Radial J48 active direct box, dramatic close hero shot beside an acoustic guitar

Active direct box · 48V phantom powered

J48

$220 USD

The active DI that ended the battery argument. Phantom-powered, with the headroom to take a hot keyboard or an aggressive bass without flinching — and the build to do it for a decade of one-nighters.

  • 48V phantom power — no battery, no power supply to lose
  • Massive dynamic range handles the loudest sources clean
  • 14-gauge steel chassis with a book-end design that protects the switches
  • Merge function sums a stereo keyboard to mono for the XLR out

A direct box has one job: turn a high-impedance instrument signal into a balanced feed the console can trust, and add nothing of its own. The J48 does that with a discrete Class-A circuit and enough power reserve that transients stay intact. The result is a track that sounds like the instrument, not like the box.

J48 in use on a guitar amplifier with an acoustic guitar nearby

On the rider

The box that survives the tour

Every connector is panel-mounted and reinforced. The switches sit recessed inside the book-end so a dropped road case lands on steel, not on a toggle. Engineers spec it because it comes home from the road measuring exactly the way it left.

J48 active direct box clean three-quarter angle on white

Headroom to spare

Loud sources, no clipping

Active keyboards and modern basses put out signal levels that overwhelm a passive DI. The J48's power rail gives it the headroom to take the hottest source on the stage and pass it clean, so the punch you played is the punch the console hears.

Applications

Where the J48 earns its keep

Acoustic

Acoustic guitar

Pulls a clean, full-range signal from a piezo pickup without the harsh quack a passive box can leave behind.

Keyboards

Stereo keyboards

The merge switch sums left and right to mono when you only have one channel, with no level penalty.

Bass

Active & passive bass

Handles a hot active bass without padding it down, and a vintage passive without losing the low end.

Watch

Hear the difference a real active DI makes

A two-minute walkthrough of the J48 on acoustic, bass and keys — recorded live at the bench.

Play the demo
An engineer at the console with Recoil studio monitors

“I carry two J48s in every kit. In fifteen years of touring I have never had one fail, and I've never had one color the sound. That's the whole job, done.”

Front-of-house engineerArena touring

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Specifications

The numbers

TypeActive direct box, transformer-isolated output
Power48V phantom, 9–48V range
Frequency response20 Hz – 20 kHz, ±0.5 dB
Dynamic range> 100 dB
Input impedance220 kΩ
Total harmonic distortion< 0.004% @ 1 kHz
Maximum input+20 dBu
Construction14-gauge steel chassis, book-end design
Warranty3-year transferable, made in Canada

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