Radial PZ-DI Acoustic & Orchestral Instrument Direct Box Reviews
Radial's PZ-DI is a unique direct box that lets you precisely match the input impedance to your source to optimize frequency response, dynamics, and feel, so no matter what type of pickup is being used, you'll get smooth, musical results. A 3-position load switch lets you optimize for orchestral instruments with piezo pickups and acoustic, electric, and bass guitars with magnetic pickups, as well as older low-output instruments, while a variable highpass filter eliminates rumble and (in conjunction with an onboard polarity reverse) eliminates feedback. There's also a lowpass filter onboard the Radial PZ-DI.
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Highest Rated Reviews
A must have !!
This DI is amazing !! I use it along with my PRS P22 for the acoustic channel. It not only takes out the 'brittle-ness' of a piezo pickup sound, it 'warms up' the tone also. The output of this DI is crystal clear and does not add anything to your tone to muddy it up !! I highly recommend this DI to anyone who plays a piezo equipped instrument.
A definite 'must-have' !!!
This is the one to get
IMO this is a smarter buy than the J48. It's based on the same circuit but adds some excellent features. Obviously it offers features for use with piezos but also has the variable HPF and fixed LPF. The LPF is a gentle rolloff meant for tone-shaping with a piezo pickup but can really help with general noise from active sources.
It has 4 impedance settings and for most basses and acoustic guitars the players and I all like the 220kOhm setting. It also has a standard 1M which sounds like a J48, and the 10M for piezos. But if you hit the Pad switch the input switches to 50kOhm suited for keyboards etc with line outputs, which is well suited. So 4 Z settings total.
THere's also a hidden switch so that the Link output is taken from after the input buffer and your impedance and filter settings, so if the player connects an amp then the Link output doesn't let the amp's (lower) impedance sit in parallel with the DI and give a different Z to what you set. This can be very helpful when a player with eg a violin uses a guitar amp - it improves the piezo tone both for the engineer and to the amp.
So for the price difference over a J48 I'd take the PZ-DI every time! It's worth it just for the 220k setting, try it on active pickups and you'll like it. As a live engineer of >30 years this is my pick for an active DI hands down
A DI for everyman
Cutting back the lower frequencies of guitars, violins and even mandolins with internal pick-ups, is a secret trick of sorts that really helps un-muddy the amplified sound of a full band. The PZ-DI is a well made, super flexible piece of gear that helps do that without having to resort to an external pre-amp (yay). Impedance matching, high cut, ground, and phase switches round out the features. No brainer for better sound.
