The 8 Best Black Box preamps (2023 reviews)

We know from years of feedback from readers, customers and amazon sellers, what most people want in a preamp. The fosi audio black box preamp is exactly that - it's a simple preamp that hits all the right notes. It is a great way to improve your vinyl sound. It is designed with a grounding post to protect your turntable. It has a "phono" input module. Converts phono signals to line level signals with low-noise integrated circuits and high-quality components to remove low-frequency noise and ensure clear sound quality. The bass is much more rounded and the highs are still very crisp but not harsh and the instruments play quite passages and easily heard and voices and very clear.

The Sound quality is great and it is very easy to setup. The ground terminal is also gold plated, spring loaded, and works pretty well. The amp rounds out the mids and allows the highs to shine without the hash clatter of digitally compressed music. It is suitable for moving-magnet (mm) cartridges.

Why We Like This:

High-quality components to remove low-frequency noise ensure clear sound quality
Very easy set up and adds souch to the sound of the vinyl
Really brings out the tones from a mid level amp, and turntable

Best For recording From Vinyl: Pyle Right Speaker

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Best part: pyle right speaker costs comparatively low and it is available to ship in 24 hours. This phono preamp works flawlessly and is simple to set up. It offers outstanding performance with it’s low-noise audio operational amplifiers. It has stereo rca inputs and stereo rca outputs. It takes the quiet signal from your phono cartridge, and makes it louder. This product performs flawlessly, even using the included adapter no AC hum is heard. It is picking up noise from its own wall wart and from adjacent electrical cords.

It is really compact and easy to use, comes with ac adapter but for the people living in Europe replacement ac adapter will be essential that works on 220v input and produces 12v outputs.

Why We Like This:

Compact, simple, great little pre-amp to connect your turntable
Easy to connect and mount if wanted
Incredible sound even without attaching the ground wire from the turntable
Totally clear and clean sound with no buzz

Best For TV: Pyle Black Box Preamp

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Pyle line of preamp come in a pretty wide variety of styles, so you can definitely find one that suits your individual preferences and needs. It's amazing how good these records sound when played using this Pyle preamp into a good amplifier and speaker system. The little brass colored post (looks like a lug nut) is the ground lug. It offers outstanding performance with it’s low-noise audio operational amplifiers and the output is 2v max (p-p) at 10k ohms and it’s better to position the preamp close to the source to reduce unwanted noise and interference. The ground screw is very important.

This little device corrects the signal so your record player sounds good connected to any stereo. The ground peg means virtually no hum from the TT, which is a nice addition. A small green light on top glows to alert you the device is active. It provides a decent volume plus comes with a power supply. This works well as an 'adapter' for an old turntable and your normal l/r (white red) audio cables.

Why We Like This:

Amazing sound quality in a very solid and rugged product
Easy setup, no problems encountered and it works
Affordable solution for low line signal correction

Best For something: Fosi Audio Box Phono Preamp

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The fosi audio box phono preamp might be a relatively new release, but it's still nothing short of impressive this year, thanks to multiple price cuts and added new features over the past few months. If you want a decent preamp but don't want to spend alot then this is for you. The receiver amplifier consists of two stages, the preamplifier to magnify the millivolt signal from a turntable pickup to a level useful for the subsequent power amplifier which provides high. This will tie you by headphone cable to the small box sitting behind the turntable. It maintains sound quality and also works well with vintage tuner.

The preamplifier takes the small (millivolt) signal from a turntable pickup and amplifies it to the range of volts so that the power amplifier can then drive the speakers. It also provides an uncontrolled (no volume knob) output for a headset. The sound is clean with no hum or noise of any kind.

Why We Like This:

Powered pre-amp for turntable to speaker
Easy to install and set up
Well-built and a great value for the money
Sound quality is good for something so compact

Best For CD Player: Pro-Ject Integrated Amp

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The pro-ject integrated amp should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. The difference that this ProJect tube preamp makes is incredible. It looks like it already has a built-in phono amplifier that can handle moving magnet and moving coil cartridges, but the Pro-Ject Tube Box S2 Phono Preamplifier might possibly be better. It offers support for both mm and mc cartridges and comes with many gain settings to be switched on the front panel. The subsonic filter rolls off the bass output very sharply at 20Hz. The sound quality sounded bright, as if the midrange was a bit high and some records would distort slightly with loud high frequencies.

Tube rolling yields additional gains in sound quality, and mates with just about any amp/preamp system. The sound quality is also superb.

Why We Like This:

Very musical with less surface noise
Will adjust for any cartridge, and any amp
Flat response, better bass compared to the artdj

Best For Stream: Pro-Ject Black Box Preamp

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The pro-ject black box preamp is suitable and reliable and fits well with your daily usage. The Pro-Ject Phono Box will work with any turntable that needs a preamp and supports both MM and MC cartridges, it uses a fixed impedance/capacitance but should be fine for most MM turntables. It offers the highest aesthetics but also out-standingly protects it from unwanted electromagnetic interferences and vibrations. The sound quality is excellent being very clear and balanced. The dip switch settings underneath really make this worthwhile so that you can have some leeway in fine tuning the sound to your specific cartridge.

Why We Like This:

Power button is right on front for easy access
Sounds great and has immense value for the money
One of the new comers and featured product

Best With Iphone: Suca-Audio Black Box Preamp

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Suca-Audio line of preamp come in a pretty wide variety of styles, so you can definitely find one that suits your individual preferences and needs. It can be used as an mm phono preamp and a tube preamp. It is split in two and machined with different brushed and frosted techniques to look more stylish and more distinctive. It is designed with grounding post to protect your turntable. The sound is warm as you would expect with tubes, and even more with the ge. It is compatible with many audio devices such as mm record player, phone, tv, mp3 players, cd players, dac, computers etc. The gain knob can only have 3 type of dB to choose.

The main feature of this small preamp is to spread the sound, to detach each instrument, it's obvious that it's obvious that the sound is warm as you would expect with tubes, and even more with the ge. The sound is absolutely an upgrade.

Why We Like This:

Works well, adjustable output to match your amps input
Very clean, small and nice looking phono stage
Very colored sound like a 70’s juke box
Sounds good, inexpensive and serves the purpose

Best For active Speakers: Nobsound Black Box Preamp

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The nobsound black box preamp is suitable and reliable and fits well with your regular usage. This unit is very delicate and not appropriate for taking on the road. It is best choice for active speakers. This preamp is pretty simple, consisting of a potentiometer, a couple of switches, input and output jacks, a circuit board, and a case. This unit eliminates all detectable noise. The volume knob has a nice feel to it when you turn it, and the entire box is translucent so you can see inside.

This unit is a volume control only, there is no active preamp. It reduces sound, and it does not amplify. There is a selection switch which you can choose the fully-balanced or single-ended audio signal mode, as well as the output or input mode.

Why We Like This:

A passive pre with volume control
Volume control is reasonably good quality
New and hot release

The 8 Best Black Box preamps (2023 reviews)

Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Fosi Audio Black Box Preamp

Best For recording From Vinyl: Pyle Right Speaker

Best For TV: Pyle Black Box Preamp

Best For something: Fosi Audio Box Phono Preamp

Best For CD Player: Pro-Ject Integrated Amp

Best For Stream: Pro-Ject Black Box Preamp

Best With Iphone: Suca-Audio Black Box Preamp

Best For active Speakers: Nobsound Black Box Preamp

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