Pro-Ject Tube Box S2 Black - Phono Preamp

This little phono preamp from Pro-Ject sounds good! I had been using an Art DJ Pre II phono preamp, which is IMO a great deal and practically a steal for how cheap it sells. But I had Amazon gift certificates burning a whole in my pocket. I read a lot before buying the Tube Box S2, as I was not really dissatisfied with the Art DJ Pre II. My biggest concerns around purchasing the Tube Box S2 was that it supposedly isn’t an “all-tube” phono preamp and the cost, which is high but not that high for “quality” audio gear. What eventually sold me on the Tube Box S2 was even if it isn’t all tubes producing the gain and RIAA equalization, it is supposedly using high-quality capacitors and FETs (transistors) in place of less expensive op amps or chips. As a consumer of audio appliances, I don’t really have anything against solid-state electronics, so I appreciate that Pro-Ject designed and built the Tube Box S2 with quality in mind. Even if it’s not all tubes, it’s built with circuits and parts that are as high of a quality as you can get at this price point, and yes, the tubes certainly are being used in the output and supposedly in some of the gain. The build quality, the fit and finish, on the exterior of this little box is top notch, too. It’s a nice, solid-feeling piece of metal, presumably aluminum, and the silver version is a nice, silky, matte finish. Usually a phono preamp is at best a box you can place unobtrusively, but the Tube Box S2 actually looks kind of nice, too. The most important thing though is the sound — WOW! It puts my Art DJ Pre II to shame. The gain, which is adjustable, is amazing and it’s across the whole of my audible spectrum. The bass, midrange and treble are all well present and accounted for with the pleasant RIAA roll-off beloved by us vinyl enthusiasts. The sound is quite clear. The Tube Box S2 also has 2 features I’ve yet to use, which are also very good at this price point. 1.) It has phono cartridge-loading flexibility, so you can use MM or MC cartridges across a wide variety of impedance and capacitance settings. This phono preamp gives you the ability to try a whole lot of cartridges if you feel so inclined. 2.) Last, and I’m sure I’ll be trying this someday, you can roll tubes! You can use the 12ax7-compatible tubes of your choice with this little box. To sum up, yes, it seems a bit expensive for a phono preamp, but compared to other “boutique audio” products: it’s relatively cheap; it seems thoughtfully designed and built well; it has a really good set of features; and it sounds great!

I upgraded turntables recently and knew it was time to ditch the old solid-state Cambridge that performed admirably but was a bit clinical and limited. Good for the price, but not rich. The Pro-Ject Box S2 is dynamite. Rich sound out of the box, with a set of matched Genalex a creamy butter bath of sonic goodness. Zionks! For the price it's tip-top. So very happy. Maybe the only complaint is the silly wall-wart power cord that comes with it, but I'd rather a slight skimp there and the unit to be top-notch. It is. La voila!

A month in, and I'm sure this is my preamp forever. Give it time, I distinctly noticed an improvement after 30-40 hours of playing. Either a break-in of the tubes, or an adjustment of my ears...I think it's both. Incidentally, the stock tubes in mine are JJ branded (Slovakia), which is probably what the Pro-Ject branded stock tubes are. The separation and clarity here is exceptional, each tube serves its own channel, left and right. Despite some of the chatter, there are no chips connected to the tubes. The gain settings are extremely useful, 43db or 50db is my sweet spot depending on what I'm listening to. I needed a good preamp more than I knew. Spend on your preamp like you spent on your turntable and stylus. I'm running a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Esprit SB with a Marantz 1060 to some Mitsubishi DS-40 speakers (late 70s "Diatone Series"), with a Sumiko Moonstone.

I bought the Pro-Ject EVO2 and needed an amp for it. I initially picked the Schiitt but determined they're a company that doesn't want my business. They charge shipping and would be difficult to deal with if returning was needed (shipping and restocking fees), they're not Prime friendly. This was $50 more but I caught it on sale for the same $50. Maybe it was a targeted sale because it was sitting in my cart for a few days. It only gets 4 Stars because the amp has no volume control. When I'm running it through my EQ the volume doesn't match what's coming out of my Mac. So if I'm playing record while also on social media the Mac is way too quiet or the records are way too loud. Not a huge deal, I just have to reach over and adjust as needed. It would be nice to have them level though. The EQ controls both the Mac's music volume and the turntables volume. The 2 are not of equal levels and it's frustrating. The quality is fabulous, crystal clear sound coming out of my KRKs. Setting it up didn't go as expected, but a quick call to Pro-Jects help line got them to dial in the amp in minutes. There are switches beneath the amp that dials it in to the exact stylus on the turntable to create the perfect match. I used AI Grok to suggest what setting to use, WRONG! But a quick call to Pro-Ject and they picked up, got me over to Tech Support and I was supplied the numbers. This was another reason for the 4 stars as it's not plug and play. Overall it's off highest quality and visually cool. It just might take an extra step to fully get the perfection out of it. The value is also worth it.

Im picky about my home audio setup and didn't have any intentions to upgrade until I realized my old phono preamp did not survive our recent move. This led me to decide on an upgrade and find something new. Coming from mostly solid state in the past I decided I wanted to give tubes a try but also did not want to break the bank. Boy was I impressed. This Tube Box S2 was a huge upgrade to my system. My vinyl's felt warmer, and I was picking up details in the music I hadn't before. Setup is simple if you follow the provided instructions. It looks modest and isnt a big obnoxious bright amp by any means which I like as my entertainment center is already crowded with other audio and gaming equipment. Everything pro-ject builds that I have used has had great quality and I fully expect this to last me a long long time.

Very gladly suprised. This was a step up from the phono amp included in my integrated amplifier, a Rotel 1592MKII which already sounded pretty good. I was ready for let down, as in "there is no difference here". WRONG. There is a very clear difference. Everything sounds better: bass, mids, treble. Low noise floor. Good clean gain. No strange noises, they all dissapeared! Very easy setup. Looks: well built, feels solid, definitely not a "looker". A black box with 2 tubes. WYSIWYG. Can't be comared to a 1,000 dollars and up preamp. Not fair. Sounds good with the stock tubes, but: just an idea, throw away the OK but walmartish stock tubes. No need to spend big bucks. A good pair of current production 12ax7 will do great in this preamp (I am running a pair of Electro-Harmonix 7025 and also tried a pair of Tung-Sol 12ax7): the tone improved again significantly, let's say 20% better tone than the stock tubes, better "body" to the stringed instruments, and way more clarity in the upper registers. A good buy!!!

This is for sure on the pricey side but that’s the price we pay when we go down the rabbit hole of chasing that pure analog sound. I had the Fosi Audio Box X2 when I was first getting into vinyl. My speakers are the Klipsch 41M which are definitely on the brighter side and I wanted a preamp with more of that warm tube sound to take the edge off a little. So, I got this unit at the music instantly started sounding better. Surface noise almost went away altogether, music sounded clearer with more depth and dimension and the harshness of the Klipsch speakers was tamed to my liking. As for the dip switch setup, it could get overwhelming, so here’s my recommendation. Put in your set up details (stylus, cartridge, speakers, amp, etc) in chat GPT and ask what’s the best dip switch set up for this unit and it will literally give you the set up for all 8 switches. I wrote the value in front of each switch in ChatGPT just to ensure it knows what type of dip switches I’m talking about and the recommendation it gave me worked like a charm!

I have a late 70’s McIntosh System. The phono pre-amp on my 40 year old C28 Pre-amp started failing. A friend of mine brought over his Pro-Ject Tube Box S2 to try on my system. I really liked the way the tubes took the edge off the output on my solid state system. I decided to buy a S2 instead of spending that money trying to troubleshoot and fix my C28 phono out. The S2 was easy to set up. However, one of the tubes quit working within a few weeks of purchase. My friend had updated his stock Pro-Ject tubes to Tung-sol brand tubes. I ordered a matched pair of Tung-Sol 12AX7 Tubes and replaced the Pro-Ject tubes. I haven’t had any problems with the unit since replacing the burnt out tube. So hopefully it was just a bad tube. Now I’m sitting in the sweet spot. I have a Pro-Ject DC Turntable with an Ortofon 2M Bronze MM Phono Cartridge. Playing records through the S2 sounds better than it ever did through my old McIntosh phono pre-amp. And, changing to the Tung-sol brand tubes made a noticeable difference in sound quality as well. With the signal passing through the S2 my vinyl records just sound better. With the tubes, I feel the output has more clarity, tone, and richness, especially in the mid to upper ranges. At this price point, I am really pleased with the sound quality of this little S2. But I would recommend upgrading the stock Pro-Ject brand tubes. You will get more out of your S2. You will also need to find the specifications of your current cartridge so you can properly set the S2 to your cartridge’s output. You can usually find cartridge info pretty easy through an online search. The included instructions with the S2 will help explain how to dial your S2 into your cartridge’s output.