It does share the same chassis of the 201 but the Denon is actually a closer cousin to the Pioneer, CLD-S350.

Here is a link to an eBay auction with many pics.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/224102943881

do you know what is to the right of the control in and out ports? it looks like something you can swivel or something.

The 201 is the most low end but there are other versions of the same deck with names I forget. They have better remotes or crappy s-vid added.

I’m wondering if anyone ever actually watched a DTS title back in the day on a crap deck like this. That would truly be putting the cart before the horse unless you were actually blind. The decoder alone would cost more than the deck and the S201 with three or four years on it looks barely better than VHS.

Upon release there were no DTS discs, the TOSLINK was simply seen as a lossless connection for conventional audio in stereo/surround. It seemed important at the time but later in life through much experimentation I’ve learned it’s better for making Minidisc copies than it is for anything else.

This is an OK player except for the relatively paper thin chassis that gets looser with age. The vibration is visible in the picture and also very audible, especially for CAV discs. It was at one time the crappiest player Pioneer ever made but then they dropped the price another $100 soon after and made the 104.

For clarity's sake: were you referring to the CLD-S350 or the Denon LA-2050 here? Or... is that basically a meaningless distinction due to the degree of similarity? I'm reading it as the S350 but despite the reference to Pioneer making it, I guess you could equally be referring to the Denon since I *think* they were simply Pioneer manufactured units rebranded.

Yes. They are all the same deck except for some ports and maybe voltage selector. If you have one of the Pioneer versions you’ll see that they all have the same manual.

Sorry to hijack but what is PULSEFLOW?
A cheap pioneer karaoke unit i owned had that emblazoned on the front cover

CLD-1090 - fairly basic but probably reasonably solid player, I guess?
CLD-1190 - more or less same but with more outputs and voltage select for Asian markets
CLD-2090 - 2-sided playback version of 1090
CLD-1750 - similar to 1090 but with PAL/NTSC (PALB?) board
CLD-S201 - similar to 1090 but with dedicated CD tray, possibly lower build quality, and "PULSEFLOW" DAC branding (but previous ones still have "1-bit DLC")
CLD-S250 - S201 with voltage select for Asia
CLD-S350 - S250 with more outputs and better remote (seems a lot like 1190 but with CD drawer and PULSEFLOW badge, albeit possibly in a somewhat less solid chassis)