Difference between LINE Out and DI Out
in [Live Sound]
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From: bixby on 16 Feb 2006 18:11 I have been looking around at guitar amps, and some of the models I was interested in have a line out, a DI out, one or the other, or neither. Can someone please explain to me what the heck is the difference between a line out and a DI out? For example, an acoustic amp I looked at was the Marshall AS50R. It has a line out and a DI out. Is a line out similar to a headphones jack except that it doesn't cut sound to the speaker? Sorry for the confusion, and thanks in advance.
From: Rob Beech on 16 Feb 2006 18:39 "bixby" <bixby(a)nospam.com> wrote in message news:Xns976CB7FAF650EDFHZZX4409123(a)67.98.68.13... >I have been looking around at guitar amps, and some of the models I was > interested in have a line out, a DI out, one or the other, or neither. > Can > someone please explain to me what the heck is the difference between a > line > out and a DI out? > > For example, an acoustic amp I looked at was the Marshall AS50R. It has a > line out and a DI out. Is a line out similar to a headphones jack except > that it doesn't cut sound to the speaker? > > Sorry for the confusion, and thanks in advance. i'm probably one of 3 replying so who gets there first only time will tell. A little background. the signal from a guitar is known as instrument level. This is high impedance (known as high Z). A signal from a normal microphone in most cases is Low impedance (low Z). High Z signals are vunerable to noise, they tend to pick up mains hum and other interference along the way. the longer they are the more they can pick up. As a rule low Z signals pick up less interference. and are better for longer cable runs for example to a mixing desk down a long multicore to the back of the room (front of house). Another technique used for noise rejection is signal balancing. This means that noise picked up along the cable will be rejected even more so. Onto the question (which will make more sense to you now after the last bit of info) A line out is (usually) an unbalanced line level out (which is High Z) and is usually used to drive a slave amp for a larger stack. it could also be used to drive a guitar tuner if it has no seperate tuner output. A DI out is a signal which has been converted to a Low Z signal and balanced to allow it to be sent down longer cable runs with minimal interference pick up. You would normally find more DI outs on Bass amps rather than guitar amps. As a rule most people would place a suitable mic infront of the (or one of the) speakers in the amp as you mic up the specific amp sound rather just a guitar signal. Some people will use a mic and a DI out. For bass guitar it is often the other way around. DI or DI and MIC. My advice is mic up a guitar cabinet and DI a bass unless you are doing bigger shows where yo may need both .. for both. If you have no outputs (a VOX AC30 for example..not sure about the newest ones but certainly everything pre 2000) then you can either use a mic or modify the amps circuitry to create an output. As for amps with just a line out. if you dont have the means to mic up a cabinet you could use the line output socket and go through a DI box (same principal as the di out only a box that sits on the floor or nearby). Hope that helps Rob
From: bixby on 16 Feb 2006 19:50 "Rob Beech" <rob(remove)@cnics.co.uk> wrote in news:r28Jf.39563$K42.11886(a)newsfe7-win.ntli.net: > A line out is (usually) an unbalanced line level out (which is High Z) > and is usually used to drive a slave amp for a larger stack. it could > also be used to drive a guitar tuner if it has no seperate tuner > output. > > A DI out is a signal which has been converted to a Low Z signal and > balanced to allow it to be sent down longer cable runs with minimal > interference pick up. You would normally find more DI outs on Bass > amps rather than guitar amps. As a rule most people would place a > suitable mic infront of the (or one of the) speakers in the amp as you > mic up the specific amp sound rather just a guitar signal. Some people > will use a mic and a DI out. For bass guitar it is often the other > way around. DI or DI and MIC. Hey Rob, thanks for the info. Its good to know a little background like this, and now that you explain it I feel a little more confident deciding what features I need and don't need. So could you plug in a set of headphones to a line out and expect them to work? I am wondering about using the line out on a guitar amp to connect a bluetooth audio gateway. This device would transmit any audio signal wirelessly to bluetooth receiver with a set of earbuds plugged into it. I was thinking to use this as a quick and dirty in ear monitor for gigs where I only use the single amp, but I want to hear myself a little better over the noise of people talking and eating (think solo intrumentalist playing background music at a noisy restaurant). Using bluetooth over standard RF or 900MHz wireless headphones is a little more current in terms of technology, being that bluetooth is 2.4Ghz transmitting digital audio, and probably less vulnerable to interference. Let me know what you think about that.
From: Geoff@work on 16 Feb 2006 19:42 "Rob Beech" <rob(remove)@cnics.co.uk> wrote in message news:r28Jf.39563$K42.11886(a)newsfe7-win.ntli.net... > > A line out is (usually) an unbalanced line level out (which is High Z) and > is usually used to drive a slave amp for a larger stack. it could also be > used to drive a guitar tuner if it has no seperate tuner output. Line Outs may be balanced or unbalanced, and are usually 'mid' impedence. That is *not* high impedence like a guitar )hundreds of K), but somewhere between a few KOhms to a few tens of K. Level is likely to be -10dBV or greater. A DI Out will be a low impedence, low level signal, suited to a Mic Input. geoff
From: Carey D on 17 Feb 2006 03:47
bixby wrote: > I have been looking around at guitar amps, and some of the models I was > interested in have a line out, a DI out, one or the other, or neither. Can > someone please explain to me what the heck is the difference between a line > out and a DI out? > In addition to the other replies: LINE OUT is a line level signal intended for connection to nearby line level equipment. Line level is around a volt, and in the case of most instrument amplifiers is typically unbalanced with a low impedance source. You could, for example, use the line out to connect to the slave input of another amplifier, or to the input of a recording device. DI out is a microphone level signal for balanced connection over a long cable run to the channel mic input of a mixing console. It converts the instrument amplifier unbalanced line level signal to balanced microphone level. If the amplifier did not include a DI out the sound guy would plug the line out into a DI box to convert to balanced mic level drive. Hope that helps, Carey |