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Warm Audio WA-DI-A Active Direct Box

Active Direct Box with Variable Pad, Amplifier Out, and Cinemag Transformer
$199.00

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Warm Audio WA-DI-A Active Direct Box
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$199.00
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An Active DI Box That's Anything but Ordinary

Whether you play guitars or basses with passive pickups, you'll need a direct box that won't diminish your instrument's tone when recording or plugging into the board. Using premium components like a Cinemag transformer and leveraging elite build quality, the Warm Audio WA-DI-A Active Direct Box is more than just a basic DI. There is no specific rule on when to use active vs. passive DIs, but a good guide is to use active direct boxes with passive sources like guitars and basses with passive pickups. If you're looking for a professional, durable DI, the Active Direct Box from Warm Audio delivers premium features that help solve many audio issues live and in the studio. For a high-quality DI box at an incredible price, call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer and snag the Active Direct Box from Warm Audio!

Intuitive, full-featured inputs and controls

Plug in your guitar, bass, keyboard, or other high-impedance instruments on the unit's front panel. The Thru jack sits beside it, for easy access to run a line out to your amp, and the converted signal exits the unit via a sturdy XLR jack on the rear panel. The front-panel switches include Phase, Ground Lift, and Amp Out. On the back panel, you can select passive or active operation, and choose to engage the variable pad.

Runs on 48-volt phantom power or dual 9-volts

The Warm Audio Active Direct Box is powered by 48-volt phantom power or by two 9-volts, with an operational life of over 1,600 hours on a fresh set of batteries. The unit auto-senses 48-volt phantom power — switching the unit automatically into active mode — and includes a 48-volt indicator light. When operating on batteries, manually select active or passive mode via the back-panel toggle switch. The batteries are easy to remove and replace when the faraway day comes for a new set!

Warm Audio WA-DI-A Active Direct Box Features:

  • Active direct box with Cinemag transformer
  • Converts a high-impedance, unbalanced signal to a low-impedance, balanced signal
  • Leaves your instrument's tone and clarity intact
  • Variable pad from -3dB to -30dB lets you set an optimal input level to prevent distortion
  • Ground lift switch helps eliminate buzz and hum caused by ground loops
  • Route your amp signal to a live mixer or recording interface
  • Intuitive front- and rear-panel layout
  • Sturdy all-metal chassis can withstand the most rigorous use
  • 1,600+ operational hours on a set of fresh, high-quality 9-volt batteries

Warranty Info

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Tech Specs

  • Type: Active (switchable to passive)
  • Channels: 1
  • Pads: Variable, -3dB to -30dB
  • Polarity Switch: Yes
  • Ground Lift: Yes
  • Inputs: 1 x 1/4" (instrument/amp)
  • Outputs: 1 x XLR, 1 x 1/4" (thru)
  • Power Source: 48V Phantom Power, 2 x 9V battery
  • Manufacturer Part Number: WA-DI-A

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Customer Reviews

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Rated 5/5

I wish I had bough this sooner

I have never bothered using a DI before and just plugged straight into my interface for everything. However, I wanted to have a clean copy of my guitar signal if I ever needed to reamp my guitar through my Kemper so I started plugging it into the Warm Audio Active DI first and what a difference has it made. All the hum that I suffered with previously is gone and my guitar tone is cleaner and brighter. Great value!
Rated 5/5

Best DI I've heard

I've been in live and studio engineering for about the last 20 years, and I've tried nearly every DI out there. When I plugged this DI in, I was blown away with the quality over other great DI's I had been using for years. Don't look any further, buy this DI. Watch my full video review linked here for more details!
Rated 5/5

All the bang for your buck!

I received my Warm Audio DI Box about an hour ago. My initial impression is that this must be the best sounding and feature rich DI box on the market at this price point! I've been wanting a DI box for years now to record electric guitar and bass. I had been recording straight into my Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 and have been battling with signal hum the entire time. I now feel like an idiot for putting off this purchase for so long. Before I would have to heavily manipulate my recordings to make hum less noticeable. This included adding noise gates, low pass filters, and vst preamps/di boxes to strengthen my guitar signal. After I set up my Warm Audio DI box and hit record I was astonished at how much better my guitar recordings sounded. First off, no hum! My guitar sounds great and has a richer and more natural sound. The ability to switch between active and passive was the reason I picked this up over Neve's offering, which is a DI box that I was heavily considering as well. The DI box also looks really sleek and feels very high quality. Overall I am extremely pleased with this purchase. I am now way more likely to be purchasing other Warm Audio products in the future. If your guitar recordings have been suffering from hum issues and have been sounding weak, do yourself a favor and pick this up! You can thank me later. And as always big ups to Sweetwater for being the best supplier of audio products.
Music background: Music Producer
Rated 4/5

Excellent,but…..

I can't trash this for sound. It sounds fantastic active or passive and quiet. What I can say is I had it just over a month and the first time I unplugged a cable from the thru the nut and washer fell off. Upon further investigation the jack was stripped and the nut threaded on just enough not to fall off, just long enough for someone to buy and get home.

YMMV
Rated 5/5

A great choice for a di

I got mine used on the gear exchange. I was looking for an "RNDI-like" box, but needed the ability to run without phantom power (Sometimes I play bass at home through a powered speaker). I also like to experiment and split the signal using the THRU output, to send both clean and overdriven sounds to the speaker. The phase switch is mandatory to have when doing this- without it you can get a weak, distorted sound when combining 2 signals.
You do have to remove 6 screws to change the batteries, kinda a PITA, but battery life is so long I didn't want to take off 1/2 star for it.
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