More than five years after the successful commercialization of the Pre Box S2, engineers at Pro-Ject Audio Design and John Westlake, creator of the original design, saw the opportunity to implement key improvements and refinements to it, the result being the new Pre Box S2 Digital Edition 2023.
There are several improvements introduced, affecting subsystems as relevant as the power supply, the audio synchronization clocks, the analog output stage and the headphone amplifier. In the first case, changes have been introduced in order to increase the noise isolation of the USB power sockets of PCs and achieve a wider and flatter output impedance across the entire audio bandwidth. .
As for the master timing clocks, they have been redesigned to reduce phase noise and further refine the already spectacular jitter record. For its part, the new analog output stage, based on the SABRE9603Q “chip” from the renowned American firm ESS Technology, works with a higher Class A current in order to improve performance with low-impedance headphones and lead lengths. longer cables.
Additionally, the headphone amplifier is now more energy efficient, with a 12% reduction in current from the power supply.
Characteristics:
- Stereo preamplifier with DAC with exceptional quality/price ratio.
- Dedicated high-power headphone amplifier (100 mW into 32 ohms).
- Circuitry executed with audiophile grade analog components.
- 2 D/A converters with 32-bit architecture from ESS Technology.
- Supports PCM files up to 32-bit/768 kHz and DSD up to DSD512.
- Prepared for “Hi-Res” MQA audio decoding.
- 7 user-selectable digital filtering options
- Latest generation power supply.
- Completely redesigned very low jitter synchronization circuitry.
- 4-layer printed circuit board with gold-plated tracks.
- Entirely metal and anti-resonant construction.
- 8 user-selectable digital filtering curves.
- 3 digital inputs (coaxial, optical and USB).
- 124 dB dynamic range.
- Entirely designed and built in the European Union.
- Dimensions: 103 x 37 x 122 mm (W x H x D).
- Weight: 366g (without power supply).
