No matter the challenge the stage or studio might throw at you, your trusty sidekick will come to the rescue! This dapper blue direct injection box is blessed with the power of tubes and is packed with features, essential for any serious musician, (recording) engineer or audio aficionado.
In essence, the sidekick is a (very) low noise, class A, tube amplifier. A single strong and capable 12BH7 triode drives the premium quality Lundahl output transformer. This provides a truly balanced and galvanically isolated output signal, ready to drive any desk or recording gear.
Not just for bass
Although the bass was in the back of my mind during development, the sidekick is intended for any instrument with an unbalanced signal output. Whether it be guitar, keys, or any other amplifiable piece of gear. With its huge headroom, wide frequency response and extremely low noise floor, it’ll capture every instrument’s detail and nuance.
Why use a D.I?
There are loads of reasons why a direct injection box is an essential piece of kit. From the bedroom studio to a stage with an audience of 80000, you’ll always need some way to interface your instrument with recording gear, stage box or mixing consoles. For the technical details on the who’s and why’s, I wrote an article on the subject: https://debontamps.com/why_di/
- 1/4″ jack input and parallel (thru) output
- Instrument- and speaker level capable (see below)
- Extremely low noise
- Wide frequency response
- Huge headroom
- Pad for very high input levels
- Output:
- Transformer balanced and separated
- Groundlift
- Phase switch
- Level adjust
- Neutrik XLR
- 115VAC/230VAC selectable
- Mains filtering
- High quality Lundahl output transformer
- Carrying handle
- 2 rack units (2U, 2HE) will accommodate 3 sidekicks, side by side
- Hand built in the Netherlands
Speaker (amp) input, what’s that about?
Imagine you have that one special vintage amp with an unbeatable reverb or tube drive, but it lacks a line output. You’re stuck with micing the speaker cab to grab that tone you love. Mics colour the sound, they require expertise to set up and not every situation is suited to use them. The amp input setting allows you to connect the sidekick as you would a secondary speaker. It will convert the speaker signal, up to 750Wrms, to a balanced line level signal, ready for distribution or recording.
* Please make sure your amp uses a speaker output referenced to ground or damage to the equipement might occur. Please contact the manufacturer if unsure.
input | |
---|---|
connector | 1/4″ jack |
input impedance | 1Meg (0dB pad), 200k (-12dB pad), 1k (amp) |
thru | 1/4″ jack, parallel, unbuffered |
output | |
connector | XLR, balanced |
output impedance | 600 ohm |
options | ground lift (pin 1) |
phase selectable (0/180 degrees) | |
output level control, -18dB to +9dB | |
numbers | |
frequency response | 10Hz to 32kHz (-3dB), 20Hz to 20kHz (-1dB) |
speaker sim (amp) | 10Hz to 8.5kHz (-3dB) |
THD+N | 0.06% @1kHz |
noise (EIN) | sub -110dB |
tube | 1x 12bh7 |
mains voltage | 110-120 VAC / 220-240 VAC selectable |
power consumption | 15W |
dimension | 140 x 87 x 270mm (W x H x D) |
weight | 3.6 kg (7.9 lbs) |