A phenomenal new CD transport-Pro-Ject CD Box RS2 transport

@bobheinatz

The CD transport is your source component as it preceeds the DAC in your signal chain. There are those who will say any decent CD player/transport will be fine as it’s only about the 1s and 0s. I vehemently disagree with this shallow and superficial mindset.

The higher the quality and thus competency of the vital CD transport, the better the resultant sound quality. I strongly believe that it’d be pennywise and pound foolish to go skimp on the transport by thinking only the DAC matters. They both matter. An argument could be  made that the transport (source) is equally as important as the DAC if not in fact more so.

Attention paid to a solidly constructed CD spinning mechanism that seriously addresses vibration management is very crucial.  Cheaper budget transports won't offer the same degree of attention or implementation (You have to cut corners somewhere to keep it inexpensive).

My advice is to buy the best quality CD transport you can comfortably afford. I don’t believe that you’d ever 2nd guess this decision. The many positive testimonies in regard to the Pro-Ject CD Box RS2 transport in this thread are accurate. As noted before, it is small in form factor (By design) but huge in its sonic performance. Excellent with the standard wall wart power supply and clearly improved if one uses an optional linear power supply. My 2 cents worth.

Charles

I don't own the Project but 100% agree with Charles about the improvement in SQ with better transports. I went from a fairly competent Cambridge CXC to a Simaudio 260D and the improvement was quite noticeable.

Thanks Charles & Facten.

I received my RS2 transport a few days ago. I'll give you my initial impressions (well, mine and my wife's).

Out of the box, I was ready to send it back. Pretty disappointed really. At the same time, I didn't have a solid cable option nor did I have a LPS but dang this box had no bass and sounded entirely disjointed. It felt like an amplifier or cable that needed severe maturing, but for some reason I dismissed that. I mean, it a Transport right?

So I figured it was placement and cable issue. I don't have many options, no AES cable so I substituted a very good balanced cable, the right one I think... I got a generic optical and a Coax from long ago, but a good one.

Next day it still sounded weird but a few songs played well. Wife liked Jesse Cook but Frank Duval was lifeless and completely uninvolving. I was also disappointed that Pro-jects i2s doesn't mean i2s in the Holo May world. I use a Holo May KTE and tried all 4 configurations. No bueno. 

It was further troubling that there are so many audio stars in this thread, teajay, Charles1dad and others, that have such a positive "spin" on this transport. What am I missing?

There was something else though. Behind the confusion of the music there appeared to be a lot more information emanating from the silver box compared to my stellar streamer system, which was was destroying the RST-2 in sound quality. I had moved the RST-2 to maple but didn't get a sense of improvement. Maple was game changing on my Lindemann Musicbook.

Day 3. What happened? I now had lower end. Music had become organized. Textures were being realized and space now had a representation of location. But way more than that. There is a palpable suddenness, an explosion of sounds that come so fast that it takes us by surprise. I look at the Allnic and say, "you little devil you, you're a part of bringing what the RS2 has brung". I would say that there's not the accurate front to back layering (room issue?) I had experienced with the very best of systems and perhaps a not so smoothness, digital glare maybe, whatever the heck that is. But here I am with perhaps not the best cable that my system deserves given where my system is at. Now my streamer is nervous, very nervous. Who's this new kid in town?

So we sat and replayed Duval and other CD's that basically sucked @ day one. 20 hours in it's is a completely different sonic picture.

Busy in the yard, busy at a picnic, today I wanted to spin more discs. I want to hear even more. My CD collection is not only reinvigorated, it's looking forward to more friends.

OK so I'm going to ask, which one of you, or all of you, thought the RST-2 sounded good out of the box? Am I the only malcontent?

Thanks to the forum members for putting me on the right - track.

@desalvo55

Thanks for sharing your early listening impressions of the RS2T. I’m glad you stuck with it, gave it a few days and avoided an impulsive conclusion. Well I for one can honestly say that my out-of-the-box listening impression was terrific! Within the first 30 minutes of listening I recognize it was better sounding than my cherished P.S. audio PWT. It clearly improved within just a few hours of play.

And this was realized using the standard wall wart power supply. It’s only got better with additional hours of use. When I added a LPS, another noticeable step up from an already high performance level. I’m glad to read  ythat you are very pleased with this CD transport. It is fantastic as far as I am concerned.

Charles