Pro-Ject CD Box RS2 T CD Transport
REFERENCE AUDIO – WITHAM ESSEX
BOB’s Review Series - No 38 – Pro-Ject CD Box RS2 T CD Transport
Introduction – Pro-Ject are probably best known to most audiophiles for their extensive range of turntables, but they do also make several ranges of electronics including phono stages, DACs, Amps and pretty much everything else, they even have a range of speakers listed on their website. They have also been making CD players for some time and a couple of years ago they launched the CD Box RS2 T Transport and a matching DAC Box RS2 which supports MQA. I only had the Transport available for this review.
The RS2 T retails at £2,150 (at the time of writing) and the matching RS2 Pre DAC is £1,750 but there is also a version of the DAC with a preamp and volume control built in at extra cost. Both the transport and DAC are half width units. They come in silver or black finish and the Transport has a large LCD screen that can display black on white or white on black track numbers and text including track information when available on the CD.
Technology – This is a very small CD Transport with an external 20V power supply, and it measures 206mm wide, 78mm high and 210mm deep including sockets and weighs 3kg without power supply. It is a top loading device so ideally needs to sit at the top of the rack or on a shelf that allows the hinged lid to open requiring a shelf height of at least 300mm. It can read all CD formats including CD-R and CD-RW and of course the CD only layer of a hybrid SACD discs (but not of course actual SACD) and utilises a small puck to clamp the disc to the transport before closing the lid.
The very clear screen shows the number of tracks and CD duration when the disc is stopped or first loaded and the track number playing and track duration when in play mode. The display can be set as white text on a black background or black text on a white background (the former looks much better in my opinion), and the brightness has 10 levels of selectable brightness. It comes supplied with a small and nicely made all aluminium remote control.
As this is a CD Transport and not a player the rear panel only has digital outlets in the form of 1 balanced AES/EBU on XLR, 1 Optical TOSlink, 1 Coaxial on RCA and 1 HDMI connector that can only be used with the matching Pro-Ject Pre Box RS2 DAC. For this review I used the XLR connection into my PS Audio DAC not having the Pro-Ject DAC to hand. The rear panel also contains the 3 pin 20V mains connection that only works with the supplied power supply although there is also an add on higher quality PSU available to power the Transport at £399 although I believe Pro-Ject are working on an upgraded replacement.
Notwithstanding all the above it’s the CD transport used in the RS2 T that is the outstanding element here. It’s called the Pro 8 and was designed by StreamUnlimited in Austria using the knowledge and experience gained by the original Phillips design team and it uses a carbon fibre turntable housed within the aluminium chassis of the RS2 T. The Transport utilises the Blue Tiger CD-84 servo card and I understand that very few manufacturers are currently using this advanced transport and servo card but one of those featured in one of my recent review series, the Gryphon Ethos CD/DAC which costs a cool £32,500. The other one comes from Germany and costs around £8,000. All three are top loaders with small disc clamps. Pro-Ject mount the transport mechanism and carbon fibre turntable in a solid aluminium case and suspend it on an anti-vibration system to reduce the influence of external noise and vibration.
System Components used in this Review:
Preamp: Gryphon Essence Preamp
Power Amplifier: Gryphon Essence Stereo Power Amp
Digital Sources: Innuos Statement Streamer – Meridian 201 CD Transport
DAC: PS Audio Perfect Wave DS DAC
Analogue Sources: Meridian 204 Tuner and Revox B77 MKII Reel to Reel
Speakers: Marten Mingus Quintet
Performance – ‘The Wind That Shakes the Barley’ by The Dead Can Dance (Labyrinth) showcased Lisa Gerrard’s vocals and the RS2 T delivered them with far more emotion than I had heard before. Clear, powerful, sparkling and crisp came to mind but at no point was the presentation overly bright. This Transport, like a great cartridge does with vinyl digs deeper into the layers on the CD to extract more information for the attached DAC to resolve.
The RS2 T encourages you to listen to whole albums from start to finish, not just single tracks but this is where all CD Players excel over streaming which does tend to encourage track hopping. I listened to the entire Convergence album by Malia and Boris Blank and thoroughly enjoyed every track. The title track had strong weighty bass with rock solid central vocals and the ability to let you hear right into the track with ease and allowing me to pick out and track individual instruments even those synthesised ones. For instance, the background cymbals on ‘Embraceable Moon’ were clearly definable where lesser transports or players tend to make them recede into the background mix. ‘Claire Cadillac’ was beyond 3D in soundstage width with an almost holographic sound image.
Dire Straits ‘The Bug’ (On Every Street) is a fast-paced dynamic track that some players find hard to keep pace with, but not the RS2 T. The little Pro-Ject dealt with this with clarity, sparkle, and bass slam without over egging any part of the track, even at high volume levels. From the same album ‘Iron Hand’, a more laidback song was presented with a vast soundstage, deep tuneful bass, and haunting backing vocals to great effect, I just had to play it again.
Listening to Eric Church’s ‘Desperate Man’ was like hearing it for the first time such was the level of detail and involved, like opening a window on a spring morning after a hard winter. Everything just seemed more alive with increased detail, depth, dynamics and subtlety, a breath of fresh air.
Conclusion – This diminutive little box can float a rock-solid soundstage like few other transports or players can achieve let alone match. The RS2 T will redefine your view on just how good CD replay can be. The use of the very special Pro 8 transport surely has a lot to do with the amazing performance.
It is clearly a bargain and should be considered and/or auditioned no matter your budget for a state-of-the-art CD player or Transport nearly 40 years after CD first arrived in the UK. Very highly recommended. This one is a keeper.
Bob – Team Reference Audio