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A great preamp/DI has had a price drop (Studiospares 458190)


Jack

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Hi guys,

A few times I've espoused my love of the incredible (and very sexily-named) Studiospares 458190 preamp and DI box. I've had mine around 2 years now and I love it. On the upside it's got a decent 3-band eq, a notch filter, a preshape/midscoop thing, effects loop yada yada yada. Most importantly (and more preamps should have this) separate volume controls for both the XLR and TRS. On the downside, it's as big as a house and it's stupidly 9V center positive. Well, you can get around that by using the battery or phantom power I suppose.

 

Anyway, I think I more than got my money's worth when I paid £45, then a few months back I noticed they went up to £50 (hey, prices rise, inflation, whatever) and they were still more than worth that. I noticed today that they're down to £30+delivery. I actually thought the one that I saw on ebay had been incorrectly listed or B-stock but no, that's just how much they cost now. For £30 I'm not sure that there's a better DI box. For £100 I'm not sure there's a better DI box.

 

I have to stress that I have no affiliation or anything, just a happy customer passing on, what is IMO, a great deal.

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6 minutes ago, Daz39 said:

Dim question; what’s a notch filter?

I’ve seen it on acoustic amps and often wondered!

It cuts out a specific frequency. The screenshot below shows a notch filter being used to cut most of the bass guitar from an mp3 file but in the case of a DI for live use it would, I assme, be used to tame a troublesome resonant frequency in the room

FX: Track 1 %2204 This Is The Life%22 2019-01-05 23-45-37.png

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19 hours ago, Daz39 said:

Dim question; what’s a notch filter?

I’ve seen it on acoustic amps and often wondered!

Phil covered all the good stuff, all that's left for me to do is to confirm his suspicion, the reason you get them on acoustic instruments and amps is because they feed back really easily at room resonance type frequencies. It can be useful on electric bass too in a very howly room.

10 hours ago, King Tut said:

Any idea what frequencies the eq bands are set at?

No, but I've been itching to use a proper scope for ages, this might be a good excuse...

Edited by Jack
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On 05/01/2019 at 23:39, Daz39 said:

Dim question; what’s a notch filter?

I’ve seen it on acoustic amps and often wondered!

It's mainly used to cut out a specific feedback frequency - typically on electroacoustic / acoustic (via mic) guitar but can be useful on other sources.

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On 05/01/2019 at 00:08, Jack said:

" and it's stupidly 9V center positive. Well, you can get around that by using the battery or phantom power I suppose."

Or just wire the DC power connector as centre positive...

Seriously - the rest of the electronics world would put the +ve voltage on the centre connector and have the outer connector as -ve and possibly 'screen' so it's reasonable to wonder who's the 'maverick' :-)

Yeah - I know it's to do with the power source (battery / DC) switching but it's not that difficult to deal with.

 

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9 hours ago, rmorris said:

Or just wire the DC power connector as centre positive...

 

Can you elaborate on this some more please? If there's a way to easily daisy chain this I'd be grateful. I've been using a polarity inverter cable so far and it's been fine but I'd like a less forgettable solution!

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27 minutes ago, Beer of the Bass said:

I did once email them and ask, trying to determine if it would make a good piezo preamp. At the time, they didn't have that information available.

Yes, the manual, packaging and advertising copy are definitely some of the areas where they've saved money. IIRC I think mine just came in a plain cardboard box.

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So, setting up a scope under Linux is a right chew on. I used to have a separate Ubuntu Studio PC that has a great scope application on it, but it's right pain to get that working on a normal desktop. I was able to take some very rough measurements using the RTA analyser on my XR18, but it's not what you'd call precise. It looks as though the bass control is shelving, with maybe an 80 or 100Hz knee. The mids are pretty wide and centered somewhere around 600Hz. The treble control starts affecting the sound at around 1.6Khz and its very extreme by around 4KHz. Pre-Shape cuts a wide swath around 1.5Khz.

bassboost.png

basscut.png

eqflat.png

midscut.png

midsfull.png

preshape.png

treblecut.png

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16 hours ago, Jack said:

So, setting up a scope under Linux is a right chew on. I used to have a separate Ubuntu Studio PC that has a great scope application on it, but it's right pain to get that working on a normal desktop. I was able to take some very rough measurements using the RTA analyser on my XR18, but it's not what you'd call precise. It looks as though the bass control is shelving, with maybe an 80 or 100Hz knee. The mids are pretty wide and centered somewhere around 600Hz. The treble control starts affecting the sound at around 1.6Khz and its very extreme by around 4KHz. Pre-Shape cuts a wide swath around 1.5Khz.

bassboost.png

basscut.png

eqflat.png

midscut.png

midsfull.png

preshape.png

treblecut.png

Thanks Jack, good work!

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2 hours ago, Rich said:

I have a feeling that I'd probably never need it/use it, but dammit I want one now :lol:

It has to be the absolute winner in terms of cm^3 per £. You could land a helicopter on it. You know, that might be a selling point. Maybe.

Edited by Jack
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On 08/01/2019 at 08:40, Jack said:

Can you elaborate on this some more please? If there's a way to easily daisy chain this I'd be grateful. I've been using a polarity inverter cable so far and it's been fine but I'd like a less forgettable solution!

Well it's the same as the cable but hardwired to make the same connections. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just to mention that I bought one of these and when I looked at Studiospares yesterday there was just one left in stock.

Only used with bass and on phantom power as of yet.

Does what it says - haven't investigated noise levels etc.

Treble control doesn't really touch the bass guitar range for me (maybe if I had played with newer strings) but it seems all good.

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9 hours ago, rmorris said:

Just to mention that I bought one of these and when I looked at Studiospares yesterday there was just one left in stock

 

I like to think I'm somewhat responsible! I'll be gutted if they're clearing stock to make room for an upgraded model...

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