Philips DCC900 Digital Compact Cassette deck revived! 

Glad it worked out Kevin.

Nice to see all these machines from "my time" back in the spotlight. Vinyl, tapes, minidisc etc., so much more feeling to it than a digital file on a tiny digital player.

No Worries when it comes to mentioning a Tech Surgeon. A Life Saved, a Sound to Hear. Thanks Dr. DCC! You made VWestlife pretty happy, And We get to Hear His New Treasures. I think I heard VWestlife Smile. =] Thank You for the Deck 'Life Warnings'. Have Fun *

I remember thinkin' that my friend made the right choice getting DCC instead of me getting a Sony DAT unit. It was great having backwards compatibility with regular cassettes. And there never really were any commercial released DATs either that I could get of various artists. I did, however, like the long running capability of a DAT deck. I would record hours of radio music with it. Either way, I think both formats are cool, and I dig that there is so much support and love for DCC. Great video! So glad you got your deck working.

Excellent presentation and a great-sounding result. Thanks for it.

Series 900 of audio hi-fi is the top class philips ever made.I own CD951,amplifier FA930, tuner FT930.As a professional electronic repair technician i want to say these were the best consumer hi-fi and affordable budget equipment i ever met.The cd player is able to play scratched disks or extremely difficult to focus that no other player can play them.PHILIPS at its best!!!

DCC was a great format i think personally

Your thrift stores in the USA sound excellent. I've never seen equipment like the stuff you find in "thrift" stores in the UK.

Sound Blaster HD USB has optical digital input and out and grounding for vinyl source recording (analog input). I have one since 2011 and it sounds amazing.

It plays perfectly (good guitar)

3:49 Those special, fragile heads in DCC decks are also why you never attempt to demagnetize them like you would with the heads in a conventional cassette deck.

USB audio devices with SPDIF coax and TOSLink I/O are readily available for cheap.

4:20. I can’t be the only one who sees a face on that silver cover.

I, many times, miss the old days of my recording studio when I used the Optimus DCT-2000 and Magnavox DCC Recorder/Players. I made quite a number of master recordings on those two units before getting my JVC DAT Recorder/Player. Even then, I used the DCC units until I gave the Magnavox to a friend and threw the Optimus in the dumpster (it quit working). I ended up selling the DAT machine to a music store and went digital (at least for recording masters). I use a Tascam DP32SD now for multi-track recording and throw the 2-track mixes to the PC for editing/mastering. Sure, it is easier to record these days, but I still miss the older days many times...

At least you didn't get scammed on Ebay. I bought a Nakamichi CR-3A on Ebay advertised as "working condition" and of course it was not. But did get it repaired by ES labs in Connecticut and it has been perfect for over 15 years.

I want to thank you VWestlife, whenever i watch your videos i feel like that im time traveld and my world is back in order. Best regards.

Interesting to see this video as I actually own a Philips DCC600 deck from new in 1996 (cost me about £200 back then as they were being discontinued - the MiniDisc equivalent was more than twice the price and didn't sound as good!) It still runs fine and I actually used it to make some new DCC recordings just a few weeks ago. Incidently, the Irish country music CD you featured at then end of the video is sold by a company in Dungannon, NI - some 10 miles away from where I live!

Congrats on getting a good unit. I had one of these years ago but some idiot damaged the head using a demagnetizer (I think) so i never even had a chance to use it. In Australia they were very rare so I could not get a replacement and ebay was in it's infancy back then.

DCC Museum is now in Palm Springs. Great videos too.

Wow DCC has amazing sound quality.

"Save the Best For Last" has never sounded so good... And that Philips deck will look gorgeous atop your Philips receiver, their designers really made nice-looking units in that era. Optimus didn't always make their own products, so I would not be at all surprised to find the mechanisms of both units were both built by Philips. That might explain the similarities under the hood.

That John Hiatt song is really nice, a new artist to add to my playlist.

Techmoan gave you a shoutout recently

Techmoan mentions you, and you likewise mention him within the course of a week -- this must me some sort of record :D You're also reminding me I have two IIvx boxes I need to recap.

Amazing tape quality.

That music in the end of the video reminded me a record from Mark Knopfler named Golden heart.

Technics RSAZ 6/7 (analog) cassette decks used the same , thin head as DCC decks and had excellent SQ

7:23 I just found out a new method on how to skip a song easier on a cassette player with piano keys (No Logic Controls and No AMS). First, put the player on pause, and while it's on pause, then hold down both play and fast forward at the same time, until you reach a spot on the tape with no sound! That indicates you're on the start of the next track! Then, de-press pause, and hit play. If you wanna rewind or go back, same thing, but stop after 2 blank spots.

„At that point I knew I needed professional help.“ That is always the start of something good. 😉

I really like the Philips designs of this era.

Ralf has worked on my DCC 900 parts and hopefully I now got a functioning machine. Thing was my PCBs didn’t have much leakage damage so the recap turned out fine, but the loading mech (damage caused by original seller’s improper packing) and tape head were bad on mine!

2:53 ...wow... Ok. I gotta admin I've never used DCC in any way. However, I have a very wealthy step-brother who did. He had his own studio, very nice, with his own band. They recorded their songs on DCC. The only time I ever even saw one. Now 30 years later... This!

That is a very nice deck, all of those 900 series components are very nice, always liked the look of them as well. I need to do capacitor replacement on my Magnavox DCC-600, will be replacing the surface mount electrolytics with Aluminum Organic Polymer. Will probably do a video series on that. Some time after I am done with working on my Sony VO-9600, which is taking up my bench right now.

I had that exact Radio Shack DCC recorder, paid $200 right after the format died. Don't remember what happened to it but I ended up recently buying a Technics deck similar to your Philips

The line input on your pre-unibody Macbook Pro is an analog/digital combo jack. It accepts an optical TOSLINK connection via miniplug adapter.

I bought one of this exact Philips 900series model from a thrift store, and it was also suffering from bad capacitors. The deal breaker for me was the second issue with it: it was constantly switching between DCC to analog cassette mode and back to DCC. It had a mind of it's own. Returned it, got a refund, but I was MAD because I know what just slipped through my fingers 😡 I'm happy you managed to make it work

love that Sound.... glad it worked out

I've never heard of DCC. Interesting!

Damn I really wish I had a DCC machine. At least to my ears, through youtube's compression, the DCC tapes sound better than my most well mastered CD's. I should really seek out a machine.

Wow!! I never knew of these!!

I still have a functioning Optimus DCC player and the Phillips music collection cassette. I bought it new in the mid 90s. I plugged it in a few months ago and it still works. I'm looking for jazz music.

I have a Philips DCC600. Just replaced the tape drawer belt in it, the capacitors show no signs of leaking *yet*. Will look into a quote for refurb from Dr DCC.

Oh wow cool glad you got it working again. I recently got my akai m-8 reel to reel working. Ceiling fan capacitors who knew lol works great. Just needed lubrication and now to get a drive belt and I may make a video of it working in 100% condition.

They seem to build electronics to be self destructive. Cool video, and decks!!

The tray loading transport was probably manufactured by Denon/Marantz because they were part of Philips at that time. The only thing they had to change was the head block assembly.

very cool! I have a Technics system which is still running great

I used to live in Beautiful Redondo Beach California. The location of this museum is North Redondo, which is the scummier party of town, practically Lawndale.I used to live on Catalina Ave, 1 block from the beach, and near the pier. Man I miss Old Tony’s and Naja’s bar.

good sound quality listening on my ADS & sony even through youtube

I was going to ask if these can record on to analog tapes, or it they only record onto DCC tapes, but at 15:40 I got that answer and I was right about to post a comment asking that! My SVHS VCR I have will make normal VHS recordings if you use regular tapes, and SHVS recordings if you use SVHS tapes and I was curious if it's a similar deal with this. Now I see it's not.

I loved the video. I have thought about getting one of these machines but have been worried about how well they work or if I can get any tapes for them. I get what you mean about it being a dead format. I have a minidisc player which I've had for years, which was also a format that didn't last as long or have the respect that it should've had. It is Technics SJ-MD150, which unfortunately now only plays back it doesn't record so I bought a Pioneer MJ-D707 and that is still going strong. It would be nice to invest in one of these DCC machines but I know that there are different generations of them so knowing which one to get is a little confusing. Thanks again for the video.

It's a shame that DCC never really took off. I do remember at the time, in the UK at least, a lot of scare stories about how you would be blocked from copying from any source and that the cassettes were going to be a lot more expensive that old the old analog cassettes.

3:46 Oh look, the deck is paying respects!

I used to have a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 that had digital inputs. Excellent card! This picture is of the front input panel. The card had it's own selection of in/outputs. www.ixbt.com/short/2k2-09/Audigy2_Drive_Topview_right.jpg

I still have the original one DCC900 i bought in NL in 1993 i believe for around 1700 Guilders. Just last year it stopped playing, just no sound. So i will replace the capacitors too, to see if it does the job. I never played analog cassettes on it, because although it can, i know it's not really good for the head. I worked 13 years in a workshop where these devices where also repaired ( only i did TV repair not audio). I also have a dcc170, don't know yet if it is the belt, comes up (pushes the head to the tape) and drops again.

Might be the angle but a few of those red capacitors in the Philips looked like they were bulging.

If you search a Sound card with Digital in, get the Sound Blaster Z, which has the digital optical input. I have one but I never used the Digital Audio in until now. The sound card is modern, drivers are only available for Windows 7 and newer :( But it still sounds great!

my old PowerMac G5 has optical audio in/out jacks on the back but I never used them for anything

I am so disappointed that I never got to own one. Back in 1992 to the present time I am still listening to analog cassettes. It seems there wasn't too many prerecorded DCC cassette tapes. DCC never made it to boomboxes, mini shelf systems, many walkmans, and in the car, even in new cars back in 1992.

Nice video except for one inaccuracy. It's quite easy to find sound cards for the PC with digital I/O, and just in case you want one, try searching for "SEDNA - SE-PCIE-SC-10 PCIe 7.1 Channel Sound card" on Amazon and you should find the "Sedna - SE-PCIE-SC-10 PCIe 7.1 Channel Sound Card (CM8828 + CM9882A) SPDIF Bracket" for around £40. I'm using this card with my DCC-951 over BNC Digital I/O and it's perfect, the sound card even has ASIO support. Myself I love my DCC deck and recording from PC or from my Audio-Technica AT-LP120X turntable is fantastic. In fact I have been using my past skills as an audio technician to make crazy mix tapes for the DCC, which was something I had missed from the old analogue cassette days; the DCC does have the advantage of being able to split the tracks up afterwards by setting markers, which is something I couldn't do on analogue tape as my mixes don't have any quiet spots in-between the tracks. Long live DCC :)

@ 11:30 You can use your MacBook Pro to capture Digital Audio. Most Macintosh have Analog and Digital In / Out, you only need the right digital cable.

I have the DCC951

I have the one from radio shack and makes a buzz noise out of the speakers. I cant find anyone around here to fix it.

I'm wondering if the digital output is active with regular analog cassettes...

Sounds good same as CD

How much to get the capacitors changed on the DCC 900 as I have one that has the same issues?

Can’t you use the digital audio in on your Macbook with the correct cable? I’ve used one for digital audio out, but I haven’t tried recording yet, but I’ll give it a shot.

I feel bad that this format didn't have a better chance, but also so many formats at the time like MD. I also liked how DCC had a chance with Ford. And I would had liked the backwards compatiblity and digital spdif connections. I think it's amazing the Dolby chips made by Sony lol.

9:54 -- That DCC deck is imitating the beginning of Where Is My Mind by Pixies

I would say that this unit matches your Philips receiver that you have they probably go together pretty good

The high end Soundblaster Audigy and XFI have optical in and out.

In 1992, I was 18 years old and faced with a choice.... do I buy DCC or HI-FI VHS to act as a 2 track master recorder for my multi track recordings? I went with the HI-FI VHS (affectionately known as "the poor man's DAT machine") and thank good I did... I transferred my masters to 16 bit /44.1 kHz in 2004 but I still have the original tapes... even now, they still play well after close to 30 years.

Some sound cards with the CMI8768 chipset have digital inputs.

I just remembered, I have the same deck that isn't in use since the early 2000s. Luckily I have a lot of experience with replacing the SMD electrolytics aka the plague of the early 1990s electronics, so this would be a challenge.

pc soundcard with both the optical in as well as output: crystal soundfusion for windows xp. i got one myself for a linux system

Can you provide me a clue from share I can repair my Sony Mini hi-fi CD Cassette Tuner music system FH B900 ??

I have a DCC 300 by Philips. The only problem i have with it sofar is the tray for the tape being sticking, probably due to a loose belt. It plays analog tapes just fine, i haven't tried an actual dcc tape with it yet.

As far as sound quality, since this is digital, is there a way to determine if the data is exactly identical to the CD version of the same songs? Unless songs are mixed differently for different mediums, shouldn't digital recordings sound exactly alike no matter what medium the bits are read from?

I'm curious what a cap job cost, I geared up with all jbc and edsyn etc gear, about to start a repair business.

I still have my Philips DCC portable player with all cassettes. Need a new battery and it’s good to go.

11:30 my old Soundblaster X-Fi has SPDIF digital audio in and out

VWestlife What is the software you are using that shows the waveform on the monitor in the background? Thanks!

Im gonna buy one

Hey man! I recently got a sony ps-lx300usb and its playing my records at the wrong speed. What should I do?

Would a DCC casette be able to store data the same way as a DAT tape could?

There's a remote for this unit for sale on ebay. I saw it today. 1/1/2019. New, never used. Missing the battery cover. $45 free ship.

How did you fix it @ 6:38

Can you *compare* the difference between a high quality MD using ATRAC3 compression and a DCC tape?

$4.50 was probably a replacement pinch roller

It's kinda a shame that DCC decks use the same head for DCC and Compact Cassettes. I would probably only play DCCs on it and not wear out the very fragile head too much when playing regular cassettes. 2 separate heads would have been better but I guess that would have caused some mechanical issues and probably lead to azimuth problems and also made the deck even more expensive. Looks like you now need to get a DCC cleaning tape as well, Kev :] By the way that brand new album seems really well mastered. I guess that dude is a DCC fan himself.

Bel modello.una cosa non capisco,perché i 2 dolby funzionano solo in playback?,se ho un DCC900 e devo registrare una cassetta,non la posso codificare,che senso ha?

i have one cassette deck that was good at the time . and it have dolby b nr but i don't understand why nr remove high Frequencies ,alongside hisses

The potential market for new releases on DCC must be incredibly small. I can't believe that studios would find it financially viable in a world where mp3 and other formats dominate.

Hold it... you have omitted the ending portion of this video, with one of Derek Ryan's songs from an album of his, being used in it.

Good stuff .... and remember to clean those properly and never de-magnetism them.

Hey VWestlife. Any idea of the price range for the home or personal size DCC decks on ebay today? :) Thank you! :)

Good, by your tag line I thought DCC was coming back into fashion. This whole leaky electrolytic SMT caps in new to me. I'm betting they just don’t get passive air flow, keeping them cooler. Repairing anything isn’t too bad as long as you can get the parts, troubleshooting is often straightforward, provided you can get the schematics or have made similar repaired. The biggest complaint about analog cassettes is finding the song 😂. How about hissing, wow and flutter, tape getting jammed up, or plain old degradation after 50 plays or so.

Can you do a review on a Numark PT01 TOURING portable record player?

i ved seen sintrilium software at background?maby?or cool edit pro ?

Good on ya Mate I made a Cassette video that you can comment on of Jessie Mcartney Right Where you want me👍

My PHILIPS 900 tray won't open and it says an the screen cass blocked. Have you come across this problem?