[sdiy] DI Box Question

[Scott Stites]

I've got a friend with a Korg D12 Disk recorder.  He was having a bit of a distortion problem with it, and he wanted to check the balanced mic inputs with his synth.  I mentioned that he could get a DI box to balance the output of the synth for the mic inputs.

He checked with a local pro in Wichita about that, and I was a bit surprised by the answer he received..

The pro said that his synth (in this case a Prophet 5) should only be connected to the 1200 thru a 1/4" line input and not the mic inputs.  He also stated that the mic inputs on the recorder were balanced, whereas the Prophet output is not, and that the mic inputs are low impedance, and the Prophet output is not.  He said that a DI box would balance the synth, but not lower the signal level, which would be too hot for the mic inputs.
 
It was my understanding that the purpose of a DI box is to match the impedance level of a line out device and balance it so that one could use the balanced mic inputs of a mixer.  As far as signal level goes, a lot of DI boxes I've seen have switchable attenuators (usually 20 dB or 40 dB or both).  But, often I just read about DI boxes being placed between the synth and the mixer mic input with no mention of attenuation whatsoever on the DI box (usually attenuation is mentioned on the mixer itself, if at all).

Are mixing console mic inputs 'hardier' than a mic input to, say, a recorder?

How do you all use DI boxes, if you do?

TIA,
Scott


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