Pro-Ject Tuner Box S

musichal

poet emeritus
I know you guys are much more interested in vintage tuners from the days when FM ruled and consumers cared about RF performance as much as sound quality. But this is one cute little tuner, and it surprised me by outperforming my Kenwood KT-615s and NAD 4130 for bringing in local signals cleanly - the others were noisy in this spot, this one isn't. Not saying it is better, just that it performed better in my set of circumstances. But you buy it 'cause it's so small - that is its reason for existence. About 4" square and 1.5" in height. Sounds good, too. Even if it is only a boxed smart-phone tuner. Or so I've read.

Also impressive is its weight - for its size. About a pound and a half, or so. Doesn't get dragged easily by cables, as is sometimes the case for small-chassis gizmos.
 
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Thanks for giving your impressions, I have been curious about that one. Which version do you have? They have made at least a couple as far as I can see.
 
I've been curious about their Tube Box DS2, which is a hybrid tubed phono stage. It's available in Europe at the moment, but is supposedly coming to the US soon per Pro-Ject. (Probably once stock in the Tube Box DS is depleted.) If it's as good as this FM tuner, I'll be pleased.
 
Here is an image, from Audio Advisor's website.
PRTUBS_BLK.jpg
 
Have you an F-connector adapter for the European DIN antenna jack? Mine came with only a wire to push onto the center pin. I may return this tuner unless I can discover why its sensitivity is very poor. Using jumper clips I hooked it to the rabbit ears that worked well for my KLH without improvement. The 50 year old KLH tuner it was going to replace and my portable radios pull in way more stations.
 
I finally did pick up a used one, the first version. Very solid, well made and impressive reception. Sonically it was just OK, not even close to my Yamaha T-85 (no surprise and no shame) but no real advantage over streaming from a SQ point of view, worse for VPR. I have just gone with streaming as the reception is perfect and the average SQ is as good if not better than FM and I don't ever have to switch inputs on my desktop amp.
 
Is there much performance difference in the same model of tuners? My experience with Sony's XDR F1HD and Project's tuner Box S differs from some of what's been posted. It's likely that I haven't read enough posts yet, but my particular Sony is quite sensitive and selective, with decent rejection; my S Box is the opposite. It's like one unit was well tuned and the other one not so well. The S-Box I have needs an antenna adapter to mate with USA's standard 75 ohm F-connector, and uses "1/2 step" tuning progression. On top of that the remote control function is intermittent.

I'm surprised the dealer sent a European standards unit without any indication of that fact in the sales catalog. I can still return it and will call, first, for tech help. I'd like an FM tuner priced for a second system. Any thoughts?
 
The Tuner Box I had was the earlier one without remote, not sure if there is a difference in performance.

I have owned a couple of those Sony tuners. I only used them for regular FM as we never had HD up here. Incredible RF performance for the price, they will be hard to beat. Pretty poor sound quality stock. I had two different levels of mods made, it definitely helped but they still did not top my best vintage tuners for sound.
 
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