Got a transport/cd player with a Phillips CD Pro 2 drive?

I’ve been an AG member now for some 20 years and have started probably less than 5 new threads in that time. But I’ve come across a new product that many here might find to be most interesting, especially if you own a cd player or transport equipped with the ubiquitous Phillips CD Pro 2 drive mechanism, the darling of the digital manufacturing arena for what must have been a full generation.

A little background first. I bought a new Accustic Arts Drive 1 transport in 2003. I still have it and it has been an absolute rock. Other than the blue LEDs which bathe the interior of the machine where the drive mechanism resides, it has never once failed to deliver. But it is getting a bit long in the tooth so I started looking into the possibility of a replacement around the time when the Project RS2T came out (and accompanied by much fanfare in dedicated threads here on AG) and, from perusing those threads, came to be made aware of the new Stream Unlimited CD Pro 8 drive and Sanyo blue tiger laser it was fitted with. Everyone who heard one was extolling the virtues of this new combo and I decided that it would be the front runner combo in any new transport that I would consider. But, as time passed, QC issues surfaced with the Project and, summarily, it was pulled from the US market. In retrospect, I wouldn’t have picked up the RS2T anyway because, at about 6 pounds, the build is just too insubstantial when compared to the likes of Accustic Arts, which tips the scales at about 13 kgs. and I’d read some comments to the effect that some users were having trouble with heavy power cords actually pulling the RS2T out of position on their racks/shelves. So who else has incorporated the CD Pro 8 into their build. It turns out that several other mfrs. have...Audionet, Aqua, Accustic Arts, Gryphon, the just released Totaldac and a high end transport out of Poland, the brand name escapes me at the moment, and doubtless, a couple others I’ve glossed over. Unfortunately, they’re all big bucks (the Totaldac is the least expensive at $7500 US) and a tad rich for my retired blood. I’d buy the new Accustic Arts reference Drive 2 in a heartbeat but $22000 is a pipe dream for me. So, at that point, it was on to plan B.

I’d read in some transport thread here on AG the company Enco Systems out of Oak Park Mi. (not the Enco in Novi, Mi.) is a source for OEM replacement Phillps drives and OPUs. To make a long story short, because of the specific OPU used in conjunction with my particular serial number Phillips drive, I could only obtain a replacement laser mechanism and not the drive itself. None of those exact drive were still available. I bought a spare laser for down the road. That was about two years ago. A few months ago I started to wonder whether I should just go ahead and replace the OEM laser on my transport or not and posed a question here on AG asking if anybody knew if lasers generally decline with age or do they continue to perform as new until the day they just up and die. Nobody was able to address that question so I decided to call back Enco and ask Chris, who sold me the replacement, if he knew the answer and he confessed he really didn’t. We continued to chat for a while longer and, in the course of the conversation, I casually mentioned that I was looking into a new transport fitted with the SU CD Pro 8 and had he ever heard of it. And that brings us (finally, you say) to the point of this post.

Chris (at Enco) said he most certainly had and that he was in a new business relationship with a Dr. Francesco Volpe (volpeaudio.de) who was directly involved in the R&D of the CD Pro 8 and has been involved in this line of work for some 30 years. Further, Dr. Volpe (he is also a professor at a German univ.) was just wrapping up a project he had undertaken to bring to market  a higher performance drop in replacement drive mechanism dubbed the Volpe audio CD Pro V (for Volpe) that can be retrofitted to virtually any player/transport OEM equipped with the CD Pro 2 drive. Dr. Volpe initially prototyped his new drive using the CD Pro 8’s approach but decided to abandon that strategy at a certain point in that it was too limiting/compromised for what he wanted come out with (I’m a bit sketchy on these details so, FWIW)

I decided to become patient zero, so to speak, and ordered the first unit in the world sold at retail (so I’m told). I was a tad skittish about being the first but I was given a two week return privilege so I felt more at ease with the situation. I do not know if this will be a condition of future retail transactions. I am not going to get into all of the technical aspects of the build as I’m not qualified but I will say it is built on a stainless steel architecture, incorporates RAM which obviates the need for a suspension and implements a cd only laser as opposed to a cd/dvr type laser (like, I’m told, the $10 Sanyo is). You can contact Enco for more complete information.

My tech who performed the swap said it was a piece of cake with no glitches or hiccups. He also replaced all of my blue LEDs while he was at it. Chris @ Enco has informed me that he is working out an arrangement whereby buyers can send their units to a business in the northeast for the swap out in case they cannot find a local service to handle the task.

I do not know if there is any "break in" applicable to this drive. I love my music but do not listen on a daily basis and I would estimate that I have put about 15-20 hours total on it. With that in mind, here are some of my listening impressions to date. You will not get wild, over the top, hyperbole from me. I will be restrained and in control and everything I relate will be duly weighed and considered. And I’m going to try to be as brief as possible as this has seemingly gotten a little bit out of hand and I apologize for that.

The job of the transport is to lift as much of the total available "information" from the pits as possible. That’s it, as I see it. If I had to describe what the CD Pro V is doing, it is, without a doubt, extracting more of that information. Compared to the CD Pro 2 I find negligible, if any, difference in timbre or tonality. The biggest difference is the degree of detail I am hearing and an overall increase in resolution/transparency. Overall, the musical construct is more precisely defined and dynamics seem to be slightly elevated compared to the Pro 2. Air, space, dimensionality, weightiness, decay trails, textural shifts, vocal inflection, timing cues all seem to be more fully fleshed out and informed. Every now and then a certain sound will just hang in a space all its own like I’ve never heard heretofore. None of these individual characteristics hit you like a sledgehammer but, collectively, they are most apparent and elevate the overall musical experience. I could go on and on but I hate it when people start to dissect certain songs to talk about a certain note or phrase that they’ve heard a thousand times before but it was never like it is this time with component X in the chain. 90% of the time I have no familiarity with the work they are referencing.

On a final note, I’ve never heard a SU CD Pro 8 fitted machine so, obviously, I can draw no comparisons. Dr. Volpe seems to feel that his drive surpasses it and well it may but I cannot say. What I can say is that for a smidgeon over 20% of the cost of the new Total DAC transport I decided it was a no brainer to give the CD Pro V a ride. As long as the CD Pro 2 was being used by so many OEMs, there’s got to be a boatload of DOA transports/players out there that could be resurrected with the fitment of this drop in replacement unit. I think it would make sense for the owners of these machines to investigate the possibilities of bringing their boat anchors back to life.

Disclaimer: I have ABSOLUTELY NO affiliation or any common business interests with either Volpe Audio or Enco Systems. None. Nada. Zip.