From: careyk@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Carey Kinoshita)
Subject: Re: Pioneer Elite CLD-95 any comments? laserdisc player
Organization: University of Hawaii
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 07:06:07 GMT

In article <rri6jINN93l@agate.berkeley.edu> lchiu@ocf.berkeley.edu (Lawrence Chiu) writes:
>Now that everybody knows that the 3090 is a real dog, how is the CLD-95
>Elite CLD player?  Does it share the same problems with the 3090?  Please
>share whatever knowledge you have on this player.  Thank you.
>
>Lawrence
>
>Send Email.  I'll post a summary in a week.

The CLD-95 is a great laserdisc player.  It doens't share any of the
problems that the CLD-3080 or the CLD-3090 have.  There is a big 
difference in picture between the CLD-95 or in general any Elite
series laserdisc player and the CLD-3080 or CLD-3090.  The colors
are much richer, the blacks are much darker, the contrast is much
better, and the biggest difference is the sharpness of the picture.
I was astounded when I saw the picture of a CLD-95 next to the
picture of a CLD-3080.  The sharpness was increadible and the detail
in the picture was extraordinary!  It made the picture of the CLD-3080
with Dynamic Range Extention enabled (which I used to think was the
picture off a laserdisc player) pale in comparison with the CLD-95.
I hear that this is one of the first things that people would notice
when comparing the picture of a Elite laserdisc player and a non-Elite
laserdisc player. 

The CLD-95 has a noise reduction circuit like the CLD-3090 which 
is for the purpose of smoothing out the picture on very old laserdisc
which would be very hard on the eyes because of the CLD-95's 
extremely sharp picture.

The sound from the CLD-95 is much better than that of the CLD-3080
or the CLD-3090.  The sound from the CLD-3080 is very thin, lacked
depth, sounds strained like the power supplies cannot supply all
the juice that the D/A conversion circuitry needs.               

The RF shielding on the CLD-95 is much better than the CLD-3080
and a lot better than the CLD-3090.  Before I periodically used to
see a 2-inch thick transparent, but very noticeable vertical line
float across my screen when playing a laserdisc on my CLD-3080.
This transparent vertical line would even be recorded by my VCR
when I am transferring video off the laserdisc onto a video tape.
I have not seen any RF leakage of any type with my CLD-95.

The CLD-95 is very heavy and can easily strain a middle-aged person's
back so you should lift with care.  Pioneer is using a faster motor
in the CLD-95 to decrease flipping time, heavy duty power supplies,
a thick steel chasis to reduce vibration, finely tuned real 20 bit  
D/A conveters, and hand picked high-precision parts.                          
                        
It is interesting that the Elite series and the high-end units in the
Japanese laserdisc line all use multi-bit DACs as opposed to 1-Bit
DACs.  The Japanese videophile magazine "Video Salon" says that 
Pioneer is using multi-bit DACs because 1-bit DACs are known to 
overload when there is a lot of high frequency information being
input to the 1-bit DACs.  Both Sony and Philips has admitted the
problem and have come out with improved designs which use multiple
1-bit DACs.  For example, the improved Sony High Density Linear 
Converter System uses eight DACs and the improved Philips Bitstreem
DA Conversion System uses four 1-bit DACs (two for each channel).
It is also interesting that there is no Japanese model which 
corresponds to the CLD-3090 or the CLD-2090 in the Japanese 
laserdisc line.  It seems that Pioneer thinks that those two designs
are not good enough for the Japanese consumer.
          
The only drawback with the CLD-95 is that it doesn't have a jog
shuttle on the unit and it doens't have that file function that
the CLD-3080 has (although I hardly used this function while I 
had my CLD-3080).  Overall, I would highly recommend the CLD-95
over any other laserdisc player since Pioneer is cutting back on
quality with their non-Elite laserdisc players and since other
manufacturers are having such a hard time making decent laserdisc
players.