Philips DCC 900 Compact Cassette Recorder

Wornears

Age & Treachery
Found one of these units with remote in outstanding cosmetic condition for $15.00 at a local thrift, so I had to "rescue" it. Has an issue with the right channel randomly jumping to full output (POP!) on playback of analog cassettes, which I haven't been able to resolve. Haven't got it to fail-hard, yet.

The Digital Cassette format died in 1996, being beat out by MiniDisc, but the 900 will play regular analog cassettes, but incredibly, will not record to them. Wonder who was responsible for that design "feature"?

BUT, on the real upside, it has an internal converter to output analog tapes to Digital Out -- which I'll use to digitize many of my prized analog cassettes.

What a transport mechanism and robust internals -- a tank! Anyone have any owner or service manuals I can pay for the originals or copies? I appreciate the help.
 
we had them at our shop i installed one for headphone presentation it runs 3 years onestop with brother in arms dire straits tape not one dropout after these years .a very good format now dust in the wind :scratch2:
 
I was also upset to know that it wouldn't record regular cassettes.

But, after looking inside one, you realize that it has a very rare head. Maybe it is not suited to record anything but bits. Plus, the bias circuitery necessary to record analog is avoided and the benenfits you get from recording analog in a digital age is zero.

The autoreverse mechanism complicates it all.
 
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"and the benefits you get from recording analog in a digital age is zero."

I don't understand this comment. The main reason I transfer cassettes or vinyl to digital (MD) is editing ease or compilation, or archiving of music I have not found otherwise in excellent-condition vinyl.
 
@Wornears: I own a Philips DCC recorder too and I assure you that you will enjoy yours.

Mine is the TOTL DCC951 recorder.
I bought it second hand together with a Philips CD721 CD player for about 40$, both in mint condition.
The seller (a former employee from Philips) just wanted to keep the accompaying receiver (a Philips FR951).
I wasn't really interested in the CD player (I already own a Sony 228ESD) but it was part of the deal.

After I paid the seller and wanted to leave, the seller said: 'Oh yes, I almost forgot'
He went out of the room and after a few minutes he came back with a big shoe box.
The shoe box contained 30 new unsealed and a few used Philips DCC-90 cassettes, and even an original Philips DCC cleaning cartridge!
If you know the actual price of DCC cartridges (I even saw DCC cleaning cartridges go for more than 40$ each on ebay!) you can imagine the bargain that I made!

Home again, I tested both the DCC and the CD player.
After a few minutes of listening the DCC951 continuously showed 'clean head' on the display, and I noticed that it had difficulties to find tracks on the tape.
I cleaned it with the cleaning cartridge from the shoe box, the error never came back since then.
After that I recorded a few of my preferred CD's to DCC tape through the coaxial digital input of the DCC-951. I was really blowed away, no perceivable difference with the original CD!

BTW, I found the DCC951 User Manual here, it's maybe helpful for your DCC-900 (unfortunately Philips doesn't have the DCC900 manual anymore).

CD :)
 
Turbokeu: What a find with all those DCC cassettes and the cleaning one, too! Yes, they are pricey, if you can find them -- eprey seems to be the only source now.

I have cleaned the exotic head with the regular cleaning fluid and chamois tips I use for normal cassette decks. No issues with it -- just the random output level variability. I've about run out of my troubleshooting talent, so I'll likely be sending it to NakDoc for his laying on hands to bring it to full operation.

Thanks for the operator manual link -- I did find one for my DCC 900 online in .pdf, but the service manual seems to be very scarce.

I just get a kick how overbuilt this unit is -- reminds me of a '70s deck.
 
Found one of these units with remote in outstanding cosmetic condition for $15.00 at a local thrift, so I had to "rescue" it. Has an issue with the right channel randomly jumping to full output (POP!) on playback of analog cassettes, which I haven't been able to resolve. Haven't got it to fail-hard, yet.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=139830&highlight=DCC+900

I seem to be having the same problem as you Wornears... I bought mine for $30 at the Winnipeg GW... on December 13th.

Three days later it started to make popping sounds in the right channel after playing an analog tape for about 15 minutes. It doesn't make a difference whether hooked up to the Fixed or Variable analog output.

I took it into a local audio repair shop over the holidays, and after charging me $20 just to look at it, because he tested it for 40 minutes, says that it works fine. But it doesn't.

See the rest of my description in the other thread I created. Sorry I should have just added to this thread, but didn't see it before.

Took it back today and it still pops. Wondering if it is a short circuit or not. I'm going to test it via the Headphone jack and see if it is just the analog output circuit or not. And I ordered 3 blank DCC tapes over the holidays, which should get here by the end of the month.

No issues with it -- just the random output level variability. I've about run out of my troubleshooting talent, so I'll likely be sending it to NakDoc for his laying on hands to bring it to full operation.

Have you taken it in and tried to fix the right channel problem?

Never thought I'd get into DCC, but I love the external design of this machine.
 
This is fascinating. I'd completely forgotten about this format. I've never even seen one of these decks (or it's media) in person.

I have a memory of sitting at a Sonic Drive-In in 1992, reading a Rolling Stone article about the new Digital Compact Cassette and MiniDiscs. For some reason, I remember they were auditioning U2's Achtung Baby and comparing the perceived sound of the album in DCC, MiniDisc, and CD.

I have a knack for remembering random things like that.

I just checked out that DCC website, and it says those decks don't support Type IV Metal playback. Interesting. Also, I never knew you couldn't record onto analog cassette with them...

I'm just amazed that you guys are still finding these cassettes! It definitely is a cool looking machine--almost looks like a VCR.

I got a MiniDisc deck as a birthday gift back in the '90s. I had a lot of fun with it. Last time I tried to use it, the buttons were acting weird...
 
The random "popping" on one channel of mine stopped when I cleaned the head. Radio Shack sells the chamois-tipped plastic swabs I used to do mine (P/N 44-1115) along with their brand of magic juice. Try cleaning the head (more than once) before looking for an electrical issue.

Do not play Metal cassette tapes in it.
 
BUT, on the real upside, it has an internal converter to output analog tapes to Digital Out -- which I'll use to digitize many of my prized analog cassettes.

Wow, that's one handy feature right there, isn't it? All alone that makes it worth the purchase.

There was only one thing wrong with this format, and that was purely a perception thing: it looked too much like the format is was designed to replace gracefully, having the backwards capabilty of cassette play.

It was killed dead when Sony brought out the MiniDisc. Ahhh, a digital recording format that is optical disc, like CD, they thought. THIS is good.

Failing to grasp the fact that MiniDisc was compressed ("lossey"), and loving its simplicity, the small market that wanted to record digitally in those days went to MiniDisc.
 
ps: regarding the pop

Now, I ain't no technician, but wouldn't it be possible to perhaps find the component causing the POP by using a hot iron and a can of Freezit to alternately warm then cool the likely bits?
 
The random "popping" on one channel of mine stopped when I cleaned the head. Radio Shack sells the chamois-tipped plastic swabs I used to do mine (P/N 44-1115) along with their brand of magic juice. Try cleaning the head (more than once) before looking for an electrical issue.

Do not play Metal cassette tapes in it.

OK, thanks Wornears. I'll give that a try. I already have isoprocyl alcohol at home.
 
Failing to grasp the fact that MiniDisc was compressed ("lossey"), and loving its simplicity, the small market that wanted to record digitally in those days went to MiniDisc.

Don't forget DCC also use "lossy" compression schemes. It wasn't any better then minidisc in that respect.
 
Anyone have any owner or service manuals I can pay for the originals or copies? I appreciate the help.

Hi WornEars,

If you need of the service manual, as I can't send it by mail because of its size ( it's a pdf file of about 20 MB ) I can upload it and give you the link.

I just repaired one that had a problem, as many of the DCC900 have : no more output neither with analog, nor with digital cassets. The problem comes from the surface mount capacitors of the PW03 read write board that lose their electrolit on the printed board and sometimes burn the board copper.

Thats a very nice machine, build like a tank.
 
Don't forget DCC also use "lossy" compression schemes. It wasn't any better then minidisc in that respect.
Hey, didn't kow that.
I never listened to a minidisc but I digitally/optically recorded some CD's to DCC tape and I was very pleased with the quality of the recordings.

Since august 2009 I use the DCC951 deck as an optical DAC for the optical audio output of my Samung UE32B7000 LED-TV to a Marantz 1060 amp (set the default input in the setup of the DCC to optical and press Record/Pause).
The quality of the DCC951 DAC's are very high and at least my deck is now used on a daily basis (it's even powered on 24/24). ;)
 
yep - Here , a worn out Sony dat (57 or 59) often get's a prolonged life as a extreemely well sounding DAC, long after the transport gave up working
 
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