sE Electronics DM3 Black is a phantom powered DI box — a small connection box for instruments and line signal equipment which you want to send the signal to a mixer, console or audio input from — with features that demand a price premium, which sE Electronics doesn’t.
Cheap DI boxes have a 1/4in input for connecting an instrument such as a guitar, and an XLR output that sends the signal to the mixer, console or audio input of your audio interface. More expensive DI boxes have a ground lift switch to correct ground loop noise and/or a pad switch to accommodate different signal source levels. And finally, expensive DI boxes have features such as a preamp and they’re usually powered.
The DM3 Black has all three. Like its most expensive competitors, it is a powered — and inline — DI box that’s intended for use with any 1/4in instrument cable. You can hook up instruments but also playback devices like a keyboard, drum machine, synthesiser and even an iPad or old FM/MW/LW radio.
The DM3 Black has the typical XLR plug shape of the DM product range that includes the DM1, DM1 Black, and DM2 and DM2 Black microphone inline preamps. In contrast to these, it has an Ultra-HiZ input that allows for generous headroom for even the hottest devices.
It has the ground lift switch just like more expensive competitors have, so that you can activate new circuitry that helps reduce unwanted noise in both the low- and high-frequency range — a boon for hum that gets generated by, for example, mobile phones. And it allows you to use the signal at its original level, or attenuate by 15dB or 30dB. The switches, as with the other DM products, are recessed and require a small screwdriver to change them. A tiny one comes in the box.
Attention to detail and high-quality components put the DM3 Black in a category of its own. For example, there is the 1/4in input jack lock to prevent accidental disconnects. Some competing products have that on a combination XLR/Jack port, but those locks only protect the XLR-type plug, not a jack plug. And as with the DM1/DM1 Black and DM2/DM2 Black, sE Electronics has fitted out the DM3 Black with a dedicated Class-A output buffer amplifier.
I tested the DM3 Black with a 35 years old B&O radio, a UNO Synth Pro, and my iPad. For each of these, I plugged the device in my Apogee Element 24’s Neutrik XLR/Jack combo port set to Instrument, routing it through the DM3 Black.
The DM3 Black transmitted everything without as much as a hint of change in sonic quality, and with a noise floor that is inaudible by anyone’s standards. The DM3 Black set at zero attenuation resulted in a noise pattern at -84dB, so it certainly has headroom to spare.
Verdict
When you need to plug a passive instrument like a guitar, or a device like a synth or a computer output into a mixer or audio interface, the DM3 Black will transport your signal without noise but with all the detail the original is capable of generating.
sE Electronics sent me the DM3 Black for review via their distributor for the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Luxemburg, Total Sonic. It retails for 125 EUR.
Visuals Producer 
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