impedance and consequentially improving a passive bass’s tone. The active component can also color the sound considerably, particularly when it adds gain. A tube DI is simply a DI circuit that uses a tube to buffer the input (and in some cases, add gain) while also incorporating its pleasing audio characteristics.

Click here to read about the SWR Redhead.

 

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