Strymon PCH Active Direct Interface

It isn’t always the units on your pedalboard that make the coolest noises that make the most difference…I know, hard to believe, but if anything represents that well, it’s today’s piece of musical gear. The PCH Active Direct Interface, the latest release from our friends at Strymon, is an advanced stereo active direct interface with a hidden superpower – an onboard console-quality headphone amplifier. Now you can rest easy knowing that the sound of your pedalboard won’t change even a little when passing through PCH, and the headphone amp means you won’t have to ask anyone how you sound.

Grab a PCH Interface from Sweetwater https://sweetwater.sjv.io/Vx5Lgk

PCH has a powerful headphone amplifier onboard, making it easy to monitor or practice listening to the sound of your entire rig or pedalboard in full stereo, no matter the pedal order or the components. Connecting the output of your pedalboard to a DI is a very different thing than simply plugging your bass or guitar straight into one. Pedalboards can generate very loud output signals, enough to swamp the input of ordinary direct boxes. PCH is different, partially because it runs on 9VDC, and it has enough headroom to handle powerful incoming audio while remaining pristine, ensuring you always sound your best.

No matter what instrument or genre of music you play, if you need to connect unbalanced outputs to a PA, recording interface or flat response speaker system, PCH is the ultimate choice for an absolutely transparent stereo direct interface — and it’s the only one that you can listen to locally via the headphone amp. PCH was designed from the ground up to be sonically transparent, virtually unclippable and bulletproof — it’s the ultimate solution for your pedalboard, keyboard rig or synth setup.

In
Input Impedance: 1 MΩ
Max Input Level: +20dBu

Thru
Output Impedance: 100 Ω
SNR: +135dB (A-Weight)
Noise Floor: -115dBV (10-22kHz no A-Weight)
Gain Relative to Inputs: +0dB
Frequency Response: +/- 0.25dB, 10Hz – 80kHz+

HP
Output Impedance: 2 Ω
Frequency Response: +/- 0.25dB, 10Hz – 80kHz

XLR, Line Setting
Output Impedance: 275 Ω
SNR: +130dB (A-Weight)
Noise Floor: -110dBV (10-22kHz no A-Weight)
Gain Relative to Inputs: +0dB
Maximum Output Level: +20dBu
Frequency Response: +/- 0.25dB, 10Hz – 80kHz+

XLR, Mic Setting
Output Impedance: 100 Ω
Gain Relative to Inputs: -20dB
Maximum Output Level: +0.0dBu
SNR: +125dB
Noise Floor: -125 dBV (10-22kHz no A-Weight)
Frequency response: +/- 0.25dB, 10Hz – 80kHz+

Power Supply
Input Voltage: 9VDC
Current Requirement: 500mA

No matter what kind of setup or rig you’re using, big or small, complex or simple, the PCH Active Direct Interface will change both your sound and how you approach musical creation. In our demo video, we run through the different connection options, both individually and together, to hear the tonal variation each one produces, so you can decide what works best for you. And, of course, we see how it sounds with some of our favorite Strymon pedals – Mobius, Timeline, BigSkyMX and Iridium, plus the always-rad Thneed Overdrive from Supercool Pedals. Be sure to visit the Strymon site for ordering and more info – cheers!!