Using Sony minidisc deck as an external DAC?

seandtaylor99:

you can use some sony minidisc deck models as an external dac. i don't know why they incorporated this feature, but it's there. i used to do it with a sony mds-ja20es i owned several years ago. the 930 should be able to do this as well. as far as sound quality improvements, i couldn't tell much of a difference between the ja20es and the 3 disc pioneer dvd changer i used as my cd player. ah, the good ole days.

Minidisc uses lossy compression, so I can't imagine why anyone would put a hifi quality DAC in a minidisc player.

I would be surprised if the minidisc DAC was noticeable better than either of your CD players. It might be better to save your money on this one unless you really want a piece of audio history.

Have you verified that it's possible to use the MD player as an outboard DAC ? Does the digital in automatically go to the analog outputs without constantly holding the deck in record mode.

Overall it sounds like a shaky idea to me. I doubt you'll get a significant sound improvement using a DAC without spending in excess of $500.