Pro-Ject Phono Box E Phonograph Preamplifier (Black)

TLDR: This amplifier is dead silent in an audio chain when you've got everything grounded correctly. Unless you have unusually sensitive ears or are boosting it further, you most likely won't even know it's active and powered if you don't have a record playing.Keep in mind, due to the nature of record player connections, this amplifier uses RCA to connect your "stuff" together. RCA is "unbalanced", meaning it doesn't have a third, grounding wire, and just +/- instead. As with any unbalanced connections, this opens you up to the potential of ground loops -- but note that this has nothing to do directly with the quality of this amplifier. What you might have happen is a "path to ground" through the amplifier, which is not good for your listening experience. "Short" that ground loop by grounding it to your device after the amplifier, like your mixer. Then, the path of least resistance becomes the grounding wire from your record player to the mixer, stereo, etc. you're using, and you won't get a buzz as the amplifier, well, amplifies the extra electric potential going through itself.I definitely got a pretty ground loop/buzz due to my setup, but once I grounded my turntable to my mixer (use dedicated grounding points or case screws!), the ground loop stopped flowing through the amplifier and a beautiful silence followed. If you do have any other active devices like mixers, stereos, etc., try grounding things to different places, not just the amplifier itself. I'm rather picky about this stuff, so I want an amplifier that doesn't inject tons of hiss/buzz/hum early in my chain, or any other unwanted noise -- these are challenging things to keep out of high-gain stuff like this. And, to that note, this amplifier does give you a decent/usable amount of gain.This product does a fantastic job at cleanly amplifying a SL-1200M3D with an M44G on it; once grounded correctly, it well exceeded my expectations. I can move the mixer channel's slider to +10dB with a comfortable listening level at my headphones, and I still do not hear any white noise -- that only comes in at about +15dB, but the volume it produces is really good. For folks that are more into audio, you might recognize that ratio from the noise to the signal as SNR, and this amplifier's SNR is pretty good.

For the price, I think this is a great preamp. Looks good, performs well, and the price is right. It's not going to blow you away as far as audio quality goes, but I think at this price, you can't expect that. What it does, though, is deliver really good audio quality at a really good price.The set up was as simple as plugging this in to a power source and connecting the RCA cables from my turbtable to this preamp, and then from this preamp to my speakers. For $60 you can't ask for much more, and if I were doing a budget turntable setup, I wouldn't hestitate to buy this preamp again.

This is a line-level output preamp, so it connects to any standard (non-phono) input, such as CD, Tape, VCR, Tuner, etc. It has good dynamics, low noise and is a simple connection. I experimented with several of the under $50 preamps with dismal success. On one of the cheap ones, one of the RCA sockets broke inside the unit when inserting the RCA plug. On the other, there was significant hum even with everything connected properly. Swapping to a replacement eliminated it. If you're going to play records, don't go the cheapest route - do it right.

Good product for turntable upgrade. If you can pay extra bucs on the other model with usb feature, go for it!

I LOVE and cannot understate LOVE this thing. I had a Fosi Audio Box X2 and that thing has been a piece of crap. I have a Pro-Ject X1 turntable and should've gotten this Phono Box E to begin with. AWESOME product once again Pro-Ject!

I had a hum... I will spare you the details (which involved buying and returning equipment and upgrading some of my old components), but I wanted to use my old turntable and the hum when I turned it up was awful. The hum comes from the very low milli-voltage signal picking up interference from the nearby devices on it's way to the receiver (which has a built in amp). By putting this small preamplifier between my turntable and the receiver (I no longer had to plug it into the "phono" input), the signal coming to the receiver was now strong enough that the signal to noise ratio (if that is the proper term) was much improved, the hum was gone and the old records sound terrific. This was such an easy fix. Just wish I'd thought of it first! I am not sure if I can comment on the quality of the sound yet - the new speakers are still breaking in - but it sounds great so far.

This was well recommended by a site that rated preamps under 100 dollars. The review was right and the preamp worked very well between my turntable and my powered speakers. Everything sounded better than when I used the preamp in the turntable.

After doing a good deal of research I found out that this Pro-Ject preamplifier has the same electronics as the more expensive Pro-Ject preamplifiers. The reviews by audiophiles who are very knowledgeable about preamps were that it sounds "great" and "fantastic". I have a Fluance RT81 turntable that has it's own preamp and was underwhelmed with the sound until I paired it with the Phone Box E. Using this preamp has really opened up the sound and made it much more dynamic. This preamp is a bargain!