Direct Box suggestions??

[Road King]

Can anyone recommend a good sound direct box to be used with a Taylor 710ce with the Fishman Blender preamp? I've never gotten a sound with this preamp that I'm crazy about and I'm kinda hoping a good quality box will help.
Acoustically the guitar sounds great. Direct not so much.

[scooteraz]

For best sound, either the Fishman Aura or the Dtar Mama Bear. I've used both, the Aura works nicely with a variety of acoustics. The Mama Bear gives an amazing simulation if you have an under saddle pickup on an electric (I use mine with my Parker).

I did not have good luck with the Aphex Acoustic Xciter, though I have seen where others have praised the product.

For a good, repeatable sound, I have used either the LR Baggs ParaAcoustic DI or the newer Venue DI (my current pedal of choice with my McPherson). These will not give you great sound, but will give you just about everything your natural pickup (without some sort of modeling) can give you.

I have tried several other preamps, but none got past 30 days before I got rid of them.

[LesStrat]

The Mama Bear has received RAVE reviews.

[TheViking]

I got a couple of the DTar Mama Bears, they rock, I have yet to come across any acoustic that doesn't sound good with them :o)

[scooteraz]

Aura Spectrum and the DTAR Mama Bear are within spitting distance from each other in price. Both will provide a good acoustic model with an acoustic and under-saddle pickup. The advantages of the Mama Bear are that you can also plug in a variety of guitars and get good acoustic sounds (think solid body with under saddle pickup), and the Mama Bear has a couple of OK resonator models, however, it is not updatable shy of chip replacement. Overall it is useful in more situations.

The Aura gives you more, and more specific acoustic models (indeed, you can actually get a model of your own guitar), and there are quite a few image models out there. Also, it is updatable via USB. I also provides a little more complete tone control on the preamplifier. Down side is that it doesn't work very well as a modeler for your solid body. Overall, it is a little more powerful if it matches your specific situation.

I've used and own both (albeit, the original Aura), and I prefer the Aura on my Larrivee (never used it with my McPherson, they do something to modify their pickup electronics that seems to work adequately with straight DI in), the Mama Bear when I use my Parker or when I want a reso sound. If I had to choose one, I'd keep the Mama Bear (useful in more situations)

It just struck me that you might have the Taylor expression system. Not sure how that would interface with either system. Though the DTAR accepts magnetic input and an unspecified input, both systems generally are used with piezo pickups. If you have the Taylor Expression System, then I think I would go with just the standard LRBaggs Para DI. Of course if TheViking has hooked up a TES to the DTAR and it sounds great, then I stand corrected.

[Road King]

I had never considered a modeling direct box before. That really sounds like a practical answer to my problem.
My band has been in the studio for the last few weeks and I was using the Taylor to lay a few scratch tracks (Not the expression system, this one is the Fishman Blender). The engineer had me hooked up through a Radial DI box. Through the headphones it sounded OK but still not blowing my hair back.
For some reason the Blender has never given me a good tone IMO and a modeler may be the solution.
Thanks guys!!!