lol, saw that earlier today, you can get them a hell of a lot cheaper on yahoo

Here is a mint in box, perfect HLD-X0 that only went for about $3800 on Yahoo Japan: http://y.aucfan.com/aucview/yahoo/k152051781/ Why pay $2k more, when you could probably arrange for a deputy in Japan to get one in the box like this, and save a fortune in the process? Or, there are places like HiFiDo that sell direct to the US and regularly offer X0's for sale, like this one they just sold for around $3500: http://www.hifido.co.jp/KWhld-x0/G1/E/0 ... -38441-00/

I have some money burning a hole in my pocket, and as such I am looking for an X0, and I plan to import one directly from Japan instead of paying such a huge markup. These examples show how little, relatively speaking, these bring in Japan.

But guys, it's the last listing ever!

wow its right in my area! too bad i dont have 6 g's laying around lol

If 6k is out of your league, there is a "Make Offer" button.
You can always try your luck a little :p

It looks like a couple of people tried that route and were both shot down by the seller.

I'm guessing that the seller is counting on that MUSE decoder to make the "package" worth the $6K, when most people I know wouldn't use it, because they don't have MUSE discs, which are still frightfully expensive.

TLK

Having the MUSE capability is nothing more than a curiosity at this point. The selection of MUSE titles does nothing for me: a few Hollywood flicks and some demo discs (cherry blossoms anyone?). T2 would be cool on a HD laserdisc, but not for the bucks. It's a shame the MUSE format wasn't supported by the anime studios. If Princess Mononoke had made it to the format, I would be the first to want a MUSE setup.

Even if i had money to burn i would never spend 6 g's on a LD player even if love the LD format!

true that, i would rather spend 6 g's on a trip to japan, or use it for collage

if i had a muse rig i would defenitly get dances with wolves and breakfast at tiffany's, wouldn't really care too much for the others

If I had a Muse rig, I'd hold out for T2, Stargate, Jurassic Park, and Back to the Future. Then I'd have to remortgage whatever house I'd be living in at that point to finance them

Well, if you can afford that player and decoder, you can definitely shell out a little more for this bundle of MUSE discs . . .

BUNDLE of 17 HD MUSE Laserdisc Titles (6 Movies, 11 Demo/Test Discs)

Let's say you import a "cheap" X0 from Japan, for around $3500. An LD-S2 can be had for around $500, and I wonder if the X0 really offers over $3000 worth of extra performance. Does the X0 noticeably beat the S2 in a side by side comparison? I imagine the updated electronics help the X0 a good deal, along with the red laser, but is there that much of a difference? The S2 shares the same heavy construction: with massive cast base, linear motor, and R-core transformers to name a few features. The X0 is a very nice player, and looks like the ultimate LD player based on its massive size, and I wonder if it lives up to its legend.

I'm curious about this, too, since I own two LD-S2s. The HLD-X0 certainly has a better comb filter than the S2, and it can play MUSE discs, but other than that, I don't know if there's any other advantage.

I just use composite with my 4:3 SONY KD-36XS955. I cannot imagine any other player looking better on my SONY display than its LD-S2. The comb filter on the SONY is excellent, which greatly minimizes my desire for an HLD-X0 at this point in my life.

TLK

Damn! did someone drop him and the disc's when they came out!

Since you own one, what do you think of The Perfect Visions comments on the LD-S2's problems with closed captioning and picture quality not being as good as the CLD-95 and 97? I'm curious because the S2 has always been considered an amazing player.

Sony's 3D comb filters are amazing.

Correction... I own two!

I've never seen a CLD-95 or CLD-97 on my display (or at all, for that matter). I can only compare it to a CLD-79, a CLD-1010, and a CLD-3070, and it beats them all to my eyes on the same display.

Kurtis and Duncan have seen pretty much every LD player that exists, and both favor the LD-S2 over the CLD-95 and CLD-97 by a marginal amount. When I wanted to upgrade from a CLD-79, I blindly took their word for the PQ of the LD-S2. I've not regretted my purchases ever.

TLK

95 have the multibit dac and 97 has the picture quality further improved from 95 but uses single bit dacs for sound. 97 is the lowest noise dual side player which retailed $2400. S2 is even lower noise but softer and single side. It retailed $3500 and an older design than 97.
On crt s2 is probably marginaly better. On modern displays I needed that 97s one tad higher sharpness and could live with little bit more noise. I think it was a good trade.
X0 has better colors from screenshots. Less noise than anything and sharp enough. That red laser should account for something not only better tracking. There was a picture on the net a few years ago. Darth vaders screen capture with color saturation boostedby a few times. Vaders helmet was still black on x0 and turned purplish on 704 from noise. X0 also has excellent dacs for sound but doesnt play cds

I've wondered if The Perfect Visions claims that the LD-S2 can't output closed captions due to not locking up the lines correctly were true and the the digital picture processing didn't have enough dynamic range and had digital pattern noise.

It got a great review in The Audio Critic except for the digital audio measurements, which didn't meet Pioneer's specs... It's DA audio converters give about 15-bit performance so connecting it to an outboard converter is the way to go.