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

Showing 7 responses by in_shore

Riaa I don’t know Dave of Audio Intellect from a hole in the ground however reading your attack on Dave and his business is a little much , kinda nutty as a matter of fact ,.LOL 

What digital connection and dacs you owners of the RS2 transport using ? Many thanks ,,
I do have a RS2 T on its way the dealer happened to get one from the distributor apparently wait time for one from the manufacturer is a long one.
Anyway I have a large collection of CDs and I like physical collection has anyone directly compared a well recorded ripped CD off a server to an actual CD played on the RS2 ? 
Thank you for your response jaudio1 , I take. delivery of my RS2T next week , it’ll be interesting to directly compare it to ripped CDs out of a 432 Evo Aeon at three times to retail price of the Project transport.
Essrand I am floored how good the RS2 sounds , I use a Holo Audio May KTE dac with the option of configurable i2s , no luck . Project must use a specific pin out only for their brand as stated .
Im using coax . The 432 Evo Aeon i had was the full option model at $8500.00 ,it’s sold .
Wig & Charles ,yes I’m sure of my findings ,there’s a lot to be said about the RS2 yet and I’m sure Terry London will lay it out with his up and coming full review of this transport.
I’ll say this if anything falls into the category of “price has no bearing on performance” it is the RS2 transport….