You’re quite welcome. I’ve used the combo of that Jameco wall wart and the micro USB adapter with my Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital and it works great. A very cheap way to get a linear DC external power supply for your DAC.
Gerald,
I just purchased S2 from Crutchfield in US. Should arrive on Monday. Heard mix reviews about the S2. Do you like your S2 and if you had any issues? For the price it seems like a great unit with all its features.
Do you play MQA files on the S2 and if so can you tell an improved SQ with MQA?
What input do you use for the DAC? Is it true if you use USB it will power the S2 or is it better to use with the PS you suggested from Jameco?
Thanks again for all your kind help.
Greg
Greg,
I like my S2 a lot, and I think it’s a bargain for the performance it offers. I use it for my desktop PC audio system, with a Shunyata Venom USB cable to the PC, and Shunyata Venom interconnects to Paradigm Shift A2 powered speakers on IsoAcoustics Aperta stands. Music is actually routed through the network to the PC from my Roon Labs Nucleus that’s in my office stereo system. I only use the USB input, with the ASIO driver (there is also a WASAPI driver).
The S2 does indeed work with power just from the USB bus, but I’ve read that the designer of the unit states that the sound is much improved with an external linear power supply. I initially used the Jameco wall wart, as it’s cheap enough to experiment with, but I have to admit to not hearing much improvement over USB bus power. I’ve since upgraded to a 5V linear power supply from Small Green Computers. Adding that power supply seemed to make the sound more three dimensional - it sounded kind of “flat” before. This is just a desktop system though, with a 27" monitor between the speakers, so it’s not an ideal acoustical environment.
I don’t regularly play any MQA files on mine. I did download a test MQA file once from http://www.2l.no/hires/ and it seemed to offer some slight improvement in sound quality, but I’d hate to pass judgement on MQA on the basis of just one track. You should be aware that there is a firmware bug where the sound doesn’t return to “normal” after playing an MQA file and then playing a non-MQA file, with certain filter settings. You can avoid this by selecting a different filter setting.
If you want to read more about the unit, I would suggest checking out these forum threads:
https://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/pro-ject-pre-box-s2-digital-dac.201691/
https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/34777-pro-ject-pre-box-s2-digital-mqa-hw-decoding-at-reasonable-cost/#comments
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/pro-ject-pre-box-s2-digital-impression-thread.858188/
Reading all that should keep you busy for a while and answer all questions you might have about the unit.
Gerald
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Gerald- Thanks for the detailed info. I will read the “Pinkfishmedia” thread on S2. Thanks for sharing this information with me. Your help is greatly appreciated.
Greg
Gerald- have your tried USB conditioner device? If so which do you recommend? Thanks for the link on the discussions on S2. Wow lot of discussion and information. Like you said will keep me busy reading the thread.
Thanks again.
Greg
The only one I’ve tried is an Audioquest Jitterbug. Can’t say that I heard any difference with any DAC that I tried it with (probably 4 or 5 DACs). I gave it to a friend for him to play with.
Gerald,
Thanks again for your kind help.
Greg
good morning,
I have been considering buying this DAC for a few days now.
I had not seen this post in the forum, I had opened this sorry 
For those of you who use it regularly, can I ask you if it’s okay and I can be satisfied with the purchase? I ask because I read on this forum that some people complain (see the last pages)
I would like to take it to replace my dac 1.2 boss and connect it directly to my nuc server with roon installed
thank you all for your valuable help
I don’t have the S2 anymore, upgraded to an RME ADI-2 DAC. But for the money, the S2 is a very nice DAC, worked flawlessly for me and sounded good. I also liked the small but informative display.
Pair it with a iFi iPower 5v and a Supra USB and you get a very good sound for $500.
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I’ve been using it as a DAC only for the past 2 years with my headphone rig and I’m very satisfied. I’ve been thinking about moving it to my 2nd system but don’t feel the urge to replace it.
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I’m using 2:
- One with a Raspberry display used with an Aune X7s headphone amplifier and Dan Clark (MrSpeakers) ETHER C Flow headphones
- One with a 1978 vintage Technics SU-8600 amplifier, miniDSP DDRC-24 and Technics SB-7000 speakers
Very satisfied with SQ on both systems.
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I just picked up a 1 month old used RME ADI-2 DAC and running it through my thx aaa 789.
Probably going to sell my pro-ject pre box S2 since I have 2 of them.
I heard the difference right away.
Could you describe the difference please?
I did that upgrade a while back, and as a preamp the sound quality improvement was quite big: better clarity, tone, more details, wider soundstage etc. But it cost more that double what the S2 does, so that’s to be expected (I don’t use headphones so haven’t compared that).
Both are excellent DACs for their price.
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@zbyte
Read Magnus reply below.
It’s an accurate description.
I use headphones exclusively with this dac.
I heard the largest difference in symphonic/orchestral music…not as compressed as pro-ject.
It is 3x expensive in price.
$400 vs. $1200
So, my kids got me the S2 for Christmas. I’ve set it up and it sounds amazing. I just have some questions about the MQA settings and indicators.
I have it set to Rendering only and sometimes I get a green MQA light and sometimes blue. What’s the difference?
Also what are you finding as the best settings for conversions? Just because it can do DSD 512, I feel that’s overkill. Also, what filter settings seen to be the best
The lights are different depending on the following:
Full MQA or Rendering.
Playing a Master or a straight MQA encode with no authentication.
Colours vary depending on who makes the hardware so the manual is the place to go.
Other settings are up to you. Native, Max pcm x 2 or a preferred DSD rate are the obvious options. My old DAC was definitely best at its max DSD rate, but it’s best was subjective. My newer one is good using max pcm x 2 in Roon, again subjective.
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Hi Kevin.
Quite comprehensive digest of pretty much everything there is to know about this little box here:
There’s an answer to your original blue vs green dot in the MQA section
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I did find that but thanks for posting it. Some great information.
I just can’t figure out how to “select” a filter.