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
The individual who purchased my Jay's Audio transport MK-II is waiting for the new board replacement that would bring the transport to a MK-3 status. As soon as he gets it, I'll let you guys know how it compares to the Pro-Ject transport driving the same DAC (s) in my systems. This hopefully will be next week vs months away.


@amorstereo (Terry),
thanks for the info, that's really great, I'm looking forward to your outcome of the comparison, very exciting.
That’s great to hear Teajay. With less B&M dealers and a seemingly shrinking number of demo-able / trial period brands, we need more ‘philes to team up and plan comparisons. 
@amorstereo Any chance you would be able to compare the recently release PS Audio SACD Transport anytime soon? :)
Is there any way to program tracks with the Pro-ject? I looked at the manual on their website, and couldn’t find anything.