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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
amorstereo OP
64 posts
 
Hey Tom,
Including the height of the transport chassis you will need about 10 inches with the lid wide open to comfortably change discs. You could get away with maybe a few inches shorter,but you would have to be much more attentive/careful when placing the CD and clamp during operation for the next disc.
toolbox149
263 posts
 
Teajay;
Thank you.  Unfortunately, that may be a deal breaker.  Especially since I really love my Jays CDT2 Mk2.  I probably will just move up the Jays line. Thanks to you I have the Jays in my system and the sound has been superb. So, a little more Jays goodness might be exactly what I would want anyway.  
I’m just having a difficult time figuring out which Jays I want to try.

Thanks again,
Tim
essrand
297 posts
 
My dealer says the RS2 is no longer available till November because they are going through some optical drive issues with their current production.
Can anyone else confirm this?
Am dying to buy one :)
tommylion
874 posts
 
My dealer says the RS2 is no longer available till November because they are going through some optical drive issues with their current production.
Can anyone else confirm this?
Am dying to buy one :)

Don't know if this is true or not, but, if it is, maybe they could use this opportunity to add track programming? Still shaking my head at that omission.
jaudio1
121 posts
 
I just read a post on another forum complaining about excessive noise coming from some of these pro-ject rs2 transports. For the people that own them can you comment if you have heard any excessive noise when spinning disc’s ? 
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