Rupert Neve Designs RNDI High-End DI-Box

The Rupert Neve Designs RNDI Active DI Box is a direct interface that conveys the undiminished tone and vitality of the source instrument while balancing and isolating the original signal. The RNDI delivers a powerful and vibrant direct sound capable of reproducing the full harmonic depth of basses, guitars, acoustic instruments and professional line level sources. It offers a portable, powerful and larger-than-life tone for your instrument signals and amplifier signals in a stand- alone DI which is 100% worthy of the Rupert Neve name.

After on-going tests up against the most popular high-end DI’s on the market, the RNDI was found to bring that “extra dimension” to the sound. The lows felt richer, deeper and fuller, and the highs had an outstanding clarity without harshness.

The RNDI’s signature sound is a product of the marriage between the new custom Rupert-Neve designed transformers and the class –A-biased, discrete FET amplifiers. This carefully orchestrated union is the key to the RNDI’s unique response.

The transformers provide a superior, passive isolation whilst adding very musical harmonics and dimensions to the sound. The low impedance, transformer balanced output truly excels at driving long cable runs, offering an immensely consistent performance. This is especially important for live situations and some studios wherein the unamplified signal may travel long distances before amplification.

The class-A and discrete FET amplifier inside the RNDI is powered by 48V phantom power on the XLR connection, and creates a very high impedance input of 2M Ohms that ensures  a consistent performance with a very wide variety of instruments.

The significant aspect of the RNDI’s class-A design is that there is no crossover distortion added to the signal. This usual distortion can add upper order odd harmonics to a sound and create an unmusical dissonant interference.

Within the RNDI, the majority of the harmonic content is 1 octave and 1/5th of an octave above the signal, which, in subtle amounts simply adds to the richness of the original signal creating a sweetness that is remarkable. Also the discretion of the design ensures that no digital components can interfere and negatively affect your tone. This harmonised performance of the transformer and the FET amplifier has resulted in an extremely well-balanced response.

The phase coherence is unrivalled at all frequencies, which keeps the sound as natural as possible which is especially essential when blending a direct signal with a microphone capture signal of the same source.

In instrument mode, the RNDI’s high input headroom of +21.5dBU is capable of handling not just instruments, but professional, line level source signals such as interfaces, CD players and drum machines without pads. This allows the RNDI to serve as a way to “Re-Preamp” any previously recorded track using your interface and a desired pre-amp. To do this, simply connect a channel output of the interface to the input of the RNDI and connect the RNDI’s output to the preamp and engage 48V. By “Re-Preamping” you can apply the tone of another preamp to the source and more accurately automate or control the drive level on the preamp.

In speaker mode, the RNDI can handle an output of a 1000-watt power amplifier (92 Vrms or 266Vp-p) to capture the full tone of the instrument, preamplifier, EQ, inserts, and the amplifier’s output stages before it hits the speakers. This technique allows an engineer to avoid any bleed in a live environment or any unwanted tone added by the speaker cabinet or microphone. When used with modern speaker emulation plug-ins, this technique allows an engineer to take advantage of the flexibility of digital modelling, and the superior non-linear response of an actual analogue amplifier.

The main features of the Rupert Neve Designs RNDI Active DI Box Black include:

• Ground-Breaking Direct Tone
• Huge Headroom
• Rugged Solid Steel Frame
• ¼” THRU Output
• Best in Class Phase Coherence
• Ground Lift Switch
• Phantom Powered