Faithful to its philosophy of putting audiophile-grade audio components within reach of all budgets, the veteran Austrian firm Pro-Ject Audio Systems has just announced the launch of an ultra-compact, ultra-musical and hyper-affordable electronic device aimed at getting the most out of playing vinyl records: the Tube Box S3 B phono preamplifier. In line with what its name suggests, this versatile product is based on two key elements: the use of vacuum tubes (“T”) to add analog warmth to the sound and the innovative, in phono, balanced connectivity (“B”), the latter materialized in a set of XLR inputs and another set of XLR outputs (the first with a 5-pin mini XLR connector), all without forgetting a double monophonic topology gain stage executed with discrete components. Regarding the vacuum devices, two of the classic ECC83 double triodes are used, protected by metal structures that contribute to their cooling, while defining the unmistakable aesthetics of the device.
For its part, the use of a completely symmetrical signal path allows the aforementioned gain stage, of identical configuration, to extract musical information from the signals carried by the balanced cable while eliminating the noise that may have been added during its transmission. This topology implies, as there are two separate signal chains, the need to have as many amplification sections, something never seen in such an affordable phono preamp. Also, in the practical field, the Tube Box S3 B dazzles with the improvements it brings with respect to the S2 Line versions, starting with the possibility of connecting two turntables simultaneously and memorizing the relevant settings in order to use them in the future.
Regarding the available settings, their generosity stands out both in terms of gain (from 40 dB to 65 dB) and input impedance (10, 50, 100, 1,000 and 47,000 ohms) and capacitance (50, 150, 300 and 400 pF), thus guaranteeing the perfect adaptation of the Pro-Ject with a wide variety of pickup capsules in order to integrate them (volume leveling included) with the rest of the user’s Hi-Fi system. In this sense, allowing values as low as 50 pF in the capacitance or 10 ohms in the impedance guarantees full satisfaction of special situations, in the case of the use of cables with a higher capacitance than would be desired. The Tube Box S3, B, which is entirely designed and manufactured in Europe, is completed with an aluminum construction that provides structural robustness and immunity to external electromagnetic interference.
