I was tracking a Mk2 Dino on eBay but lost out in the final bidding so impatience then got the better of me *smile* I opted for a Project Phono Box DS from my local SSAV store; fortunately they talked me out of the Phono Box S, and I picked up the DS at £50 off, (regular purchaser).
This is all written with a rather large caveat in that I can’t turn the volume up too much as the neighbours are at home today so most of this has been done at a 60dB peak. But I have compared the difference between the Pioneer TT (2M Black) connected directly to internal phono stage, and the Marantz TT (MP300) connected via the DS.
Initial impressions of the DS are good: nice compact unit and appears to be well built, controls are all fascia mounted and it has a very low noise floor, it is much quieter than the Marantz in this respect. However, the low noise floor is unfortunately a double edged sword as there is definitely a loss of fine detail and definition. Difficult to level the gain between the two phono stages as the DS input gain is 40, 50, 60dB; I would put the Marantz at about 45dB gain, so I had to play with the volume control.
I’m also using a very cheap interconnect from the DS to the amp, (the TT is now 1.5m from the amp). I’m not really into the cable debate about expensive cables making a difference, but I do run Atlas Integra interconnects in the rest of my system so I guess it only makes sense that I should duplicate this with the turntable interconnects from the DS, (Marantz and Pioneer TT cables are Clearaudio and Project respectively, which are of probably of reasonable quality).
There’s more auditioning to be done of course but first impressions are that the integral MM phono stage on the Marantz amp is a rather good one, it’s better than a £225 stage, so probably in the region of £3-400 to equal its performance.
I’ll update further as I change things.
This is all written with a rather large caveat in that I can’t turn the volume up too much as the neighbours are at home today so most of this has been done at a 60dB peak. But I have compared the difference between the Pioneer TT (2M Black) connected directly to internal phono stage, and the Marantz TT (MP300) connected via the DS.
Initial impressions of the DS are good: nice compact unit and appears to be well built, controls are all fascia mounted and it has a very low noise floor, it is much quieter than the Marantz in this respect. However, the low noise floor is unfortunately a double edged sword as there is definitely a loss of fine detail and definition. Difficult to level the gain between the two phono stages as the DS input gain is 40, 50, 60dB; I would put the Marantz at about 45dB gain, so I had to play with the volume control.
I’m also using a very cheap interconnect from the DS to the amp, (the TT is now 1.5m from the amp). I’m not really into the cable debate about expensive cables making a difference, but I do run Atlas Integra interconnects in the rest of my system so I guess it only makes sense that I should duplicate this with the turntable interconnects from the DS, (Marantz and Pioneer TT cables are Clearaudio and Project respectively, which are of probably of reasonable quality).
There’s more auditioning to be done of course but first impressions are that the integral MM phono stage on the Marantz amp is a rather good one, it’s better than a £225 stage, so probably in the region of £3-400 to equal its performance.
I’ll update further as I change things.
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