BSS DI

Anybody use one of these?
Looks nice.
How does she sound?
Thanks!




http://www.bssaudio.com/includes/product_sheet_include.aspx?product_id=15

I guess this is it's predecessor:

roger nicholes(sp) brought that one, the top one into a session he was doing at westlake. I was working there at the time. Very nice. good value. professional. It sounded great...

Cool! Thanks!
Just so were on the same page, Roger brought the 133, right?

Says after he heard it, he went back and bought out all the stock they had.

yup 133 the one with the curve. I never seen one before then. it sounded great.

We've used the 116's for many years. Very good and predictable.

Jakob E.

Know anything about the Phantom supply for those 116s? I believe it's something that replaces one of the batteries - can't be that complicated...

I use 133's, good sound, stable.
They do what they're supposed too.

Personally, I want to compare them to DI's as found on Jakob's G9 and others, as I would like to get a little more from a DI-box then just levelmatching.

If plain matching is what you're after, BSS does that job very well.

I have 3 116 in my studio.

I like them very much. One great thing is that they use 2 9v batteries, one of which cuts in if the primary battery dies.

One has the phantom mod, which is a small circuit board that replaces the battery. I had thought about diy 2 other phantom boards, but there is a little bit more to it than you would expect. I seem to remember inductors in there !!

i have one 133.
sounds very good to me,clean and noiseless.

so good that the company with the "B" started to steal their design.... :evil:

i had very good results recording bass and guitars.

thumbs up for both versions. I used them lots of in livesound situations. The older 116 becomes unreliable after some years of heavy use on the road. But for studiouse and soundwise I highly recommend them.
:guinness:

Assistant, so did Beeringear steal the actual circuit or just the cosmetics? I have a couple of the Red Ultra-G boxes and they sound good... clear, low noise, etc.

Tony, regarding your G9 inquiry: I don't normally get excited about DI's. I only use them for bass or guitar, and then it's usually for reamping later. For these applications, I just don't hear enough differences from brand to brand to matter to me. The mic pre that they are run into afterwards has always had more impact to my ear. My G9 is a different story though. It sounds and feels the most like playing through an amp from any DI or POD/Sansamp type unit I've tried. I used to try to avoid DI bass as a keeper whenever I could, or at least blend it with an amp track. Not true with the G9. A G9 with some EQ is a keeper.

-Chris

Hmm. interesting, I wonder if it is the same circuit that I have heard. A studio I sometimes work at has a 4-ch rackmount BSS DI, AR416 ( I think thats the model). I don't like it, the other engineers don't like it either. admittingly, primary use for DI's there is recording Korg Triton, occationally a bass guitar. Other units it is being compared to are: DIY box w/jensen JE-DB (my favorite), Tube Tech MP-1A, manly mono 40dB, ADL 300G and some TL-audio pre/comp.

mike

Cool on the answers you guys!
Mr Nichols uses it on some synthesizers and keybords also.
Some cheap musical instruments are 1/4 inch out, so the DI box is useful there too.
Hard to get too excited about a DI.
If they work right, they do nothing to the music.
But the are handy, if not too glamerous.

Wow! I actually used to scratch build 30 AR116 DI boxes a week for BSS in the early 80's.. mainly pre Green Logo. The AR117 was the phantom addition that fitted in space of the 9v battery. They paid me 2 Quid a go!!! heheheh. but best years of my life!

By '86 I had progressed to 5 DPR402's a week!

Just finished a pair of Bo Hansen 1975 DI's and totally love them more.

Hey Sintec, I'd really like to be able to build my own AR117, got any info?

Hey emtee,

I remember it almost as a very small 9v sized Pcb with not many parts and a reverse battery clip as the point of contact to the 116.. I don't really have any contacts left at BSS these days. But if someone has that option at hand, I'm sure you could easily Vero board a version.

probably could be an easy vero board DI

there are many good choices out there
including the Country Hick and the JLM-DI
I think NYD has posted a FET based one and so too have others here

you can never have too many DI choices

... build 'em all
:wink:

[quote author="Emperor-TK"]
Tony, regarding your G9 inquiry: I don't normally get excited about DI's. I only use them for bass or guitar, and then it's usually for reamping later. For these applications, I just don't hear enough differences from brand to brand to matter to me. The mic pre that they are run into afterwards has always had more impact to my ear. My G9 is a different story though. It sounds and feels the most like playing through an amp from any DI or POD/Sansamp type unit I've tried. I used to try to avoid DI bass as a keeper whenever I could, or at least blend it with an amp track. Not true with the G9. A G9 with some EQ is a keeper.

-Chris[/quote]

Thanks !

It's worth noting that a]

many D.I. s - often because of their transformers - put out a mic level

and most preamps that have d.i. inputs [ with input transformers ] usually break the line between the secondary and the active stage to
insert the hi z in [ the Great River NV has a f.e.t. circuit infront of the transformer for the d.i. input ]

So you can get a little extra iron by running the D.i. into the mic in of your
fave preamp .

I build the royer sd tube mic and can get away with uning that unbalanced
into both inputs of mic pres also

regards Greg

EDITED AND PICS REMOVED:

(HERE I HAD 2 PICTURES OF LESSER QUALITY THEN THE ONES POSTED HEREAFTER)

Images are not that sharp, sorry. Need a better camera bad!
There are some pretty sharp photoshooters around here, what do you use as camera?