Pro-Ject Audio - Phono Box MM - MM Phono Pre-amplifier - Black

I couldn't review this for a while because at the time of purchase, it didn't work with my setup. Apparently my cheap-o weak turntable already had a preamp built in. I just upgraded to the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon, which requires an external preamp, and now it's put to good use. I love it. Obviously it's a bit difficult to isolate what the preamp specifically brings to the table, because to use it, I introduced a higher end TT. But I will say this: with my old TT I kept the stylus clean, and cleaned my records, so even though it was chincy, I had little to no surface noise. BUT the sound felt weak, not present. Almost flat and far away. Cranking up the volume helped. With my current setup: pioneer receiver, Bose pseudo-vintage pedistal speakers, the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon TT, and this Phono MM Preamp, I have no complaints. The clarity is insane, the presence, depth and warmth are all there. In buying just these two pieces (turntable and preamp), it's like I replaced my whole stereo setup. For the price, I really don't think you'll find a better preamp. It's very solid, metal and has weight to it, so it's not delicate. It could sustain a drop. The sound quality is great: I get no signal noise whatsoever. I love this brand, and would recommend them to anyone. And in all honesty, I almost cheaped out and bought a preamp for half the price (albeit with another brand I do like), but I'm glad I didn't. I'll be happy with my current setup for a while.

I bought a Pro-Ject turntable,the Carbon 2M, so this is like a match made in heaven. It was crazy easy to set up (plug and play pretty much) and it immediately corrected audio issues as well as gave me the power of sound that having a turntable requires. This was an afterthought for me as I had purchased a nice player and a nice sound system only to realize I forgot you needed a preamp to make it all sound great and loud. This is the most satisfying purchase i've made in years because of how easy it is to use and effective it is.

Works well and does its job. Amplifies a MM signal and connects to line-level inputs on a audio preamplifier. Rugged steel enclosure and ground connection that allows you to ground your turntable to the signal ground connections. Disappointing to find TL071 opamps compared to one with better performance like the NE5532.

I've been slowly upgrading my vinyl setup over two years. I started with a mediocre at best Pyle Pro turntable and preamp. I got rid of it when I realized I couldn't turn the volume up anywhere near a satisfying level without starting a feedback loop. I upgraded to an ATLP120 which is still going strong. I used the built in preamp for a time, but when I upgraded to an Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge, the sound was awful. So I did the deed and took the preamp out. For the last year or so I was using the Pyle Pro preamp with the straight output from the cartridge. At this point the mains power to the turntable powered only the platter. The cartridge output went straight to the preamp. The sound was acceptable and decent, until it got really crackly sometimes. It was not due to the records being played because they sometimes sounded fine, and other times they did not. I decided it was time to upgrade to a MM specific preamp. I mostly just wanted the cutting in and out to stop, and I wanted the volume considerably loud without the increasingly annoying hiss I was noticing. I also suspected that the left channel was being slightly favored. My suspicions were confirmed when I hooked this ProJect Preamp up. Not only did it eliminate the aforementioned issues, but it improved on the sound in a way I could not have imagined!! I can't wait to go back through my Genesis and Floyd albums with this thing. Fantastic on speakers and headphones!!! Worth every penny!

I have a Onkyo 8020 receiver which has a preamp for phono, but I was getting a lot of hum from my table. I tried grounding it (it lacks a ground wire) and reversing the plug and trouble-shooting the ground loop but nothing helped. Finally I said let's try a different preamp. Running the Pro-Ject from my table to the CD input on my receiver, the sound quality has gone up amazingly. Bypassing the preamp has cut the background noise and hum down dramatically where I can't even hear rumble or hum or noise from the table. The sound is very clear and the RIAA equalization curve sounds appropriately applied as the music reflected sounds rich and full of both bass and treble and seems to be essentially a 'flat' box. No volume control, but if you are running it in place of a receiver preamp like me that doesn't matter since your receiver controls volume.

I was a tad disappointed when I found out the built-in preamp in my turntable had a hardware noise gate. It kept interfering with my rips, toggling the sound completely on and off before the end of long track fade-outs. Fortunately, my turntable has a switchable output, so I simply fed the phono level outs to this baby and the problem was instantly solved.

I listen to mostly "classical" LPs on a mostly vintage stereo system (circa '89 Thorens TT, Signet tonearm, Magnepan speakers, Hafler amp, cartridge meticulously aligned). The weak link is a lovely 50-year-old McIntosh preamp (mine has a flaky phono stage - left channel dozes off intermittently, bit of hum). Enter the Pro-ject Phono Box MM costing less than the repair shop charged me to open up my preamp and tell me that they can't service it. This sturdy metal box, no larger than it needs to be, no annoying lights, no switches, dials, or options, melted into my system and lifted the sound to wear it can be. An unexpected bonus was that record surface noise, already quite low, went completely black (wow). Thrilled over here. 5 stars.

I originally purchased the economical Pyle PP999 Phono Turntable Pre-amplifier from Amazon which sounded quite nice with my Pro-ject Essential II turntable when plugged into my Yamaha receiver with output through my Klipsch speakers. I wanted to see if there appeared to be any difference in sound quality using the Pro-ject Phono Box preamplifier. I could not set this test up as a double blind sort of study, but the Pro-ject preamp did seem to make the sound a bit crisper than with the cheaper pre-amp. Thus, I would recommend the Pro-ject preamp, especially if it ever goes on sale again for $80 as it did when I bought it from Amazon. On the other hand, many of you would still probably be satisfied with the $12 Pyle pre-amp as being able to do a decent job for a much cheaper price.