Recently, I developped a sudden craving for my LP collection. The modern entertainment center doesn’t have any shelf space for the turn-table, which I’ve tucked away for years. So I brought another receiver but was surprised to learn my new receiver doesn’t come with a phono input. I wasn’t going to spend big bucks on a pre-amp. Based on other’s reviews and the price point, I decided to give PYLE-PRO PP444 a try. Judging from the body, it seems quite well made. The connections are very easy and most importantly it has a dedicated ground nut to accept the ground wire of your truntable. (As the stylus traveling on the groove of your vinyl record, statics will be generated. The ground wire provides a path for the static to dissapate. Some of the pre-amps don’t have a ground terminal, that can pose a problem.)
Basically you plug the turn-table outputs to the pre-amp’s respective inputs, then connect the output of the pre-amp to the AUX input of the receiver.
I don’t hear any difference comparing to my other Onkyo with built-in phono. For the price I paid, I will be very happy if it can last 3 or more years. A little suggestion, you may prolong the life of the unit if you unplug the transformer each time you are done playing.

It was a line-level amp, and it did what it was supposed to do. I’m not an audiophile, but I heard very little noise in the signal. It was completely utilitarian; didn’t have any unnecessary bells and whistles. In my book, that made it a great product.

One problem: A little over a month after I purchased the PP444, I unplugged the unit in order to move it. When I plugged it back in, it was completely dead. No indicator light, no functionality. The signal just passed through without amplification.

Although technically covered under warranty, Pyle charges a pretty exorbitant shipping and handling fee on warranty replacements. It would have been considerably cheaper just to buy a replacement unit myself. I emailed Pyle support about the issue and they reduced their shipping and handling fee, but it still would have been about the same cost to me as buying a new unit (I may have saved , at most). Rather than going through all that hassle for the sake of saving and receiving an identical replacement (and having no reason to believe it wouldn’t fail exactly as the first one did), I have decided to write it off as poor judgment on my part and buy a replacement preamp from a different manufacturer.

Sad face.

I bought the Bozak Madisson preamp first which had a faulty input. Sent it back and got this one. So far, so good. A friend of mine just informed me that newer turntables have a preamp on/off switch under the record plate. Mine did not, but you may want to check. If it does, you shouldn’t need one of these.