BehringerDI20 Ultra-DI 2 Channel DI Box/Splitter

I’m a gigging keyboard player and have this in my rig after my keyboard sub mixer, so I can just output a stereo XLR pair to the stage box / main mixer inputs. Power is via a standard mains kettle lead (supplied with it) which is always better than a wall wart PSU.This is a 4 channel unit but I’m only using 2 as a stereo pair. It offers the usual DI features you would expect to find, including jack and XLR inputs, and individual channel switches for ground lift, 20db boost, phase reverse, and an 8kHz cut in case you need it. Inputs are on the rear of the rack, output is on the front of the rack via balanced XLR so no need to dig around the back of the rack in the dark on stage! Perhaps most importantly for a DI box, the sound output is clean and quiet. 🤫I prefer this to the external foot pedal sized DI box type as this stays fully wired in my rack, meaning a little less set up time and reduced cable trailing on the stage - all I need to do is to plug the main mixer input XLR cables into the XLR outputs on the front of the unit. 👍

Great product, simple but yet so effective

Battery powered and handy to carry in the guitar case if like me you often play at open mic events where you might need to plug into various amplifiers or PA desks. It doesn’t add any noticeable noise makes it easier for the signal to be adjusted. Is it the best DI box on the market? No but in a pinch it does the job and doesn’t negatively affect the sound in any bad way. Obviously you need to be aware of the battery and turn it off when not in use but I’ve never had any problems with it.

Bomb proof construction! Great that it can run off phantom power and has ground lift feature. Works well. Can't fault it.

I have a few of these now and use them for a variety of applications. For the money, I don't think you can better these. And it's 2 DI boxes in one so even better value.I use for direct connection to non hi-z mixer inputs (for guitars, keyboards and other line sources e.g. phones), enabling long balanced XLR connections to the mixer or stage box too.Powered by either battery or phantom power from the mixer. Both work equally well. Just remember to turn the box off when not using it so the battery is not drained.Switches on the front control a attenuation pad (I rarely need to use this), ground lift if you get any hum on the connection, battery on/off (off position required if using mixer phantom power) and link (changes it from a double DI box to a single one with a pass through to an amp or equivalent).I have just added more to my existing pool of these and have had 10 years fault free use from some. Fully recommend.

DI boxes (I think it stands for Direct Inject, but I've also heard them called Direct Input) allow an unbalanced signal or any impedence that may be coming from an instrument, a microphone or another audio source, to be converted to a balanced microphone-level signal suitable for your mixing desk. This Behringer DI Box is fairly large (perhaps 6 inches square and three inches deep) in a rugged steelcase with outsized rubber bumpers. Its design gives you confidence that it will just work, and indeed it does, taking its power from the mixing desk (you can add a PP9 9 Volt battery if you wish, but it shouldn't be needed).The inputs are quarter inch jack or XLR (note that these are unbalanced, so only one signal pin is connected - if you have a balanced audio source, like most microphones, you don't need a DI Box). There's a pass through quarter inch jack, so you can also plug into a monitor amp or something similar. There are also two attenuator buttons, that drop the signal level by -20 dB or -40dB. On the back there's the balanced XLR output and a "ground lift" button, which can eliminate buzz and hum if you have two grounding points in circuit. There's also the door to the battery compartment, a red LED to show you the device is receiving phantom power from the mixing desk, and another unlabelled button that the instruction leaflet claims to be a speaker cabinet simulator. It is nothing of the sort - the leaflet is wrong. It's the on-off power button for the internal battery. I haven't tried using that one. If you want cabinet effects, try the Behringer Ultra-G instead.The idea is that you have the DI Box (or boxes - I use two) on stage or in the performance area, and the balanced XLR cable back to the mixing desk can be as long as you like, within reason, as having a positive and negative signal means that any induced interference cancels out, giving a nice clean signal at the desk. The boxes stack nicely - they don't clip together, but they rest on top of each other quite comfortably.The Behringer DI Boxes (this one and the Ultra-G) are way more stylish than most of the alternatives. Behringer also does a 2-channel stereo box, the DI20, but I like the look and feel of this one so much more, and I want the flexibility to place them separately, so I prefer to have two DI 100s.I'd hesitate to use this DI Bix if you don't have phantom power - what if the battery runs out mid-performance? Other than that, they're a great choice.

Cons:Annoyingly there's no mains power option and the battery compartment needs a screwdriver to open it.It also doesn't seem to work well on battery power but I suspect that's my battery not being up to it.Pros:It's a sturdy piece of kit.It works very well on phantom power, but if you're going down that route make sure the volume is low or you may get a lot of feedback.You can reduce any hiss by changing the attenuation and there are three settings so you have options.It is a splitter as well as a DI box so you can have one input and two separate outputs.As always you get what you pay for but Behringer seem to give good value for money even for cheaper equipment. It could definitely do with a mains power input so you don't have to rely on a battery if phantom power isn't available.