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Laserdiscs- how do they sound with outboard DACs

I just bought an old Pioneer Elite Laserdisc player and been having a ball with it having the audio run through my audio system. A new friend introduced me to Laserdiscs and we spent the afternoon watching operas and drinking wine. With my 400 kids it has been a long time since I have been able to spend a day in this manner!! I have been watching the old Met opera discs and other concerts. My wife is in the opera world and she is using this as a tool to learn different operas. With the subtitles, it is fun to follow the action. I just couldn't listen to it on regular CD's or vinyl without knowing what is going on.

My question is how good are Laserdiscs sonically with an outboard dac? I would think they would be sonically competitive with normal CD's. I see in the past people used laserdisc players that were able to play CDs as transports.

All thoughts would be welcome. I realize it is a dead technology but they really don't sound bad.
128x128baranyi
unsound
7,329 posts
 
It also depends on the discs. There were various audio formats used on Laser Discs.
narrod
1,064 posts
 
It depends on the discs. Early laserdiscs had analog audio so a dac will do no good. Does your player have a digital out? If so and, it is a compatible datastream, any inexpensive dac may be an improvement.

Good luck,

Wendell
happycamper
16 posts
 
I used a CAL Sigma II out of a Panasonic LP for years and never saw a reason to have both CD and LD. I think they sound as good as CD. Some would say better. The DAC on the Panasonic sounded like typical mid fi gear. The DAC brought some tube richness and better sound stage.

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