Aqua 'La Diva' ($9k) or Gryphon 'Ethos' ($39k) versus. Pro-Ject CD Box RS2 T ($3k)?


What sensible rationale is there for buying either of the two above-mentioned VERY COSTLY CD spinners (Aqua ’La Diva,’ a CD-only transport, and the Gryphon ’Ethos,’ a CD player with built-in DAC) when we can get the same pure Red-Book CD digital output from the Pro-Ject CD Box RS2 T for FAR less money?

What is a potential buyer getting for their significantly increased expenditure other than fancy packaging and possibly a boost to their egos from ownership of a prestige brand-name item? The one component (and a crucially-significant one at that) which all three of these products have in common is the new Philips-based Stream Unlimited CD Pro 8 CD player mechanism. Aside than that, what one appears to get with the two far-higher-priced components is little more than pure window-dressing, not substantive gains in performance over the CD Box RS2 T.

It is little wonder that one reviewer of the RS2 T thinks of it as nothing less than a "giant killer," in that it makes it nearly impossible for any level-headed purchaser, even one with the means to spend lavishly, to rationalize spending thousands of dollars more on these two competing products (or on others like them) when one can get the same sonic results (which from most reports are splendid) from the humble little CD Box.

Any thoughts? Do we audiophiles finally have good reason to come to our buying senses? To me, Pro-Ject Audio Systems may have struck a true winning vein with their CD Box when prospecting for gold.

128x128erictal4075
Post removed 
Post removed 

The YouTube video of the Swiss Albula Railway to which I posted a link in my comment above to illustrate how we can avoid being derailed off the primary topic in this thread (by placing the heavy electric locomotive at the FRONT of our train of thought in difficult weather conditions) is, in and of itself, a remarkable find and well worth viewing in its own right.

It never occurred to me, until I came across this video quite by chance, that someone somehow was motivated to and managed to get themself and their hi-rez 4k 2160p video camera on board the locomotive of a train as it began its journey through the Swiss Alps in midwinter.

The planning, surveying and engineering that went into the building of this world-heritage railway way back in 1903, is nothing less that spectacular. The builders, with the limited tools they had available to them at that time, nonetheless let nothing deter them from their determination to build their line to completion. If they ran head-on into an impassable mountain, they tunneled straight through it. If they reached a point where they had no choice but to gain or reduce altitude to continue along their surveyed route, they bored spiral tunnels inside a mountain, like a corkscrew, to solve the problem. They built massive stone viaducts across valleys, and snowsheds (galleries) above the tracks where avalanches were a constant threat. You get to see all this for yourself on this journey - if you choose to watch this video, be sure to start it at its beginning - YouTube has a way of landing viewers in the middle rather than at the starting point of its videos.

 

Post removed 
Post removed