Pro-Ject Phono Box MM, Phono preamplifier with metal case and special low-noise ICs

Product Information

Sound quality is first-rate: fantastically detailed, with the upper register particularly impressive. It’s difficult to imagine a more detailed presentation from a phono stage for the money. There are rivals with an equally wide soundstage, but they perhaps don’t shine the spotlight so intensely on each instrumental strand. Detail is where it stands out, but the Gram Amp 2 is also a dab hand at dynamics and timing – although perhaps not with as much bite and punch compared with the Rega. Entry-level products like the Schiit Audio Mani 2, Cambridge Audio Alva Duo, and U-Turn Audio Pluto did their best to not rob music of its pace and keep the sound relatively balanced. Prices valid in stores (all including VAT) until close of business on 28th November 2023. (Some of these web prices are cheaper than in-store, so please mention that you've seen these offers online.) Maiden Voyage: Herbie’s piano sounded warm, inviting and timbrally rich. Soft, yet percussive, it flowed together perfectly with incredible sustain and life. I really could feel the emotion pouring through my system and out of my speakers like I have never before felt. “Yes!” I thought. “This is what analog really sounds like!” I have heard videos on YouTube of people playing their records through very nice equipment with good A/D conversion, and while very impressive sounding, the digital conversion mixed with YouTube’s compression and limited frequency range detracts from the presence and weight that with vinyl you can almost feel more than hear. Strange, right? Again, through the S2 there was a slight increase in depth and dimensionality compared to the Denon. Imaging was better, bass was cleaner, the S2 just is a better preamp.

Yes, there is also this possibility. You can buy a turntable with an integrated preamp. However, this decision only makes sense in a few cases. For example, if you only want to listen to a record occasionally or digitize old records, a turntable with a preamplifier can be a good idea. After all, this can then be easily connected to an amplifier and used directly, this also applies to the PC or the sound card. If you want to listen to a turntable for music and also the appropriate quality, then a turntable without an integrated preamplifier is the better choice. In this way, you have significantly more control over the individual components of your system and can easily retrofit or replace as required. Information About The Test And The Product Recommendations Another oldie but still a goodie, the Gram Amp 2 holds its own nearly a decade after first coming on the scene. And you can see why - simplicity is the name of the game here, an approach that ages remarkably well. It's a moving-magnet phono stage with one set of inputs, one output, no bells or whistles. The analog output is a buffer that is both solid state and high-quality tube. Thus, the customer can choose which of the option is preferred. The Pre Box has eight digital filters. One of them is the proprietary optimal transient digital filter from the MQA creators. With these filters, the listener can customize the sound to suit their own preferences. Pre Box RS2 Digital comes with full HW and SW support for MQA technology (Master Quality Authenticated).

This simple circuit enables boosting extremely small or minimal frequencies to an appreciably bigger outputs which can be then used for feeding lager amplifiers. The physical limitations of vinyl mean that the original audio signal has to be altered before it can be recorded onto its tiny grooves – low frequencies are reduced in level and the highs are boosted. The curve that governs this equalisation standard was set by the RIAA (Record Industry Association of America) in 1954. Provided you keep it away from other mains-powered products and power cables, this phono stage will prove suitably quiet and hum-free. Features are basic but it's clear that Moon has focused on the bit that counts – sound quality. This may well prompt you to ask: if it’s already built-in, why do I need to buy another one? In truth, you don’t. Yes, this is a buyer’s guide for something you don’t need to buy.But that doesn’t mean you won’t want to buy one. Here’s why…

As Herbie’s Fender Rhodes e-piano entered, the wider soundstage kind of tossed the piano around the room as it oscillated between both channels. As Herbie’s ARP PE-IV String Ensemble faded in, the value having a slight increase in depth became clear: the sound was larger and a little more expansive. One downside: the S2’s improved detail retrievel revealed the audible distortion produced by the Debut Carbon’s rather short 8.6” tonearm. Any music as we know is in the form of a consistently varying frequency, therefore when such a varying input is applied across the indicated C1 end terminals, the same is delivered across the base T1 and ground.This is where the phono stage (or phono preamp) comes in. It has two jobs. Firstly, it has the reverse response built into it – one that boosts bass and flattens treble to exactly the right degree, which should result in a tonally even presentation for the audio signal. The headphone amplifier is the ultimate design. No compromise. No coupling capacitors. Not even on the output. All of the the amplifier is DC coupled. A very fast DC servo assures no DC voltage on the output. Its output power is suitable for all kind of headphones. Applying even the highly sensitive measuring devices at our fingertips we still could not determine virtually any output noise signal whatsoever!

Is the performance gap that huge between the two units? No – but the dedicated phono stage has a little more presence overall, a deeper soundstage, and was less noisy than the stage inside the integrated amplifier. Is Pro-Ject’s Tube Box S2 the best preamp out there for the money? I can’t say for sure. I haven’t heard all of the competition, or frankly any of it! I’m new at this. However, considering that this is the first preamp comparison I have done in my system that I know and love I thought the Tube Box S2 performed well. Certainly if you’re an analog “newbie” and looking for your first phono preamp, both the price and sound are right. Watch for more content to come from me in the future!

The Phono Signature on its own sounds refined and smooth with plenty of bite when required, but adding the updated PSX-R2 power supply takes sound quality to another plane altogether. The scale is even bigger, bass gains more authority, and the precise positions of the performers and instruments in the beautifully layered sound stage are laid bare. The insightful delivery squeezes the very last drop of emotion from a recording. Dual tone control, presence control and volume control are offered. The circuit is designed for input levels of up to 3 V. Over this level distortion rises, but that may be, naturally, a decent outcome having guitar music. In addition, the midband voltage gain of the input stage is adjusted at around 46dB. With that kind of a low input level, it is apparent that low noise transistors (such as the BC109C) are required to get excellent performance. The Blue Note reissue of Freddie Hubbard’s Hub-Tones (Blue Note 80 Vinyl, ST-84115) is a beautiful sounding record and exactly the type of recording that would sell a lot of Croft units. Really exceptional phono stages should make an instrument like the trumpet come alive without forcing you to reach for the remote because the top end has too much sizzle. The chassis is very inert and Pro-Ject has made a point of isolating the circuit from vibration and RFI; the unit is dead silent, and I could not hear any hum through any pair of loudspeakers with the volume turned up. Likes