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DCC PLAYERS : DIGITAL ANTICS AT ITS BEST 

Top of the line DCC900 in its full glory. Can be have very cheap on 2nd market but what will you put in it ?

Our good friends from Philips really put energy in this new product : they came out with a machine that could read our treasured old classic magnetic tape cassette ( remember the expensive METAL type ? ) PLUS digital music : the DCC --- Digital Compact Cassette --- . 20bits ( 4 more than the CD ! ) plus 'quick' access to the songs and full text. And digital recording abilities on blank DCC.
A complete flop.
The 'quick' access still needed to wait for tape forward and could not compete with the CD instant playback and repeat. And the decks were way too complicated to operate for common people.

So why keep DCC ? There is a simple reason I still own and use DCC players : their recorded casettes.

In their enthousiasm for this new standard , they were a bit conscient that they were not shoe-in a commercial success. So they explored their catalogs of music -- they do that job too --- , took the original master tapes and recorded them on DCC the best possible way for killer shop demoes. They certainly hired or already had the best mastering engineers in the world and did a PERFECT job.
All this makes that the DCC versions of these records the best ever made. I even suspect they use different masters. On 'Money for nothing' , for example , there is an intro I never heard in any recordings. Just compare -- if you can -- the DCC recording of 'Messssage in a bottle' with any of the numerous CD edition it's on or even with the original vinyl : the DCC version butchers them. With stock deck. One hand in the back.
I heard from a hifi collector they already did that in the past with commercial recorded reel tapes, but I can't confirm.

The smallest DCC600 , ugly looks and no volume control from the remote. But same sound.

I suppose these machines can be bettered by bypassing output buffers and filters so I'll come back here with a soldering iron and plyers to let you know.
Update feb.2013 : done ! I can listen now to my cherished DCC tapes the way they were meant to be. See here

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