PRO-JECT AUDIO PHONO BOX S2

This unassuming little box, just 12cm wide and 3cm high, can have a profound effect on your hi-fi sound. It’s an offboard phono stage, an amplifier dedicated to the output of a turntable, raising the tiny signals generated by the stylus and cartridge up to the levels required for the line-level inputs of an amplifier.

EQUIPMENT

The Phono Box S2 is part of Pro-Ject’s S2 line, and is described as the company’s ‘Best Buy’ phono stage; there is one below it in Pro-Ject’s range but several larger and more complex-looking phono stages above it in the company’s DS2 range, including models which use valves. Compared with these, the little S2 looks exceedingly simple, with just one button on the front to power it up and down, while at the rear (pictured below) it has the input sockets for the turntable, including the grounding screw, plus the output sockets to your amplifier. Add the input from the supplied 18V power transformer, and a single button which is a subsonic filter (or ‘rumble filter’ as they used to be called), and that’s your lot.

Except — well, there should be one more button. The Phono Box S2 is listed as suitable for both moving magnet and moving coil cartridges, and these require very different gain/EQ circuits applied. There