Whirlwind "Black Boxes"

Before the days of Whirlwind's Black Boxes, sound companies had developed their own homemade "Direct Boxes" or "Direct Injection" (DI) devices. These consisted of a metal box that contained a transformer which converted onstage instrument or line level signals, such as those from guitars and keyboards, to low impedance balanced mic level signals. These signals could then be sent down the snake to a mixing console's mic inputs and eliminated the need to use a microphone. This also eliminated problems of mic placement, leakage into the mic from other sound sources, etc. It was a natural progression for Whirlwind to begin making the first commercially manufactured versions of these DIs to go along with the new Medusa snakes.

A 1981 catalog shows the first models, IMP 1, IMP 2, IMP 3 and IMP AKG . They were housed in a plain aluminum box and identified with just a Whirlwind stick on label.



IMP 1 (yellow) - a single 1/4" input on the box and a 6" cable tail output terminated with a male inline XLR.

IMP 2 (blue) - two 1/4" parallel inputs and a male XLR output, all mounted on the box. It also featured a ground lift switch and an impedance switch that allowed selection of 3 different output impedances (600, 250 and 50 Ohms). The current IMP 2 does not have this impedance selector.

IMP 3 (red label) - a speaker level direct box.


The IMP AKG was an 18.5' balanced mic cable with a box built into one end containing a low-to-high Z transformer and 6" tail with 1/4" TS plug. It was called the IMP AKG because it was designed as a high quality replacement for the cable that originally came with the popular AKG D1000E microphone.

Other products were:
IMP Reversed - low to high Z version of the IMP 1
IMP Splitter - 1 in to 2 out single channel isolated mic splitter box.

The only surviving products of this group are the IMP 2 and IMP Splitter although the IMP Reversed has been replaced by the LITTLE IMP.

1983 saw the addition of the Director, a premium passive direct box. The selection of "Black Boxes" was still small but beginning to grow.

Today, Whirlwind's IMP Department produces small splitters, DIs, combiners, testers, etc., over 25 different products in all.

As with all Whirlwind products, their reputation for quality components and bullet proof designs make them the boxes found most often in serious sound applications. If anyone questions their reliability, Whirlwind salespeople have been known to take an IMP 2 and drive over it with their car to prove its the best built stuff you can buy.