Behringer Ultra-DI DI100 1-channel Active Microphone / Instrument Direct Box Reviews

Best bang for the buck.

Shopping with Sweetwater is so efficient that gave us a positive experience and we recommend to all of you musicians to engage with them. Particularly with Mike. He is the kind of empathetic leader that won't let you down but rather help you along your journey. Thanks, Mike and Sweetwater!!!!

Needed a -20 db pad for connecting from my tech 21 fly rig 5 v2 to the foh at my church. The guy up there said the signal was way too hot. I had the volume on the sansamp to were it was just barely enough to make a sound come out of it. I couldn't fully understand what was going on. So I contacted tech 21 and they explain it to me, told me to give Sweetwater a call and tell my rep what was happening. My Sweetwater rep Andrew Keech knew exactly what I was talking about and helped me find this guy and now I've got full range on the tech 21. I will probably always keep this this guy around even if I change my rig out to something else. I didn't realize how useful these are. When you are new to the scene it is helpful to have people to help explain how everything works and steer you in the right direction. The unit is a bit bulky but still fits in your pedalboard bag, probably ready for a few trips down a couple flights of stairs and to keep working. Highly recommend.

I have had my Ultra DI for almost 25 years and it just keeps working and doing the job. The attenuator is great for active instruments or taking from the line out on an amp, and it's nice that it can work off of either a 9v battery or phantom power.

It worked great. It was crystal clear and we are very pleased.

Being an active direct box, it's not immediately obvious from the marketing prose that this unit also contains a very good audio transformer providing galvanic isolation.
Whah? That means it has both the near infinitely high input impedance provided by the active buffer circuit, and the low output impedance and most importantly, fully balanced, fully floating output with the infinite common mode rejection that can only be achieved with a transformer. That's why this costs more than some of Behringer's other direct boxes despite appearing to have fewer features, that transformer is what makes this thing so good.

solid,well built . Great bang for the buck, many pro features on this unit.

Works well, built strong, the standard of DI boxes

I just purchased a PA system for use for my teenager children's parties. I tried plugging my guitar in and it sounded awful. But then I learned about this box and ordered. Wow! I am blown away. My guitar sounds great directly into this box. I then plugged in my multi-effects guitar pedal into the box and it was incredible. All the beautiful sounds that I could hear in my headphones were now coming out of the PA system. We also used this with a MicroKorg and it was great. You really ought to get one if you need to use an instrument directly into a PA system.

After doing some research for a DI and being on a budget, I selected a couple of the Ultra DI100s. We just needed a couple in our small church for the bass guitar and electric guitar. Based on the price I was a little skeptical but so many people have recommended this particular unit that I went ahead and made the purchase. I figured it's not much of a gamble. I'm telling you it paid off big! DO NOT let the price fool you. From my mixer I can plug my headset in and put each individual channel on solo to listen for any feedback or noise issues. The sound coming back from these DIs are crystal clear with no noise or feedback. My bass player doesn't have his bass turned up more than half way and I would say on the mixer I'm maybe 1/3 turned up and the sound is just right. I've also plugged a mic in just to test and again, sound was clear with no feedback or noise. If you need a DI, don't hesitate. Buy this.

Plugging my Yamaha motif xs8 keyboard into a direct box is necessary because of the distance to the mixer at my Church. But I would never get the same wonderful deep and rich sound from my keyboard at Church as I got in my home studio. As much as I worked with eq, other settings, and the best 1/4" patch cords you can buy, the sound I got at Church was always thin and left me wanting compared to what I would hear in my home studio. (We all know that some people think as long as they hear the keyboard everything is working properly.) But one day I took my Behringer DI100 off the shelf in the closet in my home studio and brought it to Church and put it in place of the DI I had been using. From the first note, I could not believe the difference. Someone told me once, "You can't get studio sound when you're playing a live performance." WRONG!!!!! Plug your keyboard, guitar, or anything else into the Behringer DI100 and stop limiting the sound quality of your mic or instrument. Now I don't have to turn up the volume to try and get the sound I want. My volume levels can stay lower and I the sound quality is so good I just forget about it and enjoy playing. Blown Away!

Solid construction with all the IO you could need. Every gigging player should carry one of these in their bag or trunk. Having a DI box along can spell the difference between inconvenience and disaster. I'm a drummer and I keep 2 of these in my trunk for emergencies. Our bass player accidentally fried both his cabs during sound check. One of these saved the day. He plugged his amp head into this and out to the PA. The show must go on! Well made and road worthy. Behringer got it right with this one!

Great unit

Plug and play! Blows LiveWire box away! Clean, crisp sound!

Bought one of these DIs second hand a few years ago and it has worked without a problem. When I needed another DI for my home recording studio, I didn't hesitate to buy another Behringer. It's easy to use and performs flawlessly. One of my band mates has even asked to borrow it on occasion for a side project they are working on. Also works well for playing out live.

These direct boxes we got for our churches worship team are working great! Bought four and am about to order three more. My sound guys appreciated the candy in the box too :-)

I've been recording and mixing for about 6 years now. I have a unpowered DI box also from Behringer. My interface is also Behringer. Before my guitar DI signal never seemed to record at the same volume. Well this unit completely fixed the guitar signal to where its exactly what I've been looking for. I've never tried a more expensive DI box so I can't compare. As for plugging direct into the interface or running this little jewel it's like night and day. Affordable, Durable and above all easy to understand and use right out of the box. I have nothing but good things to say about this and Behringer overall. Just my personal experience.

It solved my problem of connecting my Cube's Recording Out jack to the PreSonus Audiobox 96 input (as recommended in the Audiobox manual). Without it, the signal was too hot and clipping badly.

It also improved the sound from my Martin and my Strat going through the DI first and then into the audio interface. It also has 4x12 cabinet emulation that's turned on by push button on the back, giving a choice of sounds. Even that is clean, adding no noise under phantom power. Under battery operation the cabinet emulation was noticeably noisy.

As for the battery, I found sub-par operation when running the ULTRA-DI under battery power. I'm guessing that it internally converts 9V to 18V to conform with the operating specs of 18-48V printed on the back of the unit. I took the battery out and decided I will never use it under battery power. FYI, the battery I used to test the unit was a Duracell Procell, made for medical and other industrial use.

The ULTRA-DI works great under 48V phantom power!

O unico problema que eu detectei, e não é em questão tecnico, é apenas o sistema de bateria: na minha opinião, para uma bateria destas, os cabos deveriam ser mais robustos e fortes. Ao mudar a pilha, com o tempo, os cabos de contacto ficam frágeis e acabam por se quebrar. A nivel de funcionamento, este aparelho é de 5 estrelas.
Obrigado

I play guitar and occasionally am the drummer in a local classic rock cover band. I wanted an inexpensive DI to extend my line out from my guitar amp to the board. This does the trick. When I'm performing on drums, I use this to connect the module for my Roland TD20 electronic kit to our Bose system. The ground lift on the DI effectively eliminates the annoying hum I was getting before using the DI. The casing is solid on the product and the access door for the 9volt battery can be opened by hand. I like that. There's also a blinking LED indicating the battery is charged. The unit is a little larger than I expected so I recommend you note the dimensions if storage is an issue for you. I will likely buy another one as I couldn't find anything close to this pricing with the same features. As usual, my Sweetwater rep (TJ Bechill) and the Sweetwater experience were exceptionally helpful and positive.

I came very close to giving this a five star rating. However it my policy to reserve the 5th star for something mind blowing. This device is very very good, but just not quite to the level of mind blowing. Still I gave it a 4.5.
Behringer is the Alesis of the present decade. That is to say that they provide amazing stuff for a very small amount of dough. I am generally quite satisfied, but sometimes I have gotten complete dogs.
I am completely satisfied with this device.
It is a DI box that does what it says it will, but it has some unexpected extras which go beyond what one would expect. For instance, its somewhat unconventional profile is perfect for routing cables beneath it. This makes stage setup very organised . The ground lift and dual attenuator pad are also unexpectedly nice features.
I am withholding 1/2 star for only one reason. The product description is a little ambiguous as to the handling of phantom power. It is very clear that this device can be powered either by battery or phantom power. That it does; furthermore it handles it better than I expected. However the product description is unclear as to whether the phantom power is transferred to the input.
It is not.
Is this an advantage or a disadvantage? That is hard to tell.
For me it is a distinct advantage, because I can use it very safely with ribbon mics. The accidental application of phantom power to ribbon mics can have devastating results. I have no such fear when using this device.
However if you purchase this DI box with the idea of using it with condenser mics, you will be disappointed. The product description should have been a little clearer.
I am must say that this is a very small point; hence the fact that it is only reduced by half a star.
All-in-all, this product is a winner and everyone should have one in their gear box.

We use them for our jam sessions, hooking up the istruments through mixer. Have four of them currently and have been very happy with them so far. Sales person very helpful. Shipping prompt.

Clean and quiet. As good if not better than DIs costing 3 times as much.

I believe this is the best DI box made for the money. I now have six of them and they all work great even the oldest one which I've had for about 7 years.They are very quite and rugged.

I have used these boxes in the past. a very dependable, inexpensive DI box. You can't go wrong for the money!!

I use this to provide our PA with straight Bass guitar signal. I found this necessary because of various hum loop issues that arise when I use the D.I. in my Ampeg tube preamp on an AC line that has a different ground net than the PA mixer is on. Ground lift doesn't always do the job.

I have much fewer issues when I D.I. the bass instrument directly with the Ultra-DI and phantom power this product from the Mixer. I use the 40dB of available attenuation to effectively "mute" my bass signal to the PA when tuning and while on break. The Bass signal pass-through to my bass rig on stage is hardly effected at all (and I have passive pickups which will NOT work on many passive D.I. boxes because of a gross impedance mismatch).

The 9-volt battery is nearly impossible to get out. I need a needle-nose to do so; hardly an easy, quick task when I need an easy, quick task. Other than that it seems to work as prescribed.

I have used these in the past and they get the job done.
This D.I. Is active so it a step above a passive type. Has all the controls needed to make it very useful, pads, ground lift, phantom power and battery. Now the battery compartment is not great. Myself and others agree, tough getting that battery out quickly and just a bad design.

For the money it is a good buy and you will be happy!
I haven"t had any problems with our 3 older ones in 3 years and just picked up 2 more. For the money they are good, get it done and used everyday with no issues!

Sound quality is decent but there is better but you get what you pay for. Get the right tool for the job, My personal ones are a step above and not high end ones like Radial"s. Those are great D.I."s... YOU HEAR IT!!!

So if your act has a $12,000.00 McPhearson Acoustic Guitar do you use??? Get what you need for what you are doing and budget. These get it done but there are options.

We have been using this D.I for the past 2 years. We had a total of 5 and 2 of them has spoilt and the third is giving lots of buzz. The build is aluminum and is of an acceptable quality. The sound quality is acceptable. This cannot be said when comparing the Behringer DI100 to Radial PROD2. The sound from the D100 is much more compressed as compared to the Radial. However,the sound difference cannot be distinguished when both DIs are not used together.

When the price is placed into the picture, the D100 wins hands down in terms of bang for the buck ratio. However, you get what you pay for. For a cheap DI the reliability is definitely affected. But if you are on a budget and you want a DI that just works then the D100 is definitely a good buy.

Build quality (3/5)
Reliability (2/5)
Sound quality (3/5)

I just received this unit and when playing acoustic through it the thing would cut my guitar out suddenly. I checked everything and still wouldn't come back on. Changed guitar battery but old battery was strong. I noticed it would cut itself back on suddenly after a period of time. Weird! Anyway I just got a bad unit. Possibly returning.

Seems reasonably clean (only tried it on line-level signals; I'm not a guitarist or bassist).
Probably fine if phantom powered.
The battery (with a wired clip) is extremely difficult to insert into or remove from the battery compartment (next to the output jack), and the screw-on door SQUEEZES against the clip, which caused mine to wear and intermittently fail.