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
https://www.project-audio.com/en/product/cd-box-rs2-t/
I love my Rega Apollo2 a lot and for $1100 it’s a deal imo (and I love top-loaders). I’d be very interested in this Pro-ject if I wanted to spend more, but I have ripped all 600+ of my CDs and now stream them via a Roon server.

@lalitk

The most expensive thing I did was to sell my Raysonic 128, which I used the volume control direct into my amps with a matched set of Russian tubes. After a couple years, I replaced it with the Raysonic 228. Now, the 228 was an amazing 2 box beauty, and a big improvement (MSRP $4800) but it started skipping right at the time Raysonic was folding its tent

My player for the last 4 years is a Oppo 105, but about 2 years ago I upgraded the power supply to one I bought on ebay, plus a Rhodium IEC with pure silver tail conection to the power supply and a silver jumper to bypass the 110/220 switch. Tremendous improvement. There's one for sale that has EVS mods also

Gotta laugh at Audio Troy. If he was a MSB, Esoteric, Luxman, Gryphon dealer he would be telling you how wonderful all their Disc Spinners/Dac's are!!  Unfortunately he only carries MID-FI brands and is "selling his book" as usual.

  Not everybody wants/needs to have a Laptop connected to their audio system.  Most of your streaming services use Highly Compressed/Loudness War mixes from the 90's to present that they are supplied by the labels. Usually...not always...the ORIGINAL Digital Masters used to make the Compact Discs back in the 80's have the best fidelity by far.  Thats why the original pressings cost so much money to obtain now in many instances.  REMASTERED rarely means better for the past 30 years.  Just means Louder, Harder and Compressed.  Why spend 50-100K on an Audio System and then Feed it Sub Par Recordings?? 
riaa_award_collectors_on_facebook

“Not everybody wants/needs to have a Laptop connected to their audio system.”

Well said. Spot on.