When what you need is an affordable direct box, there"s no reason to go hunting for sweet deals all over the Net. That"s because ART offers the Xdirect at a ridiculously low price... all the time. This compact warrior is a single-channel direct box. It has a single 1/4" or XLR input with an XLR output. Easy enough, right? Power it via phantom power or via a battery, both work. And for good measure, you"ve got an attenuator, a lowpass filter (to kill potential radio-frequency interference), a ground lift button, and a phase invert button. Those are the goods. A "does the job" direct box, at a nice price: the ART Xdirect.