What happens when a turntable manufacturer makes a streamer? We
find out that the result is rather unusual
Designers at Pro-Ject must be putting in some serious
overtime of late as the range of products the company has released in the last
few months has been prodigious. Some of the most impressive new arrivals have
been the RS series. These flagship members of the ‘Box’ range of electronics
have proved impressive with some innovative features. The latest offering in
the RS range pitches into an area that is rather less of a Pro-Ject comfort
zone. The Stream Box RS is (as the name suggests) a UPnP media streamer
offering 24/192kHz-capability over both wired and wireless connections as well
as internet radio. So far so normal, but then the Pro-Ject starts to deviate
from the norm somewhat. The fitting of a pair of digital inputs is to be
expected on streamers, but finding an analogue input is more unusual – only
Naim and Musical Fidelity have been sloughing this particular furrow and even
then, the Pro-Ject has ideas of its own.
Pro-Ject Stream
Box RS
The inputs can be collated and output at line level and you
have the welcome choice between RCA and XLR connections, but the Stream Box can
be converted to a preamp at the press of a button on the rear panel. This
brings the volume control on the front panel into the circuit and means
operation is more like a conventional preamp than the button-based volume
control of the Musical Fidelity CLiC for example. The Pro-Ject idiosyncrasy
doesn’t end there...
Nestled in the back of the Stream Box RS is a pair of 6922
valves that are arranged to give the Pro-Ject a dual mono valve output. Valve outputs
in CD players are nothing new – they’ve been around for over 20 years, but
fitting them to streamers is highly unexpected. When you combine the preamp
into the mix, you have a product that is effectively unique and offering
something a bit different to the rest of the streaming pack. This is also
especially pertinent given that the RS range has a power amp present and ready
to go, and the resulting combination is a highly compact and potentially
fascinating coming together – especially as the power amp is fitted with an
additional pair of small valves in the signal path, which is going to have a
further effect on the overall sound.
Substantial build
and a generally excellent display make the Stream Box RS stand out
Around the front, the Pro-Ject is dominated by a large color
display that is the trademark of streaming products developed in cooperation
with fellow Austrian company Stream Unlimited. This is still one of the better
displays out there and means that the Stream Box has no other front panel
controls beyond an on/off switch. This puts a great deal of onus on the
supplied remote control and Pro-Ject-developed app, and here the news is mixed.
The remote is effective enough, but it’s small and somewhat lightweight. It
works relatively well, though. The app is free to download, is effective and
well produced, but at the moment it’s only sized for the iPhone rather than the
more capable iPad. The good news is that Pro-Ject has developed an Android
version for those with iDevice-phobia.
Build quality standards meets with the rest of the RS range
and the Stream Box feels both solid and substantial. The thick front plate and
damped casework with solid connections are in keeping with what you might
expect at the price.
Setup proves simple enough, but the method of inputting
network passwords by scrolling up and down a long list of characters is a bit
of an ordeal and the speed that it renders information from the central NAS
drive is not as quick as the Naim ND5XS and Cambridge Audio Stream Magic 6, which
are permanent residents and access the same drive over the same network. Once
the library has been rendered, accessing different tracks is quick and stable.
It performs in a
way that is sufficiently different to any of the competition
