The idea is not new. Many companies have experimented with remedies and boxes that promise to remove the crackle from worn vinyl records. Few have succeeded. But Pro-Ject believes that the new Vinyl NRS Box S3, should remove the dust even a platewasker can’t get rid of.
A dishwasher does a fine job of removing dust and dirt from the grooves, but it doesn’t repair the dents in the record, or the wear and tear that inevitably causes noisy records.
The Pro-Ject Vinyl NRS Box S3 is placed between the turntable and the amplifier, and uses an advanced digital sound processing to remove the noise. The signal from the turntable is digitized in the box, with 24-bit quantization and 96 kHz sampling, and then the processor uses dual 54-bit accumulation to dampen the clicks.
As you can see from the picture, you can set how much of the noise reduction you need. Pro-Ject calls it De-Crackling, and it can dampen the crackling by up to 8 decibels. Pressing the VNRS button activates the Vinyl Noise Reduction System, which dampens crackle from worn vinyl records.
The Pro-Ject box can be plugged in all the time, and the noise reduction can be switched off with the bypass button when not needed.
The price is 329 Euro, and it should be in stores in September.
