Pro-Ject Phono Box S3 B

PROVIDING ARGUABLY THE biggest 'wow' moment at this price, the Pro-Ject combines dual mono configuration, discrete circuitry in the gain stage (no op amps here) and both balanced in and outputs.

This latter feature, practically unknown at the 'affordable' end of the market, comes under Pro-Ject's True Balanced Connections concept, the advertised advantages being: "increased dynamics and improved signal-to-noise ratio". To facilitate this, Pro-Ject sells a range of RCA-to-XLR input cables to make the right connections. There are five impedance and four capacitance settings teamed with four selectable gain levels.

Sound quality