Pro-Ject Announces Three New Phono Pre Amplifiers
A trio of new turntable products became available this week from famed manufacturer Pro-Ject. The Pro-Ject Phono Box RS2, Ultra 500, S2 Ultra join the ranks of the company’s wide array of turntable and audiophile products amidst the growing demand for high fidelity audio gear in the new stay-at-home reality many find themselves living in.
Of the list, the most premium is the Pro-Ject Phono Box RS2 at $2k. Feature set highlights includes both moving magnet and moving coil options, along with a fully discrete dual mono design. Both balanced XLRs and SE options adorn the back panel with the front allowing accessibility to a whole host of knobs and buttons controlling gain, capacitance, impedance and balance.
Decked out in full chrome, the Pro-Ject Phono Box Ultra 500 retails for $399 and will be a limited run of 500 pieces. The chrome on copper body uses “audiophile grade” polystyrene capacitors and helps celebrate the 500,000th phono box that Pro-Ject has shipped. I/Os include a pair of SE RCA options with switching available for impedance, capacitance and gain.
Along with the new discrete MM/MC Pro-Ject Phono Box S2 Ultra ($350) Pro-Ject is also introducing two new turntable accessories including the Sweep It E cleaning arm that allows you to clean your records while you listen and the magnetically stabilized record broom Sweep It S2. From the release:
Record brooms have been around since the early 1970s. Some of them do a good job, some rather not. In many cases the brush rushes towards the middle of the platter, running out of sync with the tonearm. This phenomenon is known as skating. Recent developments aim to tackle this problem. Here the highly efficient neodymium magnet comes into play. These magnets are used to stabilize the re- cord broom of the Sweep it S2. Sweep it S2 is const- ructed in collaboration with Klaus Mick and uses his patented technology to stabilize the record broom. Extensive theoretical and empirical research has been put into the development of this product.
The Sweep It E and Sweep It S2 retail for $99 and $129, respectively.
More info: Phono Box RS2 | Phono Box Ultra 500 | Phono Box S2 Ultra | Sweep It E | Sweep it S2