Balanced Phono Stage?

Phono Box S3 B comes in a complete new casework. Pro-Ject said that the new steel & aluminium chassis with full aluminium buttons brings very good rigidity and splendid isolation against interference.

„B“ stands for balanced! Directly from Pro-Ject announcement:

You can connect your turntable with the 5-pin mini XLR cable & profit of the balanced signal path. Symmetrical, or also called balanced, transmissions consist of a hot and a cold (also called + and -) signal. Both signal chains effectively carry the same musical information. A true balanced gain stage can now extract the final musical information out of the +/- signals and subtract, remove, all noise that could potentially be added along the transmission. As there are two separate signal chains, we also needed two individual amplifier sections. Definitely unseen in this price range & the best and cleanest amplifier for your phono signal!

The gain stage of the new Phono Box S3 B uses a fully discrete layout. A discrete circuit is composed of electronic components which are disparate, individual devices. The amplifier section is built out of single components and doesn‘t use any integrated circuits! That makes for an extended and more costly design process, but results in the best sound quality.

After treating the balanced +/- signals independently they are added back together and are processed by the semi-passive RIAA equalization stage. By keeping the gain stage fully symmetrical, we can optimize the signal-to-noise ratios and keep interference to a minimum, giving the EQ section the best source to work its magic on. For the balanced XLR outputs, a balancing stage generates a symmetrical signal, so you benefit from balanced signal transmissions again. The RCA are by nature single-ended and get their signals served directly by the RIAA EQ

Compared to the S2 Line, you are now able to set everything easily on the front plate. You can connect two turntables at the same time. Each input settings are stored in the memory. Large ranges from 40dB up to 65dB are possible. A fully balanced design makes all the difference here. You can perfectly match it with a wide variety of cartridges and perfectly integrate it into the rest of your HiFi system, matching the volume levels accurately to other sources like CD players or streaming devices. The loading options for MM and MC are designed so that the widest array of cartridges will work perfectly with the Phono Box S3 B. Ultra low values like 50 pF or 10 ohms allow you to account for special situations, for example sub-ideal higher capacitance cables. The Phono Box S3 B always has you fully covered.

The Phono Box S3 B is available for MSRP 399 € (incl. VAT) at Pro-Ject dealers in April 2022.