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★★★★★
Four stars out of the box with the included tubes. Five stars when I replaced the tubes with a Gain Matched Pair of JJ Electronics Tesla 12AX7 ECC83-S vacuum tubes (not expensive). This phono pre displaced a 7x more expensive Art Audio Vinyl Reference tube phono that is more on the neutral side.
The Pro-ject's midrange is lush and warm. Tonal saturation is fantastic. Play Miles Davis' Porgy and Bess for evidence of that. Bass is a bit soft and rounded and gets your toes tapping which is very much to my liking - think early Linn LP12 / Ariston RD11. Vocal intelligibility is excellent. I'm able to make out lyrics in some early Joni Mitchell recordings that I wasn't able to before. Noise is non-existent as far as I can tell; pretty much on par with my Art Audio. There's also plenty of settings in terms of gain, impedance and capacitance. Enough for me, anyway.
Truth be told, I was looking for my vinyl setup (Pro-ject 6 PerspeX SB with EVO AS Premium tonearm and not the stock Evo 9cc tonearm) to sound more like my digital setup with a FiiO Warmer R2R Tube DAC with its lush midrange. I think the combination of the Pro-Ject Tube Box S3 B and my Koetsu Black Goldline MC and Transrotor Figaro MC has achieved that and more. Since receiving this phono pre, I'm not sure if I've played more than 2 or 3 CDs :-)
Thanks to EFLC for a great deal on a great phono pre. Despite its small size and low cost, this MAY be all you really need...if your preferences are like mine. YMMV.
Cheers...
The Pro-ject's midrange is lush and warm. Tonal saturation is fantastic. Play Miles Davis' Porgy and Bess for evidence of that. Bass is a bit soft and rounded and gets your toes tapping which is very much to my liking - think early Linn LP12 / Ariston RD11. Vocal intelligibility is excellent. I'm able to make out lyrics in some early Joni Mitchell recordings that I wasn't able to before. Noise is non-existent as far as I can tell; pretty much on par with my Art Audio. There's also plenty of settings in terms of gain, impedance and capacitance. Enough for me, anyway.
Truth be told, I was looking for my vinyl setup (Pro-ject 6 PerspeX SB with EVO AS Premium tonearm and not the stock Evo 9cc tonearm) to sound more like my digital setup with a FiiO Warmer R2R Tube DAC with its lush midrange. I think the combination of the Pro-Ject Tube Box S3 B and my Koetsu Black Goldline MC and Transrotor Figaro MC has achieved that and more. Since receiving this phono pre, I'm not sure if I've played more than 2 or 3 CDs :-)
Thanks to EFLC for a great deal on a great phono pre. Despite its small size and low cost, this MAY be all you really need...if your preferences are like mine. YMMV.
Cheers...
