CES 2018

Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital DAC

Jon Iverson  |  Jan 9, 2018

Heinz Lichtenegger, Pro-Ject president starts by exclaiming "it's a revolution at the price point!" Built around the ESS Sabre ESS9038 dual DAC chip, the $399 S2 also has full MQA processing, up to DSD 512 and 24/192 PCM, 7 selectable digital filters, jitter claimed as low as 100 femtoseconds, and headphone jack. "It's the lowest jitter you can measure," says Lichtenegger.

The S2 was designed by John Westlake who has created products for Cambridge Audio, Peachtree Audio, Audiolab and others. The interior indeed sports a gorgeous and detailed layout, packing everything into a rather tight space. I asked to arrange for a review sample and can't wait to listen to it in comparison to pricier DACs.

COMMENTS
tonykaz's picture
Submitted by tonykaz on January 10, 2018 - 7:50am

Yes, please do!

It'll be on my "Must Read" list. 4rrrrrrrrrSure

Nice find.

Tony in Michigan

dclark2171's picture
Submitted by dclark2171 on January 10, 2018 - 7:24pm

I ordered one a couple months back from overseas. A very strong performer. One note MQA is USB only. The Pro-Ject was a clear winner over my older Peachtree Nova-Pre Dac. I'm looking forward to reading comparisons to more expensive offerings. Will it be a giant killer? I highly doubt it. I don't think Benchmark or Mytek has anything to worry about. However, I'm willing to bet it holds its own with Dacs $1000 and under. We'll see

TonyFromTexas's picture
Submitted by TonyFromTexas on January 11, 2018 - 10:18am

Saw this article yesterday morning, did some research, ordered it from Amazon and it was delivered the same day! Put it between my iMac and Outlaw RR2160 integrated (that does neither MQA nor DSD...).

Roon recognized it immediately and Audirvana had no issues with it either, but I DID notice a few audible clicks between rate changes in Audirvana like I had been warned so I got out my trusted MacBook Pro, dusted off Parallels and after 20 minutes of updates, virus scans and reboots was ready to change the firmware.

This would have been a lot less painful had I not put all my memories of running Windows in the same forgotten bin as a circumcision, first day of school, vasectomy and the ex-wife, but it soon came back to rival all those nightmares. Finally after the update I had no issues with Audirvana clicks.

Roon passes MQA through like a charm and even gives you a shortcut to its website. Nice ad!
Can't say I have had time to do an eval, especially on the filters, but the build quality and ease of use seems to be topnotch.

milspec277's picture
Submitted by milspec277 on February 18, 2018 - 1:29pm

Still waiting for a full review. It appears this dac is at a very popular price point, affordable to audiophiles with a smaller budget. Yet, this dac offers a complete package of features that allows for enjoyment and access of the deep end of the pool, namely,the higher tier of dsd and hardware decoding of mqa.

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