The 10 Best Direct Input Boxes (2023 reviews)

We consider a direct input box to be a worthy investment in the long run. We are here to help you choose the right one for your needs from all the best available products in market today.

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Our Top Picks:

Best overall: Buy: Yovus Direct Input Box READ REVIEW

Best With feedback: Buy: Pyle Direct Input Box READ REVIEW

Best For those venues: Buy: Whirlwind Direct Input Box READ REVIEW

Best For home recording: Buy: Donner Direct Input Box READ REVIEW

Best For Stereo sources: Buy: Mackie Direct Input Box READ REVIEW

Best For synth: Buy: Radial Engineering Direct Input Box READ REVIEW

Best With volume control: Buy: ART Direct Input Box READ REVIEW

Best With Phantom Power: Buy: SGPRO Direct Input Box READ REVIEW

Best For drum: Buy: Samson Direct Input Box READ REVIEW

Best For playing worship music: Buy: Rapco Horizon Direct Input Box READ REVIEW

Best overall: Yovus Direct Input Box

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If you want nothing short of the optimal box for your regular usage, this yovus direct input box is certainly a wise investment. This DI Box is a good value, well made and has great features. It is kind of like a gear box for mechanical things. It has a desktop di system for recording bass guitar and it does the job. It will get you a signal from your guitar into an interface to record the guitar. It is great for keyboardists, acoustic & electric guitarists, bassists, and other instrumentalists needing to plug into the snake on stage.

It’s quiet, it feels pretty tough, and the connections are solid. It is a low cost chinese made passive di.

• Works great as a secondary di box
• Simple switched resistive attenuator to allow level correction
• One of the new comers and featured product

Best With feedback: Pyle Direct Input Box

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The pyle direct input box is the best reliable box on the market today. The world over, the ot-2 provides superior signal isolation from local ac and rf hum, and the ultimate in impedance matching. It is great for any type of stereo or stereo pickup. It allows you to easily connect keyboards, guitars and outboard signal processors. It has a wide and flat frequency response and good resistance to overload. It reduces stage clutter, noise and signal loss from long instrument cable runs.

It's really just a pusher for the button which is internal, but in pushing it back on, it is now more recessed than the other one on that box. The switch is really cheezy mechanically. It is great with keyboard, guitars, and violin pickup.

• A must tool for any working musician or audio tech
• Good, inexpensive and dual in and out
• Works great setting up two guitars, or a stereo keyboard

Best For those venues: Whirlwind Direct Input Box

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The whirlwind direct input box should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. This DI Box works great on a Taylor Acoustic guitar with active pickup connected to a mixer board through a microphone cable. It is an in-line transformer that converts a line or instrument level unbalanced signal to a low impedance mic level balanced signal. It does feel rather light for its size. It is great with no hum or other noises. The ground/lift switch comes in handy to eliminate a buzz in the system.

Love how the hum eliminator works with just a flick of the switch and it's amazing and with noise free operation. It works without any degradation and the signal is more than clean enough for recording. It eliminates the nightmare for the sound guys.

• Low impedance xlr output makes it easy to hook up
• Leightweight, straight forward, has ground lift
• Ground lift is a key feature
• Heavy duty and no need for external power supply

Best For home recording: Donner Direct Input Box

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We would, of course, be remiss if we didn't mention donner direct input box for regular usage. The ground lift switch is a must and works fine. It gives a great, clean sound. The input is connected to a single coil, and this is placed next to 2 coils which connect to the XLR output. The ground lift switch does what it’s supposed to and completely removes the hum. It is perfect for traveling between gigs. The sound quality is really good for any type of recording session. This direct box does NOT have noise suppression built in. It’s easy to use and sounds great for any type of recording session.

• Very solid construction and inputs and output
• Inexpensive and straightforward, will definitely recommend to anyone else starting out with home recording
• Good construction well built, easy to install, good job

Best For Stereo sources: Mackie Direct Input Box

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If you often find yourself scrambling for appropriate and satisfactory box, mackie direct input box should be your first option for buying. Mackie has a strong reputation in the music world, and this well-built little unit does just what its designed to do. It features dual 14 high-impedance inputs with thru outputs and. It features switches for polarity, low cut, and ground lift. 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.

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. It is great with no buzz or hum. It features increased headroom and distortion-free operation.

• Very solidly built, quiet, with many useful features
• Tons of flexibility, small enough to fit on a pedal board, and quiet
• Delivers what they promise

Best For synth: Radial Engineering Direct Input Box

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For a low asking price, radial engineering direct input box has managed to overwhelm their customers by packing as many features as they could. Radial makes great stuff, and this is a great box for those with stereo instruments or AV needs. The AV2 is the only thing of its kind if you need a great sounding stereo interface and have enough channel strips to preserve a stereo signal. The composite inputs and the 1/8" TRS inputs are great to keep from having to use adapters on the cables.

This one simply works and is built like a tank. The unit will take your TRS but it will unbalance the signal going in. These are excellent standard instrument dis, so you can easily send signal to your amp and the board like you always have. This is a go-to piece of gear.

• Removes hum and ground loops / high quality at low frequencies
• One of the new comers and featured product

Best With volume control: ART Direct Input Box

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Best part: art direct input box costs comparatively low and it is available to ship in 24 hours. If you're looking for any of these things for your studio or live gig, you should definitely consider the dual rdb. It is designed to send a hot line level xlr to effects pedals or guitar amp inputs. It has both XLR and 1/4" inputs and outputs. It's a di and you can feed a mixer signal to it on xlr to adapt it to go to guitar pedals. There’s a button on the output side that switches from one output to two.

This device will send out thru the XLR out as mic level, there is no gain pot for the output send levels but does have gain pots to control input level into the unit. The input can be instrument or line level and the output can be the same. It is the ideal interface solution for any application where stereo or dual line level signals from recording interfaces, computers, mixers, ipods, consumer audio or video machines need to be connected to xlr microphone or 14-inch instrument level inputs.

• Stereo audio/video interface to low level inputs
• Dual 1/4-inch trs and xlr balanced line level inputs
• Variable input pad for mic or instrument inputs

Best With Phantom Power: SGPRO Direct Input Box

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The sgpro direct input box's material feels more premium than its price would suggest. It's compact, light, solidly built and just gets the job done. The output side has a phase switch which can help if you have a signal 180 degrees out of phase. The quality is very good, and this box is durable enough to be kicked around on stage without getting damaged. It is recommended for live sound and permanent installation.

It's that easy, and the sound/signal is both strong and clean, and it's wonderful. 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. Really it's just an additional output for anything taking an instrument level signal.

• Microphone cable for open mics, with no added noise
• Level equipment such as keyboards and electronic instruments
• Coil pickups and extend long driving cable runs
• Works great, lots of useful features

Best For drum: Samson Direct Input Box

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The samson direct input box should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. A direct box is a must have for bass players, acoustic guitarists, and DJs. The Samson MD1 mono passive direct box combines premium sound circuitry with durable, roadworthy construction, providing high quality amp sims. It allows clean, balanced lines to be sent from an unbalanced line or instrument signal to a microphone level balanced input. The MD2 Pro’s 2 thru jacks enable you to pass the signals from the inputs to amplifiers or monitors without affecting the original audio.

The MD1 Pro is a big step forward in quality for Samson direct boxes. It is extremely quiet with connected devices. The New metal body makes it way more rugged compared to previous models and is a must have for any club or caf. If you're looking for a super tough super durable imp 2, you will be very happy with this.

• Very well made & great sound
• Your natural tones will sound gorgeous
• Flexible inputs and outputs, built like a tank, and just works well
• Built solid and passes the signal uncolored

Best For playing worship music: Rapco Horizon Direct Input Box

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The rapco horizon direct input box's superior materials makes sure that it ages well with use. It can be used in stage performance, and home studio. It offers reliable input jacks as well as a loop-through 1/4 inch jack. It can be used for running a guitar through the sound system at church. There is a transformer between the 1/4 and the xlr male out, so when the guitar/instrument signal enters the 1/4, the transformer changes the signal to Low Impedence. It offers lasting durability and also it is made of heavy duty steel box.

Their church uses these converters for keyboards, acoustical and electric guitars to play back through the main speakers in the sanctuary. It would highly recommend these for your stereo recording or broadcasting needs when interfacing between a computer and a mixer.

• Awesome for stereo or duel input/output instruments
• One of the new comers and featured product