I always wanted a high end laserdisc player for several reasons.

1) My collection has grown to be very large and I had concerns about the longevity of my existing machines although those concerns have been alleviated somewhat from the communication that has been possible via this forum - thanks Julien for making this possible.

2) I wanted to digitise using the best possible equipment my most watched/popular music titles so I could reduce wear and tear on my laserdisc machines. As a music collector I tend to flick through the tracks in my collection changing sides, scanning through very frequently - it is just the nature of a music collector! I would expect this to more harsh on a player than a film fan who perhaps watches the disc in its entirety without skipping through chapters.

I'd contemplated several times about importing a better machine from Japan but for one reason or another never got round to it. The main factor was really the total cost which is substantially more if you reside in the UK (as I do) so would have to pay import duties. I also had major concerns about shipping such a delicate piece of equipment half way across the planet not to mention the expense of doing so.

So in late November 2011 when a seller was listing a Pioneer HLD-X9 (my dream machine) for sale in the UK I could not resist putting in a bid on Ebay.
Really I didn't think I stood a chance of winning it as I know there is steep competition every time one was listed. In this particular instance there was no reserve on the player which is quite rare.

To my amazement I actually won the player which I was delighted about as the price was well below anything I could ever purchase from independent sellers in Japan or even Yahoo Japan Auctions. My concern then shifted to how was I going to get this device to N. Ireland since the seller resided on mainland UK. I had thought about driving my car over via the ferry, but in the end I decided to ship it. I was VERY worried about the possibility of it getting damaged particularly due to its weight - 17kg for just the player alone with no packaging.

I contacted the seller and offered very detailed guidance on how best to pack the unit based on my own experience of shipping almost 20 LD players.
I also posted an entry to LDDB.com with regard to parking the laser in the HLD-X9 unit - thanks to all who replied with any advice they could offer as this was invaluable.

I paid the seller immediately for the player but stressed to them that I wanted them to take their time and ensure they had all the necessary packaging materials ready before shipping the unit. In fact I allowed a good 3+ weeks to elapse with regular communication with the seller on how things were going. Luckily the seller had the original box and all the original foam inserts and other packing materials. This was a good starting point although I would never use just that box alone to ship such a player as it is no where near strong enough.

Getting hold of a second box to double box the unit proved very difficult so the seller proceeded to make an outer box themselves. This took some considerable time as initially the outer box was so big as to be almost impossible to lift. So it was slimmed down somewhat but still provided a generous layer of protection all round the player. The cardboard in the outer box was very strong (from a subwoofer box apparently) so would have been difficult for anything to penetrate through. A large 2 inch thick slab of solid polystyrene was used as the base. The original Pioneer box was then placed centrally and the sides filled with further sheets of polystryene, bubblewrap and thick card. Everything was firmly held in place and could not move 1mm in any direction. A second large slab of polystryrene foam was then placed on the top and the box sealed. The box was covered in thick plastic so if it got damp during transit the strength of the box would not be compromised. Finally it was covered in labels advising item was VERY FRAGILE - HANDLE WITH CARE and also THIS WAY UP!! so orientation was clear to anyone handling.

All of this work was photographed and even several little videos with a phone were produced by the seller which I got to see BEFORE the unit was shipped. This allowed me to double check everything was to my satisfaction.

As anyone in the UK who has some US or Japanese electrical equipment will know I also needed a transformer. I needed this as soon as possible so I could verify the player actually worked correctly upon arrival so this was included in the deal by the seller as a convenience. The transformer was unbelieveably heavy so needed to be packaged very carefully itself. Also included was a free MUSE disc - this was carefully packed in the second outer box housing the LD player so as not to interfere with the player packaging.

Both parcels arrived this morning shipped via ParcelForce 48 as Royal Mail cannot fully insure an item of this value. I was very nervous about the shipping as I know laserdisc players do not travel well unless properly packed. The box was so heavy I could only carry it 2 feet on my own and just had to set it down. I would guess it weighed nearly 30kg! It took a staggering 2.5 hours to carefully cut through, unpack and inspect everything. I used a vacuum cleaner mid way before opening the original Pioneer box so there was no risk of polystyrene debris getting inside the player.

Initial observations were that the unit looked pristine - the cleanest LD player I have ever purchased in fact and I am very fussy collector. Even fingerprints annoy me! I know this player had at least two previous UK owners prior to me. All I can say is both previous owners treated this particular unit with the utmost respect as it was absolutely beautiful condition throughout. I will be doing likewise as this player will be getting the red carpet treatment in my home!

So on I proceeded to plug in the transformer and plug in the unit. It was a tense moment when I turned on the player with the remote. The display illuminated, did not display any error codes and the tray opened which was a good start. So I selected a laserdisc from a collection of junk titles - there is no point putting my favourite disc in before I have verified it can actually play discs without scratching them as happened me with a faulty player in the past. No unusual sounds were heard and it appeared to be playing the disc. So far so good. The player was able to change sides and could skip forward/backward through chapters. I then tried an 8" LD and it also worked fine. At this point I was then ready to transfer the unit from my Kitchen table to properly test video and audio playback through my existing AV equipment. Luckily my TV CRT setup did not need to be unravelled as it had a row of video and audio sockets conveniently located on a panel on the front of the TV which I could utilise for a test. Pity they don't do this with LCDs/plasma's which are a real pain to rejig. Given I knew the player was not going to eat my laserdiscs, I then selected a sample of more representative discs which I knew inside out having watched them hundreds of times. These were my favourite discs which I consider reference discs for checking playback as I know exactly what to expect. Playback of all of these discs also passed with flying colours. The video looked sharper and more detailed than I have ever seen with any of my existing laserdisc players.

So at this point I now have a beautiful Pioneer HLD-X9 to add to my main system. I expect to carry out much more detailed test comparisons and tweaks over the coming months. My other players will still remain my everyday machines as this is way too good a machine for everyday usage however I will use this for recording some of my most treasured laserdiscs to either DVD, harddisk or blu-ray to reduce usage on the LD players. I have no plans to ever sell my master laserdiscs though - rest assured they are not going anywhere as I have grown far too attached to this format!

Way cool!!! Nice one.

That's awesome man! Congrats