Tube phono stages have been an integral part of our product portfolio for many years. The latest Tube Box DS3 B adds balanced capability to the mix, making this our first True Balanced tube phono preamp. The design benefits from an outstanding dual-mono circuit layout with discrete components assembled with expertise in Europe. It’s a hybrid design utilizing tubes in the input & gain stages. All electrical components (including the tube output stage) are audiophile-grade, merging to deliver breathtaking sound quality from your turntable & phono cartridge.

Use the 5-pin mini XLR or standard XLR inputs to recruit the balanced circuit in the Tube Box DS3 B. In each channel, balanced audio signals (aka symmetrical) are comprised of hot and cold (or + / -) conductors carrying the same musical information but are inherently out of phase. The (-) signal is an inverted duplicate of the (+). Opposite polarities render them ‘different’ in the eyes of the balanced circuit. The balanced circuit is where common-mode rejection occurs, canceling accrued noise that’s affected each the hot (+) and cold (-) signals (thus the noise is ‘common’ to them). Once the balanced circuit has canceled the ‘common’ noise, the cold (-) signal’s polarity is inverted to match hot (+) one. This amounts to more amplitude (about 6dB), and less noise (about 10dB). You can image the wealth of detail and clarity that surfaces in the absence of the aforementioned noise and with the added amplitude.