Pro-Ject Phono Box E

Pro-Ject, from Austria, built an entire E-series — the entry line, in ABS cases — to bring hi-fi to the lowest prices. But to understand the Phono Box E you have to understand what a phono stage does, and it is two precise things.

A cartridge produces a very weak signal (around 5 mV) and a "bent" one: in the cutting, bass is cut and treble lifted, following the RIAA curve. Before it can enter an ordinary line input, that signal must be (1) re-equalised back to flat and (2) amplified by about 40 dB up to line level. The Phono Box E does exactly these two jobs. Nothing else.

Under the small ABS case there is more than the price suggests: low-noise SMD circuitry (a design inspired by Dr. Sykora), internal metal shielding, and an external 18 V power supply that keeps the transformer's hum away from the audio signal. The input and output RCAs are gold-plated.

The numbers fit the role: 40 dB gain, 47 kΩ/120 pF input, an 88 dB signal-to-noise ratio, THD under 0.05%, RIAA accuracy within half a decibel. It is plastic, yes — but for a phono stage the shielding and clean power matter more than the material of the shell. And there is nothing to adjust.

A phono stage's job is to add nothing, and the Phono Box E comes close. On the near-silent opening of Bill Evans's Peace Piece you hear the room, not the electronics: the background is black enough to let the solo piano breathe. On a dynamic track it passes the swing without effort, without compressing.

It neither warms nor sharpens: it presents the cartridge's character as it is — the 2M Red's neutrality, the Nagaoka's warmth — without adding its own. Where a higher phono stage like the Box S3 adds a touch of body and low-level detail in the dim passages, the E simply steps out of the way. At seventy-nine euros the deal is this: transparency, not embellishment.

With the MM cartridges of the entry chain — the Ortofon 2M Red, the Nagaoka MP-110 — the Phono Box E is the natural match: their roughly 5 mV output and 47 kΩ load are exactly what it expects. It brings them to line level cleanly, without changing their tone.

The limit is spelled out in plain letters: it is MM only. Put a low-output MC in front of it and it cannot feed it — you would hear a weak, noisy signal. For moving coils you need a different box.

In the entry phono field it is the cheapest honest solution: in the ranking it is the pure value pick. The question is not whether it is enough — it is — but whether you will outgrow it. If you stay with MM, the E does its job for years.

If instead you plan to move to an MC cartridge, or you want to set gain and loading, the step up is the Pro-Ject Phono Box S3 (MM/MC, adjustable) or the DC: that is where the next money goes. Buy the E for what it is — the entry enabler, not the destination.

This is where the Phono Box E earns its place. The vinyl chain is a relay: turntable → cartridge → phono stage → amp → speakers. We have documented the first two links piece by piece — the Rega Planar 1 and the Pro-Ject T1 among the turntables, the Ortofon 2M Red and the Nagaoka MP-110 among the cartridges. They are all MM.

The Phono Box E is the link that takes any of those cartridges and delivers them, at clean line level, to an amplifier that has no phono input of its own. You have the turntable, you have the cartridge: this is the box that carries them to the amp. With it, the entry chain is complete.