Rupert Neve Designs RNDI-S Dual-Channel Direct Box

Rupert Neve Designs RNDI-S Dual Channel Direct Box

An expanded two-channel version of the best-selling RNDI, providing massive tone & headroom for all of your instruments & stereo sources.

The RNDI-S signature sound is the product of custom Rupert Neve Designs transformers and class-A biased, discrete FET amplifiers. The carefully orchestrated union of these two elements is key to the unique response of the RNDI-S, delivering a powerful and vibrant direct sound capable of reproducing the full harmonic depth of basses, guitars, keyboards, acoustic instruments, professional line-level sources and consumer devices with a 3.5mm jack.  With portable, powerful, larger-than-life tone, the RNDI-S is ready to make your stereo or mono direct sources shine.

 

Features:

• Custom Rupert Neve Designs transformers for rich, powerful tone
• Exceptional performance with any instrument
• Unrivaled clarity from discrete FET amplifiers
• Drives long lines with minimal loss
• Rugged steel frame built for life on the road
• Powered by dual 48V phantom power
• Excellent phase coherence at all frequencies

 

The Development of the RNDI

After coming into existence during an experimentation with new transformer designs, the RNDI was fine-tuned over a series of listening tests against the most popular high-end DIs available. It was in these tests where the RNDI always seemed to add another dimension to the sound and bring the instruments to life. The lows felt richer, deeper and fuller, and the highs had outstanding clarity without any added harshness.

 

Active + Passive: The Best of Both Worlds

The RNDI-S and RNDI’s signature sound is the product both of new custom Rupert Neve-designed transformers and class-A biased, discrete FET amplifiers. The carefully orchestrated union of these two elements is key to their unique response.

 

THE TRANSFORMERS

The custom transformers provide superior passive isolation while adding musical harmonics and dimension to the sound. The low impedance, transformer-balanced output excels at driving long cable runs, and performance is immensely consistent regardless of the connected equipment. This is very important for both live and studio environments where the unamplified signal may travel almost 100ft before hitting an amplifier. In other designs, these high-capacitance lines cause major reductions in high frequencies – not so with the RNDI.

 

THE CLASS-A, DISCRETE FET AMPLIFIERS

The class-A & discrete FET amplifier in the RNDI is powered by 48V phantom, and creates a very high impedance input of 2M Ohms that ensures consistent performance with a wide variety of instruments. The class-A design ensures that zero crossover distortion is added to the signal, which can add upper-order odd harmonics that are musically dissonant in nature. With the RNDI, the overwhelming majority of harmonic content is 2nd order (octave) with some 3rd order present (fifth above octave). These musically relevant harmonics, present in subtle amounts, actually add to the richness of the original signal. And the discrete aspect of the RNDI design means there are no ICs or digital components that can have negative effects on the tone.

 

CONTROLS & I/O

• 2x ¼” INPUTS: Hi-Z unbalanced inputs with 2.2M Ohms input impedance.
• 2x ¼” THRU JACKS: Parallel ¼” jacks used to send signal to an amp or speaker.
• 3.5MM INPUT: Stereo unbalanced input with 95 kOhm input impedance. Ch 1 = Tip, Ch 2 = Ring.
• INPUT SELECT: Selects ¼” Input or 3.5mm Input.
• 48V POWER LEDS: Indicates that +48V phantom power is present for each channel from the connected mic preamp(s). Power must be supplied independently to both channels.
• GROUND LIFTS: Isolates the XLR Pin 1 from the instrument input ground.
• OUTPUT: Transformer-balanced XLR output. Impedance <40 Ohms. Phantom power to the RNDI-S is supplied through these connections.