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Old 12-11-2017, 11:49 AM
MrErikJ MrErikJ is offline
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I believe that the preamp sections of each unit are, more or less, the same. The Venue has more features, including a Boost and Mute/Tuner and an extended set of mid-range controls (High, Low, and Presence). I would say it depends on what your pickup is but more importantly, what you require on stage.

I use the Para DI 90% of the time despite having a Tonebone PZ Deluxe which is, arguably, superior to the Venue and the Para. The PZ has much more power, a high-pass filter, and 15 volts of headroom. It is much more powerful and very clean sounding. It does not impart any "warmth" to the pickup as the Para does. THAT SAID, the Para is small, very tune-able, phantom power-able, and toneful. I am rarely the starring act and I have limited time and resources as my disposal on-stage. It is nice to have a simple preamp/DI that I can quickly set-up and can run on phantom or 9-volt power. I have also found that the Para is especially toneful with the "old-school" Baggs pickups like the LB6, which it was designed for. If I was using a high-output, active-pickup, I may look for something with more headroom (like the Venue or Tonebone) but for a phantom-powerable DI paired with the same brand's passive pickup...the Para is an exceptional piece of gear.

One note: I have heard anecdotal reports that the K&K sucks with the Para. I haven't tried it but many report it's due to an impedance mismatch (K&K wants 1mohm, Para has 10mohm). This isn't a true "impedance mismatch" as a mismatch would be running an unbalanced, high-impedance, signal into something with a low-impedance input (like a guitar into a mic-channel). The difference between 1mohm and 10mohm is insignificant and I think @Doug Young has done the sound check research to support this. More than anything, it's likely that the circuitry and preamp voicing that Lloyd's team designed was intended to complement (get this)...their pickups, like the LB6. The Para is rather warm with a slight bit of compression to it, which makes sense when your star pickup (in that era) was an intra-saddle piezo pickup. It may not be a good complement to the K&K, which needs a mid-cut and some treble enhancement, but that's due to tone design and not impedance.
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