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

A question for those of you who have the RS2; have you found not being able to program tracks to be an issue at all?

I don't know about how others feel but for "me"  a non important feature. My listening pattern is playing the complete CD all the through. I could however  see where this feature matters to someone else. 

Charles 

I have no issue with not being able to program tracks.  Not sure I would ever use that feature if it was included.  If I didn’t want to hear a track I would just skip to the next track I wanted to hear.

@jaymark and @charles1dad   I am between the Jay's Audio CD2 Mk3 and the Project.   However, did anyone compare the NEW 2019 Jay's Audio CD2 Mk3 rather than the prior model Mk2?   Steve Guttenberg reviewed them both and found significant improvement in the Mk3 version sonically.   How close are they now as the Jay's is $2500 and the Project with LTA power is closer to $4,000 (with taxes)?

@fleschler 

Get in touch with @wig via Audiogon email. He had the  Jay's Audio CDT2 MK 3 version prior to getting the Pro-Ject RS2 transport. 

Charles 

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