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

I have no issue with the remote either.  It does need to be pointed directly at the unit though.

I had this happen once with a piece during a demo period. You had to be no farther than 7ft away and no farther than a 10 or 20 degree angle from the receiver… Unfortunately I didn’t hear about a fix after that but one thing you could try is to make sure that both remote and receiver on the unit are clean and with no crumbs of something obstructing the signal, if that’s even a thing for this type of signal. 

The remote isn’t great. I often have to go press buttons twice. 
It’s a minor point for me though given the astonishing sound quality. 

@ridoves 

+1. I'd give the remote a grade of B for functionality.   The CD transport gets an A+ for sound quality. 

Charles 

I am seriously looking at buying the Pro-ject Cdt based on all the great feedback from owners on this thread.  Here's  my question: I was originally going to put alot more of my budget into a DAC and spend about $500 - $1000 on the transport.  With a total budget of $5k - $6k does it make sense to get the Pro-ject  or spend the bulk of the budget on the dac?