Radial J48 Phantom Powered Active Direct Box

There are a lot of products on the market that do this, but none are any better or easier to use. This is a terrific kit... great sounding boxes with very little fuss and are intuitive for use. I work on major music productions and would have no problem using re-amped guitar sounds on national releases with this Radial setup. Works great with any type of guitar, pickup, amp setup...Highly recommended

Big gain

I may buy a couple more of these.I purchased this phantom powered DI box to help boost the gain from a Markley pickup on an accounting guitar. This box made a big improvement! I used to run the gain at max and then got a weak feed with poor clarity. This box makes it sound like a different guitar. The signal is much stronger and a great deal more head room. I now run the gain at about 50% and get a much warmer sound from the pickup. This phantom powered DI was weel worth the money! It also is a clean signal with no A/C hum from the phantom power. I do sound for a church worship team and some sideline gigs.A very sturdy metal box and good looking setup.Good value for the price.

Great direct box

I've only used it a few times, but it takes a great direct signal from guitar or bass guitar. I have used it a few times, and later when re-amping that original recorded signal, it sounds great.

Great direct box -- highly recommended.

The Radial J48 is my go-to direct box for studio work and live performance. It sounds exactly as it should, and it is bullet-proof reliable. It is great using phantom power and not worrying about batteries! As a bass player I never use the low cut, but the ground lift has been a lifesaver a couple of times, and the pad works as expected with no change to the sound quality. I even had one time where the phase button came in very handy in a coffee house where the house speakers were out of phase, and their mixer didn't have a phase button. I was about to go back to my car and retrieve an XLR cable that swaps pin 2 and 3, but then I noticed the 180 degree button on the J48, and it solved the problem of my bass amp being out of phase with the house speakers.

Headroom!

Even mediocre acoustic guitars with piezo pickups sound good with one of these. I have four and will be buying more as I can afford it. Bass. Keyboards. All sound great. Tons of headroom. Clean. Quiet. Requires phantom power.

Radial J48 DI box

This is the best DI box to get when using stereo outputs for an electric guitar.It provides high end quality sound, at a reasonable price.Nothing else is out there that gives the sound quality in a durable casing, that can survive being giged.

Review of Radial J48 Phantom powered DI box

I’ve only used the unit as a D.I. box so far, so can’t speak to the thru output. My signal with guitar and bass seems cleaner and clearer. Looking forward to experimenting with the thru output in the future.

Scruffy but works 100%.

This item was a VERY used / toured example so aesthetically it was pretty bad - most of the writing was worn off and it was scratched and scuffed all over. However, it just goes to show the build quality of Radial products because it performs flawlessly just like a new one. 'Nuff said.

Yes, it is that good (and I do not work for Radial)!

I am a home hobbiest and home recorder.I do not understand why, given the equipment which I already own, I need such a device.I have excellent preamps, several of which offer DI for high impedance instruments. I own excellent software, plugins, guitar amp / speaker simmulation SW, good guitar amps, excellent microphones.Yet with this device, I achieve a much better sound quality. And the difference is not subtle. The difference is not a change which only a trained audio engineer can hear. The difference is striking!So for those of you who pursue the "Holy grail" of beautiful guitar signal, before you spend more $s on audioi plug ins, simulation SW, new guitar amp, new microphones, new preamp, new ADA converters, etc ..., you OWE it to yourself to try one of ... MoreI am a home hobbiest and home recorder.I do not understand why, given the equipment which I already own, I need such a device.I have excellent preamps, several of which offer DI for high impedance instruments. I own excellent software, plugins, guitar amp / speaker simmulation SW, good guitar amps, excellent microphones.Yet with this device, I achieve a much better sound quality. And the difference is not subtle. The difference is not a change which only a trained audio engineer can hear. The difference is striking!So for those of you who pursue the "Holy grail" of beautiful guitar signal, before you spend more $s on audioi plug ins, simulation SW, new guitar amp, new microphones, new preamp, new ADA converters, etc ..., you OWE it to yourself to try one of the Radial active DIs.Please also understand that your final guitar signal will depend on all of the components along the way between your instrument and your recording device. Do not expect this device to make a miracle; IMO, do expect this device to make a very significant improvement.It has what I need. And the LPF works as it shouldAs best I can tell, all of the few ports and buttons do as they should.Until someone else can figure out how to offer this quality for less.

great sounding DI Box ... hot output!

I have used this DI only a couple times since I purchased it so I don't have any longterm review. I play a Guild DV-6 with a Fishman Matrix pickup and the first time I used it at a venue the soundman asked me if I had a pad because the level into the board was so hot. I pushed the pad button in and it seemed to make things easier for him to manage the level. I think he was used to acoustics (even with 9 volt pickups) being lower level. Always got complaints from soundmen in the past that my level was really low output... now quite the opposite. But I will say the acoustic clarity is much better and the high end of the upper harmonics of the strings are waaaay better and really heard.Never used it on a keyboard but I imagine the same thing... so I suggest some ... MoreI have used this DI only a couple times since I purchased it so I don't have any longterm review. I play a Guild DV-6 with a Fishman Matrix pickup and the first time I used it at a venue the soundman asked me if I had a pad because the level into the board was so hot. I pushed the pad button in and it seemed to make things easier for him to manage the level. I think he was used to acoustics (even with 9 volt pickups) being lower level. Always got complaints from soundmen in the past that my level was really low output... now quite the opposite. But I will say the acoustic clarity is much better and the high end of the upper harmonics of the strings are waaaay better and really heard.Never used it on a keyboard but I imagine the same thing... so I suggest some precaution to your soundmen when you use it so they know it has a hot output and the DI pad is really useful to that end.Totally recommend watching the Peter Janus Radial youtube video tutorial before you purchase.(Originally I had bought the Radial JDI passive DI thinking it would do amazing things for my acoustic guitar but there was no change from my old cheap passive DI box. Upon reading more about the JDI, it is more geared to HOT output instruments like active pickup bass guitars and keyboards/synths to allow them saturate rather than clip the internal transformer--- I returned this one to get the J48)