Archive for category Reviews
Old School Game: Reuinion (and a Saved Game Editor)
Posted by eric in Gaming, General Software, Reverse Engineering, Reviews on June 9th, 2009
Reunion Title Screen
Does anyone else remember playing Reunion back on their 386’s with a staggering 2MB of RAM? Lord knows I remember!
Reunion came out over fifteen years ago and I still feel the urge to play it now and then even today. It’s a great game and can be downloaded from many abandonawre sites across the internet.
I started playing again recently using DOSBox and I was amazed, because I didn’t even know the game had sound! 
When I played “back in the day”, my system didn’t have a Sound Card (because I couldn’t afford a Creative AWE32), so needless to say it was a whole different experience. The game has a fantastic production value and even when modern development languages, I’m not sure that even I’d be able to create a game of such depth a complexity!
Anywho, I began to get frustrated because I knew there were parts of the game I was missing because I couldn’t meet certain goals or didn’t have enough resources. Granted, I should have spent the time perfecting the game and working towards those achievements….. but it’s an old game and I don’t have as much free time as I did when I was thirteen years old 
To that end, I sat down and studied the Save Game format for a while and also the (paltry) Save Editor that was included in the Abandonware version. I knew I could come up with something better that gives me even more options in the game. It took me a couple hours but I was able to come up with a pretty functional Saved Game Editor for Reunion that works around a couple glitches the previous version had.
I know, I’m a total cheater but it was a fun little project and I figure perhaps ONE person on the entirety of the Internet must need something like this as well, so I figure I’d throw it out there for anyone who needs it
Reunion Saved Game Editor – Download (92kb)
Upgrading my HTPC — It’s time to bring it up to date!
Posted by eric in Audiophile, Hardware, Multimedia, Reviews on June 2nd, 2009
Many moons ago I decided to build an Home Theater PC (HTPC) for miscellaneous computer uses that I might want to display on a TV…. OK, really it was just the thing everyone was doing at the time and I wanted a new project, so a small HTPC fit the bill. We’re all friends here, so no need to beat around the bush, right? 
So I built an HTPC. I built a GREAT HTPC. It was small, fanless and had everything I’d ever need. But I was disappointed though, only because the quality of the video combined with what I was ACTUALLY able to do with it let me down. I suppose it was my own fault because I had let my desire for the system to be completely silent and fanless impact its performance.
Fast forward a couple years later and I have this shoe box sized PC sitting below my computer desk at home. What should I do with it?
Car Hacking — Installing an iPod Adapter in my 2004 Acura TSX
Posted by eric in Audiophile, Hardware, Multimedia, Reviews, iPhone on January 31st, 2009
My car is old. Ok, not REALLY old but old enough that it doesn’t have an AUX input or an iPod adapter. I drive a 2004 Acura TSX with Navi and recently canceled my Sirius subscription to save money, so I wanted to be able to plug in my iPhone 3G and listen to Pandora or songs off my iPod.
I checked around the net for models that were supported by my car (which was hard because it was a 1st generation, 1st year TSX). I know there’s an MP3/DVD Player option as well as an XM head unit available for the 2004 TSX, but no iPod adapters from Honda. I finally decided on the DICE Electronics R4 Kit for Honda/Acura because it had received positive reviews and seemed a pretty simple install
I purchased the DICE iPod Kit from a reputable seller on eBay for $139 + tax and had it within a few days. The unit itself is pretty small (only a couple square inches) and has inputs for the iPod cable as well as AUX input. It’s a good thing the unit is so small because it has to fit up in the dash
Installing the unit in my car took about all of 2 minutes. Literally.
(Sorry about no pictures, I’ll add them as soon as I’m able to!)
Step one was to remove the storage bin that is located below the factory radio. This is where the factor XM or MP3 player would go. Simply open the bin and pull it out towards you. There are two clips on the bottom right and left as well as clips on the top.
Pull out the storage bin carefully as the light above is still attached to it. Carefully remove the light taking care to not break the housing. Once the bin is out your radio compartment will be exposed. Just a warning: be careful in there! Unless you’ve unhooked your battery, there’s still live current as well as some wires for the airbags Don’t kill yourself over an iPod hookup
Step two is wiring it in. You’ll see one wire running straight up into the stereo. Unplug this. This is the wire that will plug into the daisy chain provided by the DICE iPod kit. Plug the other end of the DICE iPod kit into the factory radio.
Step three is running our cables however you choose (into the glove box, storage bin, middle console) and putting the storage bin back in! Presto! Done!
I used a Dremel and cut out a small section of the bin to run the cables through. To keep it clean looking, I used a bit of rubber (read: old mouse pad) to cover the Dremel spot and cut a slit down the middle allowing the cables to run through it. This helps seal up the bin without having a gaping hole into my dash. Also, for the sake of future use I added a small amount of hot clue to the connectors that are plugged into the DICE iPod Kit so (god forbid) someone pulls on the cable too hard it wont unplug from the DICE iPod Kit while still in my dash. I didn’t add a LOT of glue, just a small drop to hold them in place nicely.
Finished storage bin with iPod & Aux Cables
A few “gotcha’s” about this unit and the 2004 Acura TSX. The ‘XM’ mode of the DICE iPod Kit only works with Honda/Acura models with an actual ‘XM’ button. This wasn’t introduced until the 2005 model year. The 2004 Acura TSX only has a “CD/AUX” button. Because of this, the DICE iPod Kit cannot work and will not be detected in XM mode. You have to set the unit to “CDC” (CD Changer) mode.
Other than that, the unit works great! It’s able to charge my iPhone 3G while I’m listening to music as well as allowing me to stream my iPod and any audio from my iPod straight into my factory radio!
Setting the DICE iPod Kit to ‘iPod’ mode allows you to control the iPod manually on the screen and not with the wheel controls. I find this much easier than trying to navigate the songs using a ‘track up’ & ‘track down’ method on my steering wheel. Also, in ‘iPod’ mode, the DICE iPod Kit acts as a standard audio source. Meaning it’ll play Pandora and send ring tones to your factory radio without having to use the AUX input, like iPod adapters from other manufacturers!
I hope this helps someone else out there in the same situation I was in Please feel free to ask any questions and I’ll be sure to post pictures of my setup as soon as I get them!
Cheers!
Your Netflix client been crashing on your TiVo?
Posted by eric in Internet, Miscellaneous, Multimedia, Reviews on December 9th, 2008
I was excited as probably many of you that Netflix had finally come to TiVo! I was tired of Amazon UnBox and although it was super cool that I could get Netflix on my 360 it’s far more conventient that I have it on my TiVo
Well, the other night my wife was watching a movie through Netflix on the TiVo and about four times it just quit out to the main TiVo menu. What the frick?
I told my wife to give the XBox 360 a try and see how it handles. Well turns out that the 360 had a hiccup too, but you know what it was? A buffer underrun! That’s right! My internet connection for whatever reason couldn’t keep up with the Netflix stream and it ran out of data. Of course the XBox client was smart enough to realize this, displayed a message and buffered some before streaming again.
My TiVo client? Crashed out. Talk about two code bases not up to par with one another.
So if you’re having the same issues, odds are your network connection (for whatever reason) is not keeping up with the Netflix stream and it’s just crashing out to the main menu of TiVo.
My suggested work around for the time being is try watching it on your XBox 360 if you have the option. Otherwise, you might want to contact your cable provider or stop torrenting all that norwegian snow porn
Cheers!
Netflix comes to the XBox and TiVo!
Posted by eric in Internet, Multimedia, Opinion, Reviews on November 20th, 2008
Welcome to the Revolution!
This week Microsoft rolled out Netflix instant streaming support with the new XBox 360 Dashboard (which they’re calling the “New Xbox Experience”) while TiVo is also rolling out Netflix support this week in their latest beta firmware update.
Netflix streaming allows people who subscribe to the (currently) $8.99 subscription to stream UNLIMITED movies available for Instant Online viewing to their XBox or TiVo for no extra cost on top of their monthly subscription. To sweeten the deal, Netflix also offers up to 300 movies in ‘HD’ quality at no extra charge.
So, let’s review the score. HD-DVD has gone the way of Beta Max and although both Apple and Amazon have offered rental and purchasing of movies electronically but are still bound to their respective platforms (Apple being iPhone/Pod and Amazon being TiVo) including the PC. I’ve yet to see either party partner with another distribution outlet which is expected from Apple but almost a shock with Amazon.
When I think about it though, Netflix is an obvious answer to the question of what company would be the first to provide movies to Microsoft for online streaming. Netflix partnered with Microsoft in the first place to provide online instant viewing of movies through Microsofts (at the time, new) Silverlight technology, which is a competitor to Flash (which popular video sites like YouTube use).
So now you have a company with an already established shipping and distribution system setup for physical media (both DVD and Blu-Ray) and has partnered with two ‘direct to TV’ companies who have in total over 30 million set top boxes already installed in homes across the WORD! Could this be the coming of the revolution?
I certainly hope so!
About six months back I finally decided to just sell my entire DVD collection. I personally was just done with physical media. I was tired of moving them, dusting them, having them take up space and never really sitting down to watch them. I mean really, I owned a little over 200 movies and sat down AT MOST one time a month to watch one. It got so bad that some of the movies were still in their original shrink wrap packaging. The industry had hooked me on the idea that I needed to COLLECT movies and I had come to the realization that it’s seriously a stupid hobby.
I became a personal flag barer for electronic distribution starting with the ability of renting a movie from Amazon unbox for only $.99 (when they’re on sale) but even then I’d have to wait about 30 minutes for the movie to buffer enough for me to be able to watch it the entire way through without having to pause and let it buffer some more.
Enter Netflix. Not only does it let me INSTANTLY begin watching a movie by detecting my connection speed and ability to download data at real time, but I can also ’shop’ online for more movies to watch while not at home using Netflix.com. This means I can think of a movie while at work or on the go, queue it up and watch it instantly when I get home.
The bonus? This is all covered under my $8.99 Netflix account that I already had. Oh sure, there are more costs involved, but let’s break that down (and to keep it fair, I’ll break down as if I’m starting with NOTHING):
- Netflix: $8.99/mo ($107/year)
- XBox 360: $199 for Arcade Edition ($199/year, first year)
- XBox Live Gold Account: $7.99/mo ($49.99/year)
- Digital Cable: $39 for 10mbit down/1mbit up (in my area) ($480/year)
So even including your monthly Cable bill, you’re only looking at a monthly average cost of only $70 or only $29 pr month if you don’t include your monthly cable internet bill! FOR UNLIMITED INSTANT MOVIE VIEWING!
That’s pretty amazing to me! I hope more people hop on this bandwagon and we begin the revolution! Down with physical media!
I’ll step off my soapbox now
Cheers!
Good News Everyone!
Posted by eric in Internet, Miscellaneous, Reviews on September 15th, 2008
I finally got off my butt and purchased an actual web hosting account!
I felt bad that I kept mooching off my friends bandwidth and had to keep asking them for help in setting up my services and whatnot. This way is going to be much better!
Also, I thought I’d pimp out the name of my web host because so far I’ve been super pleased with the service. The company is InMotion Hosting and what totally sold me on them was that they offered a hosting package with freakin unlimited bandwidth and storage for only $8.95/mo! This was dirt, dirt cheap compared to other hosts. Check them out if you’re looking for some sweet affordable web hosting.
I also Google-Fu’d for a bit and found a grip of positive reviews! So here’s hoping!
Cheers!
Out with the XP, in with the Windows 2008 Server!
Posted by eric in Miscellaneous, Opinion, Reviews, Virtualization, Windows Vista on July 1st, 2008
Last year I wrote a blog entry about how I was done with Windows Vista as a desktop operating system and thusly downgrading to Windows XP Professional. Things over the last year have changed though and it seem more and more applications and drivers are being released and updated for Vista (or newer , hah! ). I decided to take a look at my current options being that Windows Vista SP1 was released not so long ago.
Through my research and experiences at work, I actually decided that I would take a stab at running Windows 2008 Enterprise Server as my desktop operating system. In my research I happened across this blog on MSDN by Vijayshinva Karnure which documented the step by step instructions of taking a standard Windows 2008 Server installation and convert it to a Windows Vista like desktop.
I also settled on the 64-bit version of Windows 2008 Server Enterprise because it would allow me to run it in hypervisor mode with Hyper-V enabled, thus allowing me to migrate my Virtual PC VM’s to Hyper-V. Couple this with Hyper-V recently being RTM and I now have a virtualization ready desktop with the latest support for everything Vista!
So far over the past week I haven’t had any issues or concerns while doing development with source control Virtual Machine running a Windows 2003 VM with Team Foundation Server installed running in the background under Hyper-V.
All in all, I’m very happy with this option of operating system. It allows me the convenience of XP (such as running as Administrator with no UNC) as well as the newer features and benefits of Vista (such as DirectX 10, latest drivers and technology). Virtualization is a must have for any developer these days because it gets rid of the need for a test lab of computers. Or even for the home user, it gives an option to perhaps run the Microsoft Zune host service under a Windows XP Virtual Machine to stream music from your NAS to your XBox 360
Hope my experiences and findings are able to help someone else out in the decision on what to do about Vista and their next choice of a desktop Operating System!
Cheers!
Review — Magic Online v3.0 by Wizards Of The Coast
I’ve been a long time Magic The Gathering player and took to playing Magic Online back in 2003 shortly after the release of version “two-dot-doh!” At the time it was the perfect solution for someone like myself who enjoyed playing Magic but didn’t have the time nor the desire to join my fellow goons at the local comic store for a few casual games of Magic.
Before we dive into a review of Magic Online v3.0, I think a little history of Magic Online from the release of version 2.0 is in order to even fully appreciate WHY Version 3 was brought into existence.
Wizards Of The Coast announced in 2003 that they would be bringing Magic Online in house and it seemed that this could only mean good things for the online community because Wizards would have more more hands on involvement in the Magic Online development. This blew up in their face when Magic Online Version 2.0 was rushed out the door to coincide with the release of Eighth Edition. There were many defects in the client as well as server stability issues which eventually lead Wizards to admit that Version 2.0 was a failure and something drastic needed to be done. In early 2006 Wizards Of The Coast announced that Magic Online III (3.0) was in the works and it had an initial release date of late 2006. Obviously this date slipped many times as Version 3.0 eventually saw the light of day in early April 2008. Why did things take so long? It’s not entirely clear but Magic Online’s current Brand Manager Worth Wollpert has said that the people who made the original design and development decisions for Magic The Gathering Online Version 3.0 were no longer with Wizards Of The Coast, so asking questions of “why was this done over that” or “why did it take so long” will perhaps never be answered.
Anyways, this brings us to today! As I said before, I’ve been playing Magic Online now for the better part of five years and felt that I’d be in a good position to give the new client a once over. The version I’m currently using is Magic Online v3.0.8.2. The new Magic Online client has several notable changes under the hood which I felt were worth mentioning. These changes are:
- DirectX rendering for all objects and animations in game
- Built using the Microsoft .NET Framework
- Includes a 3D Rendering Engine for Avatars
I was actually very pleased that the original powers that be decided to roll with a managed language for a game client. I would say that I aids in development.. but after a three year delay, who really knows! Some could argue that this opens the client up to security issues but it appears that Wizards has taken the proper steps to secure the byte code including obfuscation and relying on server side authentication for all client interaction.
I’ll admit right now that I am a member and lurker of the Magic Online forum over at Wizards Of The Coast, so I’m aware of the current community ‘feedback’ regarding the new client. I think that users on these forums have some excellent feedback and Wizards has been very active with the user community in listening to discovered defects as well as feedback regarding possible changes to the functionality of the user interface. So my hat goes off to the staff at Wizards for making the effort
The client itself when first started is very visually pleasing. The textures used for the window borders and login screen look stunning at the default resolution of 1024×768. What happens if you run at a higher resolution or even a different aspect ratio using a wide screen monitor? Well, things start getting a little messy. Textures are just stretched when you increase the window size (especially on a wide screen), so ‘window wide’ textures such as the top of the menu look distorted and pixelated.
Once inside the client you’ll be pleased to see that Wizards has integrated the previously separate online store now into the client no longer requiring you to navigate to a website in a browser to purchase your online products. This is a welcome change and in my opinion finally unifies Magic Online as a complete online replacement for your local hobby store.
The first item that also sticks out is the ‘dock’ which is located on the right hand side of the client. For better or worse, this replaces the previously used ‘tabs’ that were located at the top of the Magic Online client as well as any minimized windows you might have had, such as PM windows or chat rooms. It allows you to tab through these items now in a single area. You’re also not restricted to the dock and you can ‘float’ these windows anywhere you would like on the screen. A lot of complaints have been filed on the forums about the new ‘vertical chat’ format that caused by the small horizontal space available for text in the dock. There are several work-arounds for this but unfortunately it seems to be the way things are for now.
Gameplay itself hasn’t changed much. One of the biggest complaint from users is the ‘wasted space’ caused by the new game layout. To this, I suggest everyone check out their Game Play Settings (Menu -> Settings -> Game Play) and try one of the new “Game Table Design” options that are provided. As of the writing of this review the options are “Mana Wheel”, “Big Card” and “Compact”. I’m a fan of the compact view because if I float the Chat Window and hide the dock, I’m able to have a sizable playing area.
Did I run into issues while writing this review? Not really. Design issues, of course. But the client itself remained stable and the server has remained online for the most part since launch. There was a single crash since the release of Version 3 but the issues was identified on the back end and resolved. As for design issues, I’m sure you can venture over to the Magic Online forums to read a few users opinions on several of the design decisions made by the powers that be.
I have a few suggestions on the UI which might make for a better user experience:
The Dock – I think it’s a great idea, but was poorly executed. It could be made so much better by changing it a little bit:
- If I float a Window, let me minimize it. Although I’m a friendly guy, I like having a wide screen chat during a game but I’m not always interested in what my opponent has to say. Re-docking it means I have to keep re-floating and resizing it.
- If I click on a tab, don’t reorder them to make it the 1st in the list. This drove me up the wall because every time I clicked on a tab, I’d lose the order of where the other tabs were. Imagine if Firefox or Internet Explorer did this
Casual Rooms – Make selecting a game easier and less like a mouse accuracy test Even filtering by “Waiting” and trying to jump into a game before it disappears or moves is very difficult.
Avatars – For the love of god, please allow models with more polys The previous DOS Magic games from Microprose had better 3D models. I would have almost preferred ‘card art’ quality 2D avatars over these already dated specimens. I’m trying not to be too critical of this but I did almost spit out my Pepsi when I saw that my Royal Assassin avatar now looks like this:
Marketplace – I’m not saying the current incarnation of the Magic Online marketplace will kill the secondary market, but it will make it harder for users to find one another to make trades. Things like the classifides sorting alphabetically will lead to a flood of new bots/traders with user names such as “..TRADING BOT” or “.BUY HERE” in order to get in the top listings. Wizards needs to re-think this design in order to help their product maintain it’s ‘value’.
All suggestions aside, Magic Online 3 is a ‘work in progress’ and is bound to improve with each week that passes. Casual Play still works fine and they’re spawning draft queues now if that’s your bag. I suspect that Premier Events will be online soon and Worth Wollpert said Leagues would be online within a month or so.
So, the quick hits are:
Pros
- Casual Play (both single and multi-player) is still there
- Client and Server seem to both be stable
- Store functionality built into the client
Cons
- Still missing a LOT of features (Leagues, Redemption, New Accounts, Trial Server)
- User Interface still a work in progress, but getting better
- 3D Avatars are laughable to say the least
The down and dirty of it is that if you played Magic Online before, you had your reasons and those reasons probably weren’t because you were in love with the User Interface Like many other users, I wasn’t swept off my feet by Magic Online 3 but it still meets my needs as a player. I hope that as a CONSUMER, Wizards continues to try and improve my experience as a player in order to coax more of my hard earned money from my pockets
Cheers!
Review — Jolida JD 202A Integrated Stereo Tube Amplifier
Posted by eric in Audiophile, Reviews on April 6th, 2008
I purchased the Jolida JD 202A Integrated Stereo Tube Amplifier as part of an upgrade to my vinyl listening system. We have a turntable setup in our ‘game room’ and I wanted to keep it retro while still maintaining high audio quality…. that and I’ve always wanted a Vacuum Tube amplifier! So this fills both a requirement for a new amplifier and a long time dream.
I settled on the JD 202A because it was the perfect marriage of price and performance. The JD 202A puts out 40 watts per channel (60 watts peak) using four EL34 tubes for power output stage, two 12X7A tubes for pre-amplification and two 12AT7 tubes for power drivers because the JD 202A is a Push-Pull amplifier.
 Jolida JD 202A Integrated Stereo Tube Amplifier |
 Picture I took of the Tube Glow from the JD 202A Amplifier |
I ordered the Jolida JD 202A from the fine folks at NeedleDoctor.com for $825.00. The amp itself shipped direct from Jolida and arrived a few days after ordering. It came very well packed with the tubes in individual slots within the styrofoam bock, so they were well protected. The amp itself had a black powder on the black parts of the chassis and that got all over my hands, but otherwise it came in perfect condition. It’s fairly heavy, so make sure if you’re putting it on a shelved unit that the shelf is able to hold the weight.
The tubes come paired and labeled with a corresponding slot on the JD 202A from Jolida which was nice! Took the guess work out of which tubes needed to go where The printed manual that comes with the JD 202A is also very informative and provides instructions on how to adjust the bias if need be.
I hooked the Jolida into my system which uses:
- Stanton STR8-90 Direct Drive Turntable
- Pro-Ject Tube Box II Phono Preamplifier
- Infinity Interlude IL30 Speakers (6.5 inch woofer, dome tweet with 150w maximum power handling @ 8ohms)
- Monster HTS 3500 Power Conditioner
Picture of my finished setup!
I first plugged in only the Jolida amplifier into the speakers so I could listen to see if any ambient noise would come from the amplifier while operating. To my surprise the Jolida had no audible hum or hiss which is present in many vacuum tube amplifiers that are poorly constructed. Even turning the volume up to near maximum still resulted in very little noise.
After letting the tubes heat up for about ten minutes before a first run I powered everything on and gave the Jolida my standard listening regime which includes Fugees – The Score, Ben Folds – Ben Folds Live and Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook.
I’m don’t have too much experience using Tube Amplifiers so I’m not in a good position to compare the performance of the Jolida compared to others, but I can compare it to the Harman/Kardon AVR7300 I was using to drive my system before the Jolida Arrived!
As far as performance goes, I am very pleased with how much depth the Jolida brings to the music. My wife and I are just amazed because even at half volume it sounds like there’s a jazz hall or concert in the other room. The sound is very natural and realistic without any distortion. The sound stage is very large and the music has a very warm feel to it, which is expected with a Vacuum Tube based amplifier.
It’s actually amazing what a difference in amplifiers could do. Even though the Harman/Kardon AVR7300 has a much higher power rating (125w x2), the Jolida 202A was able to bring the speakers to life giving the music much more depth.
To see if I could make the Jolida crumble, I put on the 12″ single of Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up”, which combines techno beats with a very deep, very loud bass line. I expected with my Infinity IL30 speakers (which only have single 6.5″ drivers) or the Amp to call it quits once I kicked up the volume. To my surprise, both components held their ground with the Jolida making my small floor standing setup shake windows through our entire house. Amazing!
All in all, I’m very pleased with my purchase of the Jolida JD 202A Integrated Stereo Tube Amplifier! If you’re looking into this model then feel free to ask any questions you might have! I’ll answer them to the best of my ability!
Hope this little review was able to help someone out there struggling with the same decision I had to make!
Cheers!
Review — Pro-Ject Tube Box II Phono Preamplifier
Posted by eric in Audiophile, Opinion, Reviews on March 27th, 2008
I decided to take some time and drop some coinage on upgrading my turntable system into a true analog listening system. I enjoy playing my LPs casually but I’d like them to sound nice. In my previous setup, I used a Applied Research & Technology DEEJAYPRE Phono Preamplifier which I picked up about five years ago on eBay for about $35. Now, I understand I shouldn’t expect knock out quality from such a cheap product, but what it did produce didn’t exactly blow my socks off.
Now, a little history on why we need phono preamplifiers A record cartridge (which is the housing for the needle) in most instances (including mine) is a moving magnet cartridge, where it uses two small magnets in the cartridge to detect the vibrations from the record grooves and generate a small electrical charge. Because this electrical signal is so small, we need a device to make it ‘louder’ so you won’t need to crank the volume up to MAXIMUM on your amplifier. Also, records use RIAA equalization so what’s on the record needs to be EQ’d properly. A phono preamplifier performs both theses tasks by EQing the incoming signal and applying gain so the signal cant be sent to a standard RCA input on an amplifier or receiver.
If you have a low quality phono preamplifier you might notice such playback artifacts as distortion, a low hum or music that is too “boomy” for bass or too “tin-y” on the treble. I know that the cheap preamplifier I was using before didn’t produce much gain as I had to turn my amplifier up pretty high for it to sound right. It also had issues doing a decent job grounding out the turntable so the music sounded distorted and there was an audible hum due to the poor quality ground terminal on the preamp. After cracking the lid off the DEEJAYPRE preamplifier I saw that it was a single JRC 4558DD chip doing all the EQ and GAIN. I Googled around and although there is a cult following behind the 4558DD chip, it was obviously not performing up to par in its current application in my system.
I researched preamps and decided to try and stick with a brand that remained true to the analog signal that’s coming from the turntable without using many IC’s or any digital to analog conversions. I settled on the Pro-Ject Tube Box II which I purchased from NeedleDoctor.com for $399. I chose this preamp for several reasons, main reason being that it uses two 12AX7 vacuum tubes for the gain stage which preserves the analog signal.
NeedleDoctor was able to ship out the preamp quickly and it arrived without hassle. Upon unpacking the preamp I noticed one thing: it’s small but very heavy for it’s size!
It uses an external wall-plugin transformer which provides 16V at 1amp. I was a little worried about the low power requirements but once I thought about it, it made sense that the output wouldn’t require a high DC current as it’s only being converted to line level.
Also as I said before, it’s very small and fits easily in one hand. The two 12AX7 tubes are surrounded by protectors to keep wandering fingers from the tube but I don’t think it’s for safety as the heat coils in the tubes are barely being fired up, so don’t expect the typical ‘tube glow’. I mean there is a tiny, tiny glow from the cathode… but only if you turn the lights off and you cover up the (very, very bright) front LED
After hooking it into my system I noticed an immediate difference when turning on my amplifier. There was no more audible hum even when turning up the volume to maximum which tells me that Pro-Ject has taken the proper steps to grounding out the phono signal and eliminate artifacts from the gain stage, resulting in a clean line level signal.
I tested the Pro-Ject Tube Box II with three albums which I thought would give the EQ a run for it’s money.
I use The Fugees album, “The Score”, because it has a very “busy” sound profile while still having very deep hitting bass. Songs such as the Fugees cover of “Killing me Softly” has a good mix of Lauryn Hill’s melodic voice with a heavy bass line while their cover of “No Woman No Cry” combines tight bass hits with an acoustic guitar. The specific version I used was a 180 gram limited edition remastered in ‘high definition’
I heard immediately that the deep bass was reproduced beautifully without distorting higher ranges. Lauryn Hill’s lyrics came through amazingly clear, including her pronounced “S”’s when singing the line “Softly” which has a tendency to be distorted/clipped with poor equalization. The sound stage for the album came alive and literally shook the house. So far Tube Box’s performance has been great!
Ben Folds Live is one of my personal favorite albums to listen to. It’s a simple album consisting of live tracks with just Ben and his piano. It’s a fun album to play on a well setup system because it has the feel of being at a live concert while still sounding like Ben is playing right next to you on his concert grand piano. I selected songs like “Zak and Sarah” and “Army”, which both include very loud and pronounced piano sections. They are reproduced brilliantly by the Pro-Ject Tube Box II Phono Preamplifier and softer melodies like “Brick” and “The Luckiest” are as soft and sweet as if he were playing the piano in the same room.
The final test I threw at the Pro-Ject Tube Box II was an older LP I’ve had in my collection for a while and is still a favorite of mine, Ella Fitzgerald sings the Duke Ellington songbook. Sometimes older records that are worn down from being played over the last 30+ years give EQ’s a little trouble because it’s not the strict RIAA curve that they’re used to. The Tube Box was able to being harmony back to this LP by bringing forward the Duke Ellington Orchestra without having Ella and her amazing vocal runs overpower them. My wife loves when I play this record now because it makes the house come alive as if we were in a jazz club like the Blue Note
All in all I am very pleased with the Pro-Ject Tube Box II Preamplifier. It is able to EQ and apply gain elegantly to any music selection and apply the right amount of gain without causing any clipping. Is it worth the $399? Well, I suppose that depends. It could be argued that vacuum tubes are a niche market and are only for those few who want their system to be stylized without compromising quality. I’m sure a cheaper preamp might sound just as good, but why run the chance? Preamplification and Equalization is THE most important part of playing back a record so you’ll want to guarantee you have quality. My previous ART preamp only used a single JRC 4558DD IC for equalization and gain, which I imagine was the cause for it’s low quality and performance.
So for those with money in the budget for an upgrade, I highly suggest picking up this amazing phono preamp for your turntable as it’ll breathe new life into all your LP’s both young and old
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