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

Showing 1 response by narrod

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