The 9 Best Active Direct Injection Boxes (2023 reviews)

The latest behringer active direct injection box is an absolute beast in terms of its features, and rightfully takes the top spot with ease. This load can be a speaker or speaker load simulator, basically what you would normally connect to the amp. It is used to bypass an amp and get a simple clean signal from the instrument. When the ground lift is enabled, the hum is pretty low and having a good strong output from the source helps keep the noise floor low. It can be used on stage to convert a low impedance signal (1/4" cable) to three-pin xlr. It does a great job of eliminating line level hum/noise. The plating on the connector looks robust. It is a passive device and requires no 9v battery to power it up. It is good for new devices, watchout for static on old instruments.

Why We Like This:

Handles speaker level input for recording, as well direct input from guitar
Good investment for long term

Best With feedback: Pyle Active Direct Injection Box

Buy on Amazon

Next on the list, we've got yet another box that manages to win our hearts. It's the pyle active direct injection box and it's widely considered as one of the best convenient box you can buy. It is a great box to convert headphone signals over to xlr signals to run a pair of powered monitors or separate amplifier for a sub mix. It allows you to easily connect keyboards, guitars & outboard signal processors. It has a wide and flat frequency response and good resistance to overload.

The purpose of this box is to convert unbalanced to balanced for noise reduction. You can even plug your guitar, bass or keyboard amp’s speaker output into the pdc22, which can handle ratings and still deliver a perfect signal. They are a must for noiseless recording. They also allow you to set input levels via a switch just in case your input is hot.

Why We Like This:

40 db adjustable attenuation, and full
Works great setting up two guitars, or a stereo keyboard
More hum or any other annoying signal noise
A must tool for any working musician or audio tech

Best With No AUDIBLE noise: Radial Engineering Active Direct Injection Box

Buy on Amazon

The radial engineering active direct injection box's material feels more premium than its price would suggest. Mic's and line-level devices (like keyboards & CD players) have low impedance. The di box is meant to take the signal from your instrutment to your audio interface / console. They are incredibly good with both active and passive pickups as well as bass.

These boxes are compact and simple, they sound great with no audible noise, and they're solid as a rock. It allows use as a monitor and also the main console to speaker. It has design changed from a six-about-one (two layer) design to a 12-about six-about-one (three layer) design. It is good for longer runs from an instrument to the sound board as the 1/4" is only good for shorter runs.

Why We Like This:

Brilliant di that produces pure sound
Lot of satisfied buyers

Best For PRESENTATIONS: Hosa Active Direct Injection Box

Buy on Amazon

The hosa active direct injection box has killer features for the price point. This is a good, inexpensive direct box. It needs an official manual, but overall it's a nice, inexpensive direct box. It is a very well-made, heavy gauge, steel box with standard-sized holes for connectors/switches (like Neutrik), and is very nicely finished. It even comes with a built in unbalanced XLR MALE microphone input as a bonus with it's own LINE switch.

This device has a instrument/line input and a Microphone output. It has the parallel 1/4" and xlr out and the line/instrument switch does indeed work and make a difference. It needs to change 1/4" inputs such as guitar, bass, keyboards, etc.

Why We Like This:

Absolutely clean and silent operation, no hissing or buzzing
Good product, solid and well built
Worked perfectly, no extra noise, just a good clean signal

Best For price: Samson Active Direct Injection Box

Buy on Amazon

The samson active direct injection box's superior materials makes sure that it ages well with use. A great versatile direct box, this active unit unit allows you to go either 0db or. It features a ground lift and runs on either battery or phantom power. It is perfect for converting unbalanced line level or instrument signals from acoustic-electric guitars, basses, synths and more. It runs very clean and has a durable housing made of metal and is great for live sound and recording studio applications such as guitars and basses and operates on either batteries or phantom power.

The output power on the DI is adjustable, so you should be able to get the signal level you need. The purpose of this direct box is to convert high impedance to XLR low impedance. It’s a neat little device.

Why We Like This:

Solid weight and construction, db pad switch is a must have
Runs right into the stage mixer no issues
Looks to be very well made, heavy construction

Best For Stereo sources: Mackie Active Direct Injection Box

Buy on Amazon

We would, of course, be remiss if we didn't mention mackie active direct injection box for regular usage. It comes with the bus-powered mdb-usb stereo di, the days of relying on your headphone jack to get audio from a computer into analog gear are over. They make it easy to get clean, low-noise audio to a mixer no matter what instrument you are using. This device translates input from each 1/4" input to the associated XLR output. It features increased headroom and distortion-free operation.

If you are using your own board, this is a cool piece of hardware and has a lot of nice features like the 15db pad, the ability to combine two sources or use the second 1/4" jack as a "through" jack. This last feature is actually very useful not only for driving an amp onstage as a monitor while the low-Z signal goes to the mixer. It is great for stereo sources like keyboards and synthesizers, the mdb-2p is an essential tool for electronic musicians, live sound venues, and recording studios. It features switches for polarity, low cut, and ground lift.

Why We Like This:

Very solidly built, quiet, with many useful features
More buzzing sound from the computer through the mixer console
Tons of flexibility, small enough to fit on a pedal board, and quiet

Best For home recording: DBX Active Direct Injection Box

Buy on Amazon

This is a very versatile passive DI box, that adds little if any coloring to the sound. It comes with their bullet-proof construction, and extraordinary audio performance to rival their looks, and finally there’s a direct box worthy of the dbx name. It is for the guitar amp, there is a direct wired thru output, so that you can hook the amp's speaker output up to this box's input, and plug the amp's speaker into the thru output. All of this sits atop a solid, stable footprint, that will keep the box from being dragged around the stage, and the unique contour underside allows secure stacking of multiple units. The switches are protected by the cast metal housing so they shouldn't be damaged by performers kicking, stepping on, or otherwise abusing the device.

Why We Like This:

Excellent solution to several recording problems
Include a pad switch that accommodates instrument, line and even speaker level signals
Stackable chassis with durable rubber foot

Best For Ipad: ART Active Direct Injection Box

Buy on Amazon

The art active direct injection box's material feels more premium than its price would suggest. Innovative graphic equalizers that actually show you exactly where feedback may occur, and a full complement of cool little useful tools designed for stage and studio, art offers affordable audio solutions that deliver unmatched quality, tone, versatility and reliability. The dualxdirect provides two independent high quality active interfaces that let you connect instrument, line, or speaker level signals to a mixer or other balanced inputs. It converts various high impedance balanced and unbalanced inputs (microphone xlr connections, 1/4" line level phono plugs like a guitar, etc) to a standard balanced low impedance signal output.

The ground lift switches let you totally separate the input and output signal grounds, when appropriate, to isolate two systems, thereby reducing hum and ground-loop noise. The input attenuator switches allow for a wide range of signal levels and the input thru jacks allow for tapping off of your signal chain. If the amplifier you are feeding has phantom power, the ART will run off of that phantom power. It's also good to use for having a local amp (fed from the front side passthrough jack) as well as feeding a combined PA amp.

Why We Like This:

Well built and runs great off of the phantom power from the mixer
Works on 9v battery or phantom power
Very quite and lean sounding direct box

Best With Phantom Power: SGPRO Active Direct Injection Box

Buy on Amazon

Compared with other box in this category, the sgpro active direct injection box has a convenient design. This di box enables the connection of an unbalanced audio signal. It is an excellent unit for stage performance, studio and computer recording, live band music, and daily practice. The direct box comes with a switchable pad (-12 db) to prevent excessive gain from overloading the circuitry to accommodate the high output of active pickups and unbalanced line.

The active di box is 48V phantom powered, which provides an additional gain to boost the weak output of some passive, single. There's a pad on the input to prevent clipping if you are using higher gain inputs. For problematic venues, the ground lift can greatly reduce noise and it's recessed in one side so it doesn't get accidentally pressed. It is great way to get a direct line level signal into a mixer and split it.

Why We Like This: