All user reviews for the Traverse Analogue Mass-DI

i used the mass di on our last album to di the guitars and bass for reamping later. i will continue to use this di until the end of time! i am trying to convince mr. traverse of traverse analog to start making them again, because they improvement they made on my recordings are mind blowing!

i've used lots of di's from various manufacturers, but previously the highest quality di i owned was the radial - j48, which i had no complaints about, but would have never thought to use it to record an album because the j48 still has more signal degradation than the convenience of reamping later would offset

i started reading up on this one-man company from newfoundland and felt really confident in the quality of design and build. i don't know off hand of any other pro audio gear that is BUILT by the actual design engineer! my confidence was WELL placed! this di running into the mic input of ANY preamp will SMOKE the hi-z input of that same pre-amp. i've verified this so far on the avalon v55, the ua solo 610, the focusrite isa one, and gallien kruger's 1001RB bass oriented di! it was the massive improvements over the avalon's hi-z ins that really sold me (the v55 is mostly "ranked" higher than the solo610 by audio douches).

on electric guitar the mid range really jumps out without being brash, while the top end gets a lot of pleasant sparkle without being bright. on bass guitar it comes out fuller/richer without bottom end saturation, much better articulation in the lower mids, and way more accuracy and presence in the 4-5khz range.it sounds SO much better than the hi-z ins on everything that i tested that i started to wonder if it merely made it louder (louder almost always sounds better). while it does have a very mild compression effect in the way that you can REALLY dig into with a 5 string bass. the harder you push it, the more it "activates" and the pleasant bias becomes more pronounced - it is NOT transparent by any means.

the closest competitor to this unit would be the rupert neve rndi. i haven't done an a/b test on it yet - i'm trying to convince my local music store to rent me one for testing. i WILL be so bold as to predict that the mass di WILL outperform the neve rndi (blasphemy!) based on the following criteria:
the mass di is designed, hand assembled, and tested by one person - julian traverse is very much appearing to be the next-generation rupert neve!
the neve rndi was designed by neve's engineering team, not mr neve himself, and then it is "mass produced" by a team of assemblers, then tested by yet another team! none of those people have their personal name on the product, and a long history of market domination has repeatedly been proven to allow the og's to slack off a bit (think ford vs toyota in the 80's).
of course this is ALL speculative, but speaking from personal experience, once i started my own company my quality of work inherently stepped up to give me a competitive edge against established competition. it truly seems like julian traverse is the rupert neve from 1963, but with modern day tech.

pros: HUGE improvement in fidelity!!
can be used as a bludgeoning tool if musicians get unruly in the studio.

cons: it's the wrong shade of black.

i am SO impressed with this unit that i'm saving up now for the traverse analog 652 v2.