Currently talking about getting another one from that Duncan guy.

Have to disagree with you on Sony audio from LD players.

My MDP-A3 had issues playing the non AC-3 analog track of most Dolby Digital LDs without horrible static. Never had that issue with Panasonic or Pioneer.

My friend's MDP-333 had the same issue.

And of course, the dark, murky image that seems endemic of Sony LD players.

But hey, if you're not having these issues, more power to you.

That's why most audiophiles prefer coaxial to optical. Less "jitter"

On the opt vs coax...I prefer a cd player with good dacs built in. I don't like the transport + outboard dac setups unless they have proprietary connections that carry the clock signal. Even then it's still more ideal to have everything in one box with shorter leads, less prone to dropped digits.

I hear that. The Pioneer Elite SACD/DVD-Audio player I have kicks major audio a** with just regular ol' CDs with the analog outs.

one of the finest non-ELITE 1980's PIONEER models, 1988 CLD-3030.
the first LD player i ever saw that was love at first sight, on the BAY back around 2001. still have the photo from the old listing;



some years later, around 2007 or so, i finally got my opportunity to obtain a copy, got the original photo for that listing as well;



my personal 3030, rebuilt and lightly modded;




a couple of nice gifts DUNCAN HUNTER/ LDSERVICE generously sent me, not long before he dropped off the radar;

I hear that. The Pioneer Elite SACD/DVD-Audio player I have kicks major audio a** with just regular ol' CDs with the analog outs.

there is a good explanation for it. The digital signal is really 3 signals and a ground. So 4 lines of wires needed. You got the clock signal, left/right trigger and the data stream (and a common ground). both coax and opt are data stream only and ground. Clock and l/r are formatted into the datastream. if there were no losses and errors(due to losses) during the transfer of this signal, you could potentially reconstruct the clock and l/r on the spdif recievers but there is always losses. In one box solutions, there is no conversion to spdif. all 4 leads connect directly into the dac chip as Is2. They typically share the same clock and because they are only inches away from each other, the losses are much lower.

I honestly like the older burr browns. PCM1704 to be specific. Denon DVD-5000 has a pair of these dac chips. it's DVD playback ability is a joke for today's standards but as a CD player its one of the best for the money. It is one of the rare players that has digital inputs. You can actually feed your LD player into it and have the PCM1704s decode your PCM sound. These are true 24 bit r2r ladder type chips. Burr Brown (and all others) discontinued multibit dacs after this chip. All new chips use over and up sampling to mimic multibit chips but they are actually single bit dacs.

I always assumed it's pretty simple, you should use the best DAC you have in your rack. So, if your CDP has the superior DAC, analog outs to amp, if not then digital to your best DAC.

I have a Sony CDP-991 but imo the DAC is inferior to the one in my Sony JB-980 QS Minidisc deck, therefore I go digital to that. Same with LD, I let the JB980 clean up the sound before it goes to my amp.

There are obviously knowledgeable people here. Perhaps Substance or somebody could comment on the DACs in my units?

I do the same thing for my LD captures.

I use a CLD-97 to capture music videos off of LD, but the CLD-97 has only a 1-bit DAC. So I feed the digital out to my Yamaha Minidisc deck which has a 20-bit DAC. Much better results for video/audio capture.

Specs: 1-Bit current pulse S-TACT DAC, 1-Bit Sigma-Delta ADC (24 bit sampling), Frequency Response: 5-20kHz +/-0.3dB, SNR >100dB

http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MDS-JB980.html