Countryman DT85 FET Direct Box (DT85)

by Countryman

Product Details

• Item Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• ASIN: B0006I8RF6
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,398 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
  • #33 in Musical Instruments > Recording Equipment > Signal Processors > Direct Boxes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 31, 2007

Product Description

Provides the ultimate way to connect guitar pickups, contact mics or electric instruments to a recording or PA console without loss of audio quality. Does not load the signal from your pickup, no loss of level or increased distortion. The case is made of indestructible extruded aluminum, recessed connectors and switches, battery or phantom power, internal pad for speaker bridging, true ground isolation, RF filtered. What does it do?The Type 85 connects any high impedance instrument pickup, even piezo pickups, to a balanced microphone (XLR type) input. It provides a strong, clean signal to the mix board without adding noise or distortion.What doesn't it do?It won't change the tone or volume you hear from your own amp like passive direct boxes. It won't add hiss, distortion or buzz like some active direct boxes. It won't break just when you need it. It won't develop a dead battery on stage because it runs on Phantom power.Why does it sound so good?The Type 85 doesn't use a cheap FET opamp. It uses only hand selected high quality discrete components woven into a single ended class A circuit much like the classic tube microphone preamp. The Type 85 has an incredibly smooth, sweet sound.Why is it so hard to break?Connectors and switches are recessed into a single piece extruded case with extra thick walls. You can actually drive a truck over a Type 85 without hurting it. Internal electronics are molded in a single epoxy block and fully protected against electrical damage.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this direct box, February 1, 2012

By 

brokebox - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Countryman DT85 FET Direct Box (DT85) (Personal Computers)

I needed another direct box for my project/room studio so I could record guitars and (someone else) playing bass at the same time. I have a A&H mixer with 8 direct outs going straight into a Delta 1010 card at 96k 24 bit. I have a Sansamp Para DI which is very nice, so I wanted to use it exclusively for bass guitar. I did some research for my type of guitar, a gibson sg standard with stock passive pickups, and went with the Countryman 85.

Got it today and gave it a whirl. Wow, this sounds amazing on a quality guitar!! It makes my SG sound like butter. It definitely ran hotter than the Sansamp into the mixer for phantom power. There's no knobs to change besides ground, it exactly captures the sound of your guitar pickups. If you have a passive pickup guitar I highly recommend this. The pickup selector and tone knobs on my guitar have never really made as much of a difference before. I'm extremely impressed.

note... you get when you get when you plug into this. I also have a daisyrock starter guitar for my daughter, so I jammed on that for a little bit as well.... and the results were not that great. The guitar is clearly to blame there because the SG was a step up from the sansamp to my ears.