The 8 Best studio DI Boxes (2023 reviews)

The pyle studio di box should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. 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 stereo. The transformer isolates your PC from the mixer's phantom power. It is built to be used with signals alike for example stereo keyboards or similar. 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.

It has a wide and flat frequency response and good resistance to overloading. They also allow you to set input levels via a switch just in case your input is hot. This device also has some ground lift switches that can prevent ground loops.

Why We Like This:

A must tool for any working musician or audio tech
Works great setting up two guitars, or a stereo keyboard
New and hot release

Best With No AUDIBLE noise: Radial Engineering Passive Direct Box

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Best part: radial engineering passive direct box costs comparatively low and it is available to ship in 24 hours. If you do a lot of live work, these are really handy. It works equally well for any instrument level 1/4 inch output from guitar, bass, piano, keyboard, etc. It cleanly and accurately represents the input given to it for live and studio settings. The active pickups on your bass should be producing a line-level signal that can just pass through the di and be fine.

This unit produces a clean signal, is easy to use, and is just as rugged as everything else they make. It's totally passive, quiet and has nice pad control too. One thing that's great with this is being able to plug a guitar tuner into the THRU connection. It is perfect for live or studio performances.

Why We Like This:

Good sound quality, minimal coloration, handy features
Must have for active emg pickups
Great and simple design, built like a tank, and lasts and lasts
Built like a tank, sounds clean, simple and effective

Best For computer: Radial Engineering studio DI Box

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Not everyone likes to purchase box for their daily usage, but the radial engineering studio di box would be an anomoly. Whether it's being jostled around in a gig bag or dropped on the floor, this DI box just keeps on working. It has pad and ground lift options for noisy environments. The direct box is intended to take an unbalanced, line level, signal as the input. They're bulletproof, indestructible, and sound great. This thing could definitely handle some road wear. It also makes wiring easy.

It is responsive across the entire range and sounds very good.

Why We Like This:

Delivers what they promise
Good investment for long term

Best For home recording: Donner studio DI Box

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Compared with other box in this category, the donner studio di box has a convenient design. It is the magic of electromagnetic induction. It is a compact passive direct box that is perfect for guitartbasses and keyboards. It’s super simple to use and the parallel output makes it useful if you want to run your guitar into a mixer and amp. The ground lift switch does what it’s supposed to and completely removes the hum. It is smaller to make it more portable.

This direct box does NOT have noise suppression built in. There is nearly no complaints, it’s small and versatile, it’s simple and effective, and all this for only around $30, yes please. It’s perfect for home recording.

Why We Like This:

More static buzz and no more bass amp
Well made and built pretty solidly
Good construction well built, easy to install, good job
Inexpensive and straightforward, will definitely recommend to anyone else starting out with home recording

Best For Stereo sources: Mackie studio DI Box

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Next on the list, we've got yet another box that manages to win our hearts. It's the mackie studio di box and it's widely considered as one of the best convenient box you can buy. Mackie has a strong reputation in the music world, and this well-built little unit does just what its designed to do. It feels like a solid little box that is well made. This device translates input from each 1/4" input to the associated XLR output. 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. They make it easy to get clean, low-noise audio to a mixer no matter what instrument you are using. 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.

Why We Like This:

More buzzing sound from the computer through the mixer console
Provide a clean, high resolution signal
Solid, flexible, affordable active direct box

Best With EQ: Fishman studio DI Box

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The fishman studio di box is suitable and reliable and fits well with your daily usage. This preamp tool is great for getting your acoustic-electric dialed in for gigs, especially when the foh/sound person isn't the greatest. You can drive your guitar a lot harder now without breaking up into shrill and strident unnatural tones that only get covered up because the rest of the band helps cover up the horrid sounds. It allows you to actually increase the volume beyond the normal output level, a volume pedal only lets you from the standard level down, and it never goes above the standard level.

The Platinum Stage will fatten up your UST or SBT tones but does not have the Aura images or the level of stage control the Aura has. The box is quiet and sounds very good, and it's very fast to set up. The tuner is very good and the boost button is very optimizable. The compressor is also great, especially if you switch between finger picking and strumming as it can help keep your levels consistent.

Why We Like This:

Sounds great, versatile unit with compression and a wide range of tone options
2 levels of low-cut to avoid low feedback rumble
Compressor is handy and boost works great
Was able to adjust to punch through at loud venues

Best For Live Use: Behringer studio DI Box

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Compared with other box in this category, the behringer studio di box has a convenient design. If you're looking for a top notch rack mounted multiple active di box then this is your ticket. The ultra-di pro di4000 gives you 4 first-class di channels in a single rack space. It provides impedance and signal matching for the direct connection of instruments to mixers and amplifiers. It is equipped with two inputs (xlr and " trs), a balanced xlr output. The di 4000 is equipped with an internal switch-mode power supply that ranges from 100 to 240 v and automatically adapts to main voltages wherever you go.

The di4000 takes the di box to the next level with a special 8 khz high. They have a ton of functions built in and nice green or red lights on all the switches such as pad and ground lift. This is a must have for all Direct input situations.

Why We Like This:

20 db gain switch for preamplification of low-level signals
Ultra-flat frequency response due to renowned behringer ot-1 transformers
Very handy to have in the rack

Best With Phantom Power: SGPRO studio DI Box

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Sgpro has been making great box for years, thanks to a combination of clever design and appropriate materials. The di box is a must for your computer recording, bands, and performance of having. It runs on 48v phantom power and the ground lift is in a place where it's hard to accidentally bump it. It is compact, light, solidly built and just gets the job done. The active di box is 48v phantom powered, which provides an additional gain to boost the weak output of some passive, single. The output side has a phase switch which can help if you have a signal 180 degrees out of phase. It is great way to get a direct line level signal into a mixer and split it. For problematic venues, the ground lift can greatly reduce noise and it's recessed in one side so it doesn't get accidentally pressed.

Why We Like This:

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

The 8 Best studio DI Boxes (2023 reviews)

Our Top Picks:

Best overall: Pyle studio DI Box

Best With No AUDIBLE noise: Radial Engineering Passive Direct Box

Best For computer: Radial Engineering studio DI Box

Best For home recording: Donner studio DI Box

Best For Stereo sources: Mackie studio DI Box

Best With EQ: Fishman studio DI Box

Best For Live Use: Behringer studio DI Box

Best With Phantom Power: SGPRO studio DI Box

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