Some "interesting" claims by Pro-Ject re: their new CD transport box...

[patient_ot]

Actual Redbook CD players have gotten rare, real high-end mechanisms aren‘t even existing anymore. Today, we know that the drive is essential for reading all the 16 bits out of a CD and most CD players have never seen more than 10 bits. The CD medium might have gotten an unfavorable reputation as a result, which is why it is time to create a perfect, top-class CD transport again.

https://www.project-audio.com/en/product/cd-box-rs2-t/

Figured someone here could tackle this. Sounds very dubious to me.

 

[House de Kris]

I wonder when Pro-Ject published that page. This is the second audio forum posting I've seen TODAY about their patently false claim.

 

[PierreV]

I think they are hijacking the loudness wars for their marketing but I think their language obfuscates reality. What they really want to say is this



Old CD

Vinyl

New Project CD

 

[Cosmik]

For people who like ideas, they may enjoy finding out that even the original CD players in 1983 were immune to the quality of their transports because the transport was slaved to the DAC and the bits it provided were queued up in a FIFO and read out at precisely the right moment. The principle was/is *perfect*.

The original CD player behaved no differently from a modern DAC drawing on data from a solid state drive or whatever. It may have been partly mechanical and optical, but by hybridising it with electronics, it behaved as a pure, perfect, electronic device.

 

[mansr]

Actual Redbook CD players have gotten rare, real high-end mechanisms aren‘t even existing anymore. Today, we know that the drive is essential for reading all the 16 bits out of a CD and most CD players have never seen more than 10 bits. The CD medium might have gotten an unfavorable reputation as a result, which is why it is time to create a perfect, top-class CD transport again.

https://www.project-audio.com/en/product/cd-box-rs2-t/

Figured someone here could tackle this. Sounds very dubious to me.

It's obviously utter bollocks. Every drive ever made has read every last bit of data from the disc. It's impossible to do it any other way.

 

[SIY]

Well, if you're trying to sell something for $3000 that does absolutely nothing that can't be done for $20, you have to lie a little bit, at least. C'mon, guys, you need to be more understanding.

 

[invaderzim]

Well, if you're trying to sell something for $3000 that does absolutely nothing that can't be done for $20, you have to lie a little bit, at least. C'mon, guys, you need to be more understanding.

I am really torn as to how I feel about this. On the one hand the crazy expensive audio is nuts but on the other there are a lot of people that won't buy the inexpensive, quality option simply because it is inexpensive. If you want to reach them and their deep pockets you have to sell the crazy.

 

[solderdude]

But.... I read somewhere that all transports sound different.

Now it is all clear to me.. this MUST caused by the amount of bits they read and how they read it.
I might have owned dyslexic transports.

 

[Samoyed]

Yet there does remain a correlation, generally, between price and quality.

 

[VintageFlanker]

As far I'm concerned, I owned the previous version, The Pro-Ject CD BOX RS.
I kept it 3 days before sending it back. For 1200€, the build quality and the screen were just unacceptable. I stopped to give it a chance when some CD regularly cut during playback while my old Denon DCD still worked like a charm.

Before claiming such BS about bits, Pro-Ject should better learn how to design and build a RELIABLE CD Transport.

 

[SIY]

Yet there does remain a correlation, generally, between price and quality.

Not in fashion, no.

 

[Willem]

I truly fail to understand why anyone would still buy a cd player or transport when you can have a multi format UHD Bluray player that will also allow you to watch opera rather than just listen to it.

 

[mansr]

I truly fail to understand why anyone would still buy a cd player or transport when you can have a multi format UHD Bluray player that will also allow you to watch opera rather than just listen to it.

Maybe they don't like opera.

 

[SIY]

Or buy a CD drive off Amazon for $15-20. Then rip the CDs and play them off your tablet or computer like a true He Man Audiophile.

 

[JJB70]

I like it when companies self advertise themselves as being full of BS like this, it makes it easier to identify the lying scam artists preying on the gullible and tweako golden ear types.

 

[House de Kris]

HA! I've got a CD player so good it routines gets more than 16 bits off of the CD. It averages about 17.2 bits, but the highest I've ever measured was 19.74 bits. Obviously, that was a labor-of-love production from a small audiophile company with a limited run.

 

[amirm]

Hmmm:

Turntable? Are they not clear about whether they are building a CD player or turntable?

 

[Soniclife]

I like the way they are suggesting that the bits get physically smaller and smaller as their value goes down, and the smaller bits are so small normal players cannot focus on them properly. I can only imagine such nonsense was made up by someone who really has no idea how CD works, it's impressively divorced from reality.

 

[Soniclife]

Yet there does remain a correlation, generally, between price and quality.

Yes, overpriced reinvented solutions to solved problems are worse. What's the chance this has great long-term reliability?

 

[SIY]

I can only imagine such nonsense was made up by someone who really has no idea how CD works...

I would imagine it was made up by someone who understands that his intended audience has no idea how CD (or digital audio in general) works.