I recently acquired a Pioneer Elite CLD-95. (I already own an Elite CLD-97 and 99, as well as a D-704.) I was expecting the picture quality to be a bit below that of the CLD-97. However, PQ on the 95 looked washed out compared with that of the 97 and 99. Whereas areas that appeared black on disc when played in the 97 or 99 looked like middle grey when played on the 95. Is this normal? Or does this player need to be repaired?

Sounds like someone messed with a pot in the player that controls brightness on the video output. If that is the case, probably nothing major to work on (I assume everything else works fine mechanically and audio wise). I would see about getting the service manual to see what adjustments you can make.

Can you not calibrate it out on your set? I’d certainly try that before opening the player.

Very sad that others start tinkering inside the players thinking there is some type of magic setting.

I do hope you can get it working as I had one for a little time and it was an amazing player, in someways better than the R7G.
Both were very close to my eyes using a top end CRT at the time.

This could be a fairly simple adjustment once you find the pot(s) you need to mess with.

I would set-up your CLD-97 alongside this CLD-95 (both on composite video) and if you have two discs w/ the same programming (or a set of TV series discs and just play the same opening credits on both players) you can try and eyeball the settings to get the brightness or other adjustment close what you would deem acceptable.