Help narrowing down laserdisc players

John Dionysus

New Member
I've got a bunch of laserdisc players, and would appreciate any help/opinions on the relative merit of the different models. Are any clearly inferior? Maybe one excels in certain areas, where others do not?

I took a stab at what I think might be relative performance. I actually thought the Sony looked pretty good when I last checked it out. I've seen people slag Sony LDs, so perhaps I didn't look closely enough


Pioneer DVL90
Pioneer CLD-59
Pioneer CLD-D505

Panasonic LX200U
Sony MDP-750
 
Within the Pioneers, the CLD-59 is the clear winner. It's the lowest model on Josh Zyber's Recommended list, so it's already ahead of the game, even at the bottom (but the bottom of a premium list!). I own one, along with the CLD-D704 which everyone raves over. There is a difference picture-wise, but not all that much.

The '505 is an OK player, but significantly lower level. I'm not a fan of combo players like the DVL-90.

The Panasonic is likely decent, although I have no direct experience with it. The Sony? Meh.

As always, just my opinion, YMMV.
 
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I had a 505 and it was pretty good visually. I replaced it with a 704 and still thought well of the 505.
 
Within the Pioneers, the CLD-59 is the clear winner. It's the lowest model on Josh Zyber's Recommended list, so it's already ahead of the game, even at the bottom (but the bottom of a premium list!). I own one, along with the CLD-D704 which everyone raves over. There is a difference picture-wise, but not all that much.

The '505 is an OK player, but significantly lower level. I'm not a fan of combo players like the DVL-90.

The Panasonic is likely decent, although I have no direct experience with it. The Sony? Meh.

As always, just my opinion, YMMV.

Thanks, i'd not seen Zyber's site. Turns out the combo players like dvl-90 were compromised in both formats.
 
I agree about the CLD-59 Elite player. A very nice player. I still have one too (and a CLD-D504). Plus, along with your CLD-D505, the 59 has an AC-3 RF Output. That outputs an encoded Dolby Digital signal. You'll need an AC-3 decoder (similar to an outboard DAC), to pass the signal to your AVR. Though some older top of the line high end AVR's had built in AC-3 decoders.
 
A few thoughts on Stimpy's post:

The outboard AC-3 box is not a decoder, it's a demodulator. It extracts the encoded AC-3 signal and outputs it as a normal digital signal, so it still needs to be fed to a DAC(or a receiver with a digital input) for conversion.

The other thing to consider is that, in the grand scheme of laserdiscs, only the last few releases were AC-3 - perhaps 15-20%. Unless you have a fair amount of AC-3 encoded discs, the demodulator really isn't necessary. (Full disclosure: I do have a demodulator - the Lexicon LDD-1 - and that Dolby Digital sound on laserdiscs is impressive.)
 
Sorry that I didn't use the correct terminology. My mistake. And as to my AC-3 demodulator, it did have a built in DAC. So, no need for any extra boxes. Just RCA cables from my Yamaha DDP-1 into the multichannel inputs on my AVR.
 
It's all good, Stimpy - just didn't want to confuse the young'uns.

Now you've got my curiosity going. Can't recall that I've ever seen an AC-3 demodulator with a DAC - although my memory ain't whut it uze ta be.

Oh. Wait a sec. DDP-1! Heck, I used to own one of those.

Nevermind.:crazy::thumbsup:
 
I have a 704 a m90 but myfav is my marantz also have 372 laser discs many box sets and some rare
Ones like Robison caruso on mars plus every stars wars laser disc and star trek.but my fav is the
Thx wow disc and forbidden planet.the only maranta laser disc player I ever seen mint condition
5.00 at a garage sale years ago.
 
My favorite at the time was the CLD 95. Of course you could buy a nice pre-owned car for what they cost new. I have a DVL-919 and sending the signal to the MX 151 where its up sampled the picture looks pretty nice. I just have to increase the contrast a touch on the Kuro display.

Its amazing how good the picture can really look. I have one Pioneer disc recorded by a Jan=panese company of the Blue Angels and another with the SR-71 and both are spectacular.
 
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I have a Pioneer 701 that I purchased new back in the day. It spun some CDs (before I went SACD) but I don't recall ever playing a laser disk on it. It has been sitting in the cabinet for ??? years and I would part with it.
 
My Sony MDP-333 was garbage. It had a decent picture, but like every other Sony disc player I ever owned, it did not live long. (Why I was so stupid to keep on buying Sony is another story entirely. :D ) In this case, the laser needed replacement, and the replacement didn't work very well either, to the point where the laser actually came up and scratched a few discs. I still have that turd in my basement. Hate to throw it out, but nobody wants LDs anymore, especially not a nearly dead LD player.

Want ancient? I have an old Pioneer LD-660. Old. Damn near antique. Yes, it's just like this one:

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I owned a CLD 91 and a 93, now I have the combo 919. I always wanted a CLD 95, but who had that kind of money.
 
My last remaining LD is a DVL-700. Lousy DVD player (being such an early player, it had incompatibility issues with some DVDs), but does well enough for LDs. Haven't used it since 2007 though.
 
I still have around 10 LDs. I haven't been able to find DVD replacements for the price I want to spend. The priority is pretty low so I am being cheap about the whole process. One of these days when I decide to dump the DVD recorder, Svhs machine I just might dump the LD player, too. The is also a Nakamichi cassette or two to dispose of.

One problem I am having is usually the sound track mix on the DVD's is inferior to these particular LD's.
 
I owned a CLD 91 and a 93, now I have the combo 919. I always wanted a CLD 95, but who had that kind of money.
I had the Elite CLD-95 and it was a heavy machine, but I don't think it was that much better than the CLD-3070 I owned prior to it.

First player was the LD-1000.
 
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THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE
 
There are some music LDs that never made it to DVD, far as I know. Once I get a way to transfer these to digital, I will be able to watch them again. Pretty much everything in movies that I want is on BluRay now, so I don't need those. Sad thing is, I have some older LD movie releases that look truly awful. Those were the days before the films were restored for video release (even prior to the days of Criterion). With those, I could just save everyone the bother and send them to the landfill.
 
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