Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsA-B with Schiit Mani 2
Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2023
I recently upgraded my turntable to a Pro-Ject Pro X2 with a Sumiko Moonstone cartridge. I listen through Elac Uni-Fi 2.0 UB52 speakers driven by a Denon AVR4500 receiver/amp/pre-amp. I suspected the AVR's phono pre-amp was not on par with the turntable and speakers so I decided to add a dedicated, affordable, phono pre-amp. I narrowed the field down to 2: the Pro-Ject Phono Box S2, and; the Schiit Mani 2, based on price, various reviews, MM/MC capabilities, etc. The two pre-amps are very similar on what they offer and very nearly the same price.
I was a little biased towards the Pro-Ject because I figured they made my turntable so they should offer an affordable pre-amp to match it. I could not have been more wrong. We set up the Pro-ject pre-amp first and listened to Miles David Kind of Blue. The sound was way better than that through the AVR, so my wife and I got very excited. "How could it get better than this?", we asked ourselves. The improvement was enough to put smiles on both of our faces - there really is a very noticeable improvement in sound stage, instrument separation, etc. We almost decided to end the test there and just send back the Schiit untested, but we didn't. When the needle came down on Mile's record and we heard the sound through the Schiit, our jaws dropped. The difference between the two pre-amps was about as noticeable as between the AVR and the Pro-ject pre-amp. We could not believe our ears, so we A-B'd the same album 2 more times. I even did a blinded test with my wife, who is not an audiophile, and she unhesitatingly picked the Schiit. We went on to A-B against, Pink Floyd's DSOM, Beethoven's 6th, 5th and 9th symphonies (2 orchestras, a Moody Blues album, the Eagles Hotel CA, John Coltrane's A love Supreme, Creme and, wait for it...KC and the Sunshine Band. There was a noticeable difference in all albums except the KC, Eagles and Creme albums. There was still a preference to the Schiit, but the difference with these albums was not as notable as the difference in the jazz and classical albums. In no case did the Pro-Ject outperform the Schiit.
We tried several impedances on the two pre-amps (both are adjustable with dip switches) but could not get the Pro-Ject to impress as well as the Schiit.
What we heard: there was clearly an improved sound stage with the Schiit. The sense of "being there" was so much nicer. The upper mids were noticeably more pronounced with the Schitt while the bass was brought out more without being boomy (we do have a 10" SW on our system). The highs were more...sparkly... with the Schitt, a little more, though, and they would have bordered on too sparkly and lead to ear fatigue. This did not happen and while those highs and upper mids were well defined and present, we did not experience any ear fatigue during our extensive A-B testing or the album-listening frenzy of the ensuing days as we began gong through our collections.
Look, I'm no audiophile and our overall system is only solidly mid-tier, maybe verging on upper mid-tier, but these are only sub-$200 pre-amps but we know when we hear differences and there were clear differences between the AVR, Pro-Ject and Schiit. One might say the Pro-Ject was more rounded, but I think that's another way of saying it's muted. The Schiit sound was more open, present, balanced and makes the bands/orchestras feel the most "in the room".
I will stop far short of saying the Pro-Ject is not a nice pre-amp. In fact it might suit some people's tastes better than the Schitt. But for what I think a pre-amp is supposed to do for your music, the Schitt, to us, does it far better.
