If you’ve already got a suitably talented turntable and really want to hear how good it is, this Cyrus combination is a must-buy. Much of Andrew Bird's My Finest Work Yet (Loma Vista LVR005557) was recorded live in Stevie Wonder's old studio in Los Angeles. The opening cut, "Sisyphus," has some studio ambience. Starting with the MC setup, with gain at 63dB and the recommended 400 ohm loading, the group seemed to be positioned between and behind the speakers. Imaging, scale, and depth of field were how I'm used to hearing them, which wasn't surprising: Bird's vocals and violin—indeed all the instruments—sounded rich, full, and substantial, yet studio-natural without oversaturated colors. All sounded complete, of a piece. I asked Pro-Ject whether keeping the filaments warmed up shortens tube life. Their reply: “When the tubes are not being used, the current is dropped down to standby mode idle. Great tube life!” As shown, the preamp has a power supply board, one phono preamp and the P88 preamp PCB. The details of construction are left to the builder, since cases (etc.) will dictate to some degree the final arrangement of the various sections. The general layout shown keeps wiring to an acceptable minimum, and should ensure a very quiet preamp with absolutely top-notch specifications. The wiring has not been shown, but would follow the schematics shown above. I included a second output in parallel with the main output for convenience. If you don't need it, just leave it out. In “What a Wonderful World,” Batiste’s pedaled ostinato piano accompaniment didn’t sound as rich through the C658 as through the Pre Box RS2, and decays were less pronounced. His right-hand improvising between verses was comparably crisp and articulate, but a litter harder, through the NAD. Batiste’s sibilants and breaths were slightly more pronounced through the NAD. Once again, switching on Dirac Live room correction opened up the sound; decays were longer, providing a better sense of the reverberant recording venue.

Carnhills are widely used in 1073-type units and contribute to the Junior’s vintage sound. It’s not the most transparent transformer, but it has bags of character and responds well to being driven hard. The Junior’s circuit is quite straightforward in a traditional style, with just three transistors used in the gain stage and three in the output stage; the output transformer is driven by a 2N3055 power transistor running in pure Class-A mode. Earlier boards included RF interference suppression by adding a small capacitor between the two inputs of U1 (the space for this cap can be seen in the PCB photo, which is of an early board). This has now been removed, as it caused more problems than it solved - in particular, opamp oscillation with some devices.Note: Because these devices not only amplify but also equalize, they are also called equalizer preamplifiers. When you cut the built-in phono stage out of the loop, and replace it with something better, your vinyl will begin to reveal its true potential. A dedicated phono stage is easy to install: it sits in the signal chain between the turntable and any line-level input on your amp. A word of caution: Don’t take the output from your phono preamp and connect it to the phono stage on an amplifier, as that will double amplify the signal, resulting in catastrophic distortion (which isn’t as good as it sounds).

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. The smooth, full-bodied performance, coupled with the inclusion of a headphone amp, makes this stylish box certainly worthy of consideration.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. What impressed me most is the use of discrete active devices only & PASSIVE RIAA EQ !!!!. This shows the Austrian designer(s) knows music as much as the preamp design. Austria (ie: Vienna, classical music capital for the world for centuries, no wonder!". 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). The audio world knows of Pro-Ject Audio Systems as a major brand of turntables, but this Vienna-based company also makes an extensive line of electronics that lately have been winning all kinds of awards. For the past three years, Pro-Ject has received awards for its turntables and its electronic components from the Expert Imaging and Sound Association (EISA).

You can read more about how we test and review products on What Hi-Fi?here. Why do I need a phono stage? To say the Pro-Ject preamp sounds about the same as my Dan Kennedy preamp is major praise. It also shows there's more than one way to design a highly accurate, low-noise phono preamp. Enabling Dirac Live on the C658 opened up the sound, giving me a better sense of the hall and more transparent orchestral textures. Even so, I preferred the Pro-Ject with this recording -- its sound in solid-state mode was warmer, more inviting, more open, and was even more so in tubed mode. In addition to its USB and I 2S-capable HDMI inputs, the Pre Box RS2 Digital has one coaxial and two optical S/PDIF inputs, one AES/EBU digital input, and one set each of unbalanced (RCA) and balanced (XLR) analog inputs. The maximum resolution of the S/PDIF and AES/EBU inputs is 24-bit/192kHz. The USB interface can accept streams of up to 32/768 PCM and DSD512. The Pre Box RS2 Digital’s hardware for full MQA decoding and rendering can be used for MQA-encoded Masters content from Tidal, as well as MQA-encoded CDs. Finally, there’s built-in Bluetooth, with support for the base SBC codec, AAC, and aptX. Engaging the subsonic filter (also available via front panel pushbutton produces less low frequency rumble, but it also takes from a lot of the energy in the music resulting in an emotionally “flat” sound. Pro-Ject lists the filter as 20Hz with a slope of 18dB/octave however, the “20Hz” part confuses me because the filter doesn’t sound like it starts to drop at 20Hz. In fact, it sounds like it drops off at around 30-35Hz.Detail is great, too, uncovering new layers of musicality and texture as it goes, especially with regard to vocals. From Beethoven to Bruce Springsteen, the Rega Fono MM is completely at home. Because we are always asked how to connect the equalization preamplifier or phono preamplifier, we would like to write a little guide. A growing number of turntables, including many of the best budget turntables like the versatile Sony PS-HX500, come with built-in phono stages but others, like the similarly excellent Rega Planar 1, do not.

Operating the second stage with no gain is not recommended. It may oscillate due to the extraordinarily wide bandwidth of the opamps used, and the comparatively high capacitance at the inverting input. Having said that, it's only a few pF, and when operated with any gain there's little chance of instability. 0dB gain for the second stage is unlikely to be a requirement in practice. The final movement of the “Moonlight,” Presto agitato, is in complete contrast to the first -- it’s fiery, tempestuous, dramatic -- and here I could really appreciate the dynamic capabilities of the Pre Box RS2 Digital. Say’s muscular chords exploded out of my speakers, his runs were beautifully articulated -- and there was still that marvelous sense of the recording space. The key to this design is flexibility and simplicity, and the PCB has been designed with these primary considerations in mind. There is almost no configuration that is not possible, including adding tone controls if you wanted to use them. For even greater flexibility, you could even use two PCBs, although this will rarely be needed in practice. Phono preamplifiers could be compared to children as viewed by a previous generation of adults: They are expected to be small in stature, and they should stay out of the way, seen but not heard and maybe not even seen. With the simpler models typically encountered at lower price points, there's little to do except "set it and forget it." 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.

A further highlight is the tonearm known from other Pro-Jects, which runs as smoothly as precisely with a double-walled, one-piece boom and fixed headshell. The core is formed by a hard aluminum tube, which is covered by a carbon layer. This sandwich is supposed to offer optimal stiffness with best vibration damping and is the ultima ratio of the tonearm manufacturer, whose arms also cut a fine figure on the drives of other manufacturers. Body and Soul – The Brinkmann Taurus turntable has a body that is as beautiful as it is technically advanced. Its musical soul sits however mostly in the power supply.