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One of the nicest by-products of the vinyl revival is the constant flow of affordable phono stages, essential to allow newcomers to adapt to LP playback the line-level-only integrated amps that have proliferated since 1983. Thorens, Mobile Fidelity, Musical Fidelity, NAD, Cambridge – there are too many to list, but the go-to brand for me is the one that also 'owns' the entry-level turntable market: Pro-Ject. Among the 16 phono stages in its catalogue is a 'sweet spot' model at £550, the Tube Box DS2. Available in black or silver, with a choice of wooden side cheeks, and with those triode tubes sprouting out of the top, it was the perfect yin to the MoFi UltraPhono's solid-state yang [HFN Mar '20]. And unbeknown to editor PM as he organised a product for this review, I already owned one: I needed a phono stage that did everything, but cost well under £1000 so I could use it with entry-level cartridges and turntables. Let There Be Light This product actually fits in the middle of the six-range Pro-Ject catalogue. If your budget won't stretch to this model, there are plenty from £60 on up. If you want something a bit more lavish, there is the RS range. The Tube Box DS2, however, will address all of your audiophile needs, and a bare bones description will have you salivating if you need a phono fix without having to break the bank. Let's dispense with the back first. Unusually for a phono amp at this – or any – price, the Tube Box DS2 accommodates two turntables, offers two sets of RCA outputs, has power from an 18V 'wall wart' and features 12V trigger input/outputs. This tells you that you can integrate it into most systems with auto-power-on and you have the choice of two decks if so inclined. While the front panel looks like you might want a trip to the owner's manual, it's actually intuitive and user-friendly. Press the tiny button on the left and it switches on, a blue LED lighting up above the button. Other LEDs come on at this point to show which input has been chosen, whether or not the subsonic filter is engaged and which loading, capacitance and gain settings have been selected by the user. 820pro.bac Then, for precisely 30 seconds, the on/off LED flashes during the warm-up period, the muted output preventing any nasty pops from greeting the user at switch-on. To demonstrate just how closely Pro-Ject pays attention to the tiny details, even with cost-effective models such as the Tube Box DS2, the LED that shows which output has been selected do