The analog audio distorts on my player which is really irritating, especially since I like to watch anime which often has different languages on the analog/digital channels. I've noticed this on all of my discs except one, oddly enough (could just be a quiet recording?).

Interesting thing is, I notice it's much worse on the right channel. The left is still clipped but only on the peaks.

I guess my question is, is this normal or is my player just crap? I've noticed this since I got it way back in 1996 and I'm the second owner (first owner was seriously anal about looking after his equipment).

My player is a CLD-1750 if it makes any difference.

Have you tried different receivers, amplifiers, speakers, etc.? Do you have any other analog audio cables going to your TV, receiver, etc.?
I'm thinking perhaps if all your other sources use digital interconnects, it might just be a problem with how one of the components handles analog audio, but idk the details.
Or perhaps it's the cables?
Also, what discs do you notice this with?

I'm using a Samsung HDTV at the moment. It used to do this on both my analog TVs back in the day too so it's not a cabling/DSP issue (at least not externally). Analog audio obviously doesn't output through TOSLINK so for that I use my TV which reproduces the digital audio just fine.

I can't off the top of my head guarentee which discs do this for sure but I can tell you Tokyo Babylon 1 (USA) DOES do it and my Macross Plus 1 (USA) disc plays perfectly fine. IIRC the only disc I have which does.

So you're not using an external solution for sound? (i.e. you're using the TV's speakers)
If the LD player is the only possible culprit, I'd recommend PMing (or emailing) Kurtis (krbahr) (and I think his email was kbahr@comcast.net). Though it might be cheaper to just get a new player.

I use an 19" Panasonic monitor for adjusting players and the analog clips on that too. If I use headphones, if it has a headphone output, it doe snot clip. I have never had clipping in my sound system or Pioneer Plasma.

I suspect it is some kind of termination or gain applied with some TV's. I recommend trying it thru a sound system also and see if it clips.

I may well try running it through my amp, I never thought of checking the headphone jack.