Radial J48 versus JDI--active versus passive DI

[feyshay]

I just got an Active DI (Radial J48). I have to employ the 15dB cut to make it not clip when I phantom power it on my apogee mini-me.
I'll use it for guitar and may be using it for digital piano. Would I be better off getting the Radial Passive JDI? I wonder if I would potentially get more hiss with the active DI.

[warhead]

If there is potential for "adding" anything it's going to come from the J48 because it is active, that passive DI won't add a thing. But I've never noticed noise etc from the J48 myself, I've used both of those DI's a fair amount.

Of course the phantom power circuit in your preamp and other components could be suspect for issues, since the DI requires a mic preamp to finish the job.

The J48 is active and is essentially a preamp boosting your level and balancing it. The J48 may be better at passing along high frequencies than the JDI (I've yet to really shoot the two out against each other) but those JDI boxes are just super clean and nice. It's just so natural, and you're not going to clip it methinks.

The J48 claims very high headroom.

Common thinking for those boxes is, passive device use an active DI, active device use a passive DI.

My suggestion would be to try the JDI and see if it works out for you. If it doesn't, send it back.

War