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

I have had in-house for the last week Pro-Ject's new CD Box RS2 transport to review for the website Stereo Times. I was very curious to assess its performance because it uses the Pro 8 drive with the Blue Tiger CD-84 servo card. This drive was developed and built by StreamUnlimited a company started by the original Phillips designers that historically built the finest CD mechanisms. Only two other companies use the StreamUnlimited 8 drive and Blue Tiger CD-84 servo card, their pieces cost $16,000 and $39,000 compared to Pro-Ject's sane price of $3,000!

My reference for the last two years has been the excellent Jay's Audio MK-II transport that had out-performed much more expensive highly regarded transports in my system. Well, across every sonic parameter  (transparency/micro-details-overall dynamics/bottom-end extension/purity of tonality- a much more airy sound-stage with wonderful 3D imaging) compared to the Jay's Audio transport.

That's way I titled this thread a "phenomenal new CD transport" because while not inexpensive, it just might be a bargain based on its performance. Mind you, this superlative level of performance is based on using the switching power supply that Pro-Ject ships the transport with. I have shortly coming a custom 20 watt 3 amp linear power supply from Linear Tube Audio and Pro-Ject's own upgraded power supply to see if the RS2 transport performance will even go to a higher qualitative level of performance.

I'll be writing a full detailed review for Stereo Times in the near future. However, I wanted to share this information to GON members who still spin CDs. I have had numerous CD transports in for evaluation and this just might be the best sounding of all of them.

Teajay (Terry London)




amorstereo
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
11,226 posts
 
Sounds like maybe the limiting factor in the old CD vs Streaming debate was the transport, and in most cases that I've read, the CD still won out. Now with this CDT that reads better than all that's come before it, will it lead to a revival of the CD and the simplification of the DAC to the point that just using the one in the preamp (or integrated) will suffice?

Just my usual, meandering thoughts....🤪

All the best,
Nonoise
fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,645 posts
 
I rip all my CDs for convenience but when I seriously want the best SQ I play them. Not a big enough diff with my old NAD to bother.
ghdprentice
8,130 posts
 
I fairly recently got a top notch streamer and am happily saying goodbye to my wall of 2,000 CDs. Also, over the decades CD transports have shown themselves to re pretty unreliable. Still have my 2,000 LPs and will continue to casually collect those.
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,855 posts
 
Just to add a little meat/info to this thread the RS2 sells for $3K.

DeKay
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