Getting Kemper DI's from Direct Send and SPDIF

    Getting Kemper DI's from Direct Send and SPDIF:


    I'm interested to see if I need a really high quality DI box (I have less expensive ones) or if the Kemper can do it properly. I recorded an 8 bar bass riff through various different inputs/outputs and them re-amped them all with SPDIF (to see what the final results would be).



    Chains:
    Bass into my Saffire Pro 14 (Instrument mode switched on, on MixControl) as a reference.


    Bass into Kemper going through the Direct Send into my Saffire Pro 14 (Instrument mode switched on, on MixControl).
    Bass into Kemper going through the Direct Send into my Saffire Pro 14 (Instrument mode switched off, on MixControl).


    Bass into Kemper going SPDIF directly to my Saffire Pro 14's SPDIF.



    Now after listening back and A/Bing them, am I right in thinking (in a technical way because I appreciate you haven't heard the recordings) that the order of clearest should be:


    SPDIF
    Direct Send
    Saffire Pro (I'm sure higher quality interfaces can produce better)



    Thanks for all your time, sorry for the long post - just trying to understand my Kemper better!


    In terms of quality, yes, that's the order it would go.


    However, I have a Roland Quad Capture and I've done the same test myself:


    A) Guitar --> Instrument input on the interface--> Reamp through the Kemper via SPDIF --> DAW
    B) Guitar --> Kemper --> SPDIF out --> DAW


    and the difference was almost nil. If memory serves, there was maybe a 1db drop in the highs for track A compared to going straight into the Kemper.


    Most interfaces these days have pretty good preamps, converters, etc, so as long as you're using a Hi-Z (Instrument) input they should all be pretty much the same. A lot of people like DI boxes because they provide a bit of transformer color and/or saturation. Definitely not necessary.