Behringer ULTRA-DI DI100 Direct Box  

I bought two of these SEVEN years ago. I'm still using the first, the second is the spare. The only dislike I have for this DI is the battery compartment, which is ridiculous and useless. I use Phantom power anyway. I have a Fishman Powerbridge on my Gibson RD77. A stereo out-jack separates the 'acoustic' signal, which goes straight to the Behringer DI. The Signal is clean, and powerful, and every sound tech I've worked with is amazed at this 'cheapie' DI. I love it and use it every gig...

I bought two of these SEVEN years ago. I'm still using the first, the second is the spare. The only dislike I have for this DI is the battery compartment, which is ridiculous and useless. I use Phantom power anyway. I have a Fishman Powerbridge on my Gibson RD77. A stereo out-jack separates the 'acoustic' signal, which goes straight to the Behringer DI. The Signal is clean, and powerful, and every sound tech I've worked with is amazed at this 'cheapie' DI. I love it and use it every gig...

Great features and price, but using it every now and then at church, it broke within 3 years--it distorts whether on phantom or battery power.

The Behringer Ultra ? DI 100 is hard to beat for the money. The professional multi-purpose features are great! And yes it does have gold plated XLR and ¼? connectors. I play 5 string bass, and no problems on the low B or in the 7th position with runs and licks up into the cutout. Soundmen are just awed at it performance. It?s as rugged as the high dollar units. Actual these DI?s have lasted longer for me since the high-end units seem to grow legs and walk away. The high-end units don?t have anything over this unit. I still have my 1st Ultra DI 100 in service and it was purchased in 04/2006. Just bought the 2nd one a year ago to make switching rigs at gigs easier. 

A direct box is one of those pieces of gear you should have to rarely replace. There isn't a whole lot to them electronically to go wrong other than cheap switches and bad contacts. I work as a live sound engineer for a local city in a couple of facilities in addition to doing freelance studio recording and I have lost all confidence in this product. We have 4 of these boxes and one stereo radial direct box and just recently I did a sound setup with 2 keyboards, and 2 drum triggers. I had to use 2 of these for the triggers and neither one worked. I switched the boxes around so the radial was on the triggers and it worked perfect. These direct boxes tend to be incredibly picky of the cable you use to feed it. If it does actually work you have a 50/50 chance of it sounding distorted. Invest a little bit more money and get a direct box you can count on for the rest of your career. Buy Radial.