Using Sony minidisc deck as an external DAC?


I have a chance to get a Sony MDS-JB930 Minidisc deck at a very nice price. I was thinking of using it mainly as an external DAC with my Cambridge Audio D500 CD player in my headphone setup in the home office or with my Rotel 961 CD player in my stereo system in the living room.

Anything to be gained by this? I've heard the 930 has a very good DAC, but do you think it will be any better then the built in DACs on my CD players? Don't think I would be able to manage an external DAC any other way. Would just using it in this "separate" fashion make a difference on it's own?

Thanks,

-- Sanjay
schugh
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.