I bought three of these Pyle Pro units for live recording. They allow me to connect the mixer directly to a bass, a guitar and a keyboard while recording live bands. This provides sound isolation in a loud live environment. Plug the guitar pickup output into the DI box 1/4 inch input and plug the output 1/4 inch into the guitar amp. Then plug the DI box XLR output into your mixer or PA input. If recording only with no amp, simply don’t use the 1/4 inch output.

They work well but like all passive DI boxes, they do affect the frequency response of the signal. This is most noticeable on a bass guitar or upright. There is a loss of lower frequencies and a loss of volume. If this cannot be tolerated, then use an active DI box. These passive DI boxes have a 50K ohm input impedance, where an active DI box would be more like 5Meg ohm which will have no effect on the signal.

The Pyle DI box is a well built steel case unit. I opened one up and it looks good, not commercial grade but what do you want for ?

We purchased 3 of these direct boxes two years ago for live performance. We use them every week for instruments to traverse long distances without hum. And they did just that – eliminated the hum. But they didn’t last.

On one end, the direct box has an XLR connector and a ground lift switch. On the other end, there are two 1/4″ jacks and a three position slide switch offering 3 levels of signal attenuation.

THE XLR CONNECTOR – the Achilles heel of this box
However within the first few months, one of the direct boxes weakened in the XLR connection to the point where the connection was so inconsistent it was unusable. Physically, an XLR cord plugged into this direct box can wiggle around after being plugged in fully. The catch for the cable lock is a plastic groove in the connector and weakens over time so that the connection becomes increasingly loose with repeated use. Over time, the other two boxes got worse in the XLR connector where the signal dropped out intermittently. We setup and take down once a week, every week of the year so we were connecting and disconnecting to and from these direct boxes every week. The XLR connector to this direct box is a non-brand plastic connector (not a Switchcraft or Neutrik connector). It is hard soldered to the internal printed circuit board at a 90-degree angle so it’s not worth replacing this XLR connector.

THE OTHER COMPONENTS
The two 1/4″ jacks are fine and have been fine all along. The ground switch works fine. The attenuation switch is finicky – in each of the 3 positions there is a little bit of play, and if not precisely in the right position, the attenuation jumps from one level to another. The metal box itself is sturdy and robust.

BOTTOM LINE
The cheap XLR connector is what makes this direct box not last over time, especially if you’re connecting/disconnecting for live performances. This box wasn’t made for the road.

When I bought this direct box the price was only ! It’s since gone up to , but that’s still a phenomenal value for a decent piece of gear. I’ve been using two of these to turn a 1/4″ unbalanced (guitar) signal into a balanced (XLR) signal in order to run the cable about 50 feet without introducing noise into the signal path, and it works like a champ. The box doesn’t color the sound much at all.

I highly recommend this product to anyone looking to pick up a decent D.I. at a phenomenal price.