I am currently building a rack for my live setup. Contained in this rack are a Shure P4M monitormixer and the Mipro MI-808, in-ear monitorsystem. From this rack runs a multi cable to the main band rack, that collects signals from the entire band and distributes to the main FOH mixer.
My rack must send signals with a 600 Ohm impedance, so I need some DI boxes. I prefer a passive 1 U rack with 4 in/out (I have two keys that run stereo so 4 ch.) - but this has proven VERY difficult to find at reasonable prices:( I have looked at Radial solutions, that use very expensive transformers. Transformers must be very impedance linear over the frequency spectre, so I can't use cheap passive DI's.
Active DI's often come in non-rack versions and requiring 9V battery OR phantom. Since I also use this rack on smaller jobs, phantom power is not always available. Behringer makes a great product that has 4ch. and are powered by the mains - GREAT but unfortunately Behringer sound like s*** smells...
This rather complicated system is just to make life easier on both big gigs with a PA and sound crew and a very small backgear job.
What do you guys do for DI? (When not using what ever the sound engineer brings)? Any suggestions on where to look?
My friend, who only plays one board, had two "obsolete" avalon converters, so he uses that live. Hmm bastard!
That is obviously the best sounding solution, but again a little on the expensive side:)