Quote:
Originally Posted by zvenx  Ok this is going to be a very silly question, but I understand very little about microphone pre-amps topology etc.
But basically if I plug in my bass guitar in the front DI, I don't get access to the nickel/iron input transformer options, the impedance variation and the THD? I need a passive DI for that? Ironically one of the big selling points for me buying this is specifically for my bass guitars and guitars instead of buying a RAdial for my MA-5.
I was thinking it would be cool instead of buying a DI for $200, buying this for $800 and having access to a whole heap of tones for my bass and guitars. |
You'll have whole heaps of tones from your bass or guitars regardless of whichever way you use it. With the front quarter DI, you are going to get the sound of the bass you hear above in Jon King's sample, which I think you'll agree has a lot of coloration and growl. You can still use the +THD output PAD. This sample is through the front DI jack. The DI on the front jack itself goes through the iron core OUTPUT transformer (or the nickel core if you install that). It does not go through the MICROPHONE input transformer(s), so it is not switchable via the front push button by accessing the front 1/4" jack as an instrument direct input, only in the way I've indicated in the sentence above. It's not the norm from what I see of most 500 series preamps, for the 1/4" input to go through the microphone input transformer. Great River does this (which you can hear above), OSA uses a 3rd transformer for the DI, but most go straight to an op amp (ours is Class A and discrete FWIW).
You don't NEED a seperate DI box to use it as a DI, as mentioned above it's going to sound great (proof is Jon Kings sample IMO, and you can hear in comparison to other top end preamps), but for those who want to squeeze every last drop of flexibility out of the options that are used for the microphone input (i.e. 41 impedance settings and two switchable input transformers), then an external box will be required to go through the microphone XLR input. In order to use the impedance the Juggernaut has to see a microphone load, which is what a passive DI will do. I'm not sure if you'd want to run your DI at a really low impedance anyhow, I think 4000 ohms or much higher is best. If someone buys a Juggernaut from us, and wants a Radial DI I'll give them the hookup on the DI in the bundle. The Radial 'PRO DI' has a custom transformer output and is only $89 regular price. But again it's not necessary with the Juggernaut for kick ass DI sounds, as doing that is some serious icing on the cake.