CD / SACD players and transports — Pro-Ject CD Box DS3

Announced in March 2022 and priced at USD 899 in the United States, the CD Box DS3 is a compact CD player from Pro-Ject Audio Systems built strictly for stereo Red Book CD-DA discs. Its torsion-resistant aluminium housing is designed to support the sensitive mechanics of the drive, and conversion is handled by a Texas Instruments PCM1796 chip. Pro-Ject says the player brings together the best features of its earlier CD models, and it is offered in silver or black. The company notes that its products have been handcrafted in Europe since 1991.

Key specs that matter

Frequency response is 20 Hz to 20 kHz within plus or minus 0.15 dB, and the noise floor is better than 105 dBA across 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Distortion is below 0.018% at the analogue outputs and below 0.005% on the digital side. The line output delivers 2 Vrms at 0 dBFS through one pair of RCA sockets. For digital connection there is a coaxial S/PDIF socket plus an optical Toslink port. The case measures 206 mm wide, 72 mm high and 194 mm deep, or 200 mm deep including the sockets, and the player weighs 1660 g without its power supply.

Engineering and use context

Reading is handled by the Blue Tiger CD-80 servo from Stream Unlimited, the same drive used in the CD Box RS2 T transport, which Pro-Ject describes as optimised for 1 to 1 playback of Red Book CDDA data. To keep vibration away from the mechanism, the drive rests on three soft suspension points, while a fourth, hard point channels high-frequency vibration into the chassis. Power comes from an external 18 V, 1 A DC supply, current draw is 300 to 600 mA in use and standby consumption is below 0.5 W. A remote control running on two AAA 1.5 V batteries is included. Discs are fed through a slot-loading mechanism, and a high contrast dot-matrix display on the fascia presents disc details alongside buttons for direct control. Pro-Ject presents the player as able to integrate with its existing DS2 components.

Pairing

The analogue RCA output at 2 Vrms matches the standard line input of most integrated amplifiers and preamplifiers. Anyone who already owns an outboard converter can skip the internal PCM1796 and send the data stream over coaxial or optical cable instead, so the CD Box DS3 can serve as a pure transport. Pro-Ject's own DAC Box RS2, with coaxial and Toslink inputs, is one such converter in the same case width.

Alternatives

Launched alongside it, the Pro-Ject CD Box S3 is a slot-loading CD player that uses a PCM5102 converter and offers an RCA analogue output with a coaxial S/PDIF output.