Digital Compact Cassette was proof positive that Philips could screw up like the rest of them. But this makes for incredible second-hand bargains now, like this Marantz DD-82, says David Price.

I remember the scene well. Tokyo 1991, Tower Records, Shibuya. At one end of the huge shop floor lurked two strange new hi-fi oddities. One was a Sony MZ-1, which was a tiny (by the standards of the day), black MiniDisc portable. The other was a massive Technics DCC recorder, about the size of a 1970s video and complete with 'tasteful' wooden side cheeks. 

There was a crowd of people around the MiniDisc machine, but the DCC sat awkwardly beside it completely unnoticed. This scene was rich with significance - who in the shiny, new high tech 1990s wanted another big, fat, dumpy looking tape based format?        
 
The tragedy was that after the crowd cleared, I sauntered over to try the two formats out. The Sony MiniDisc was playing some god-awful Michael Bolton disc, and the sound was appalling. Laced with digital nasties - weird, phasey effects, 'breathing', odd digital artefacts - even allowing for the questionable programme material, it was virtually unlistenable. 

The Technics DCC by comparison sounded superb - I remember being amazed by its clarity, evenness of tone and musicality. Even as a regular DAT user (I carried around my Sony TC-D3 DATman everywhere I went, using it as a Walkman), I was surprised how good this data-compressed format sounded. Only when you wanted to change track or post-edit your recordings did it become a total pain.        
 
I told Marantz's Ken Ishiwata this recently and he didn't sound surprised. As far as he's concerned, there was  little wrong with DCC's sound quality. From a man with an obsessive attention to detail (everything from his Nokia 8210 mobile phone to his Koetsu cartridge has been custom modified - either by him or by his friend the designer!), this is no small compliment. 

He told me that he and other key Philips and Marantz personnel spent a hell of a lot of time getting the format's PASC (Passive Adaptive SubCoding) data compression algorithm sorted, and then went on to do lots of tweaking elsewhere. Indeed, so good was PASC that it went on to form the basis of MP3, which is also capable of superb sound - people who say otherwise simply don't know what they're talking about.        
 
No, there was nothing wrong with DCC's sonics. Even today, the DD-82 you see here sounds incredibly open and smooth - you don't hear any compressed audio nasties - and in some respects actually seems warmer and more satisfying than uncompressed DAT. Later machines like this had a wide, 18 bit Bitstream and some very respectable digital and audio circuitry inside. 

As I found when I reviewed this machine's cheaper Philips cousin - the DCC951 - in early 1995, if you put these into MONITOR mode, they'll act as off-board DACs which actually sound better than some more expensive, purpose built designs. You can thank a nicely implemented Philips SAA7350 Bitstream chip for that, plus Ken's myriad tweaks, ranging from trick op-amps in the analogue output stage to the ubiquitous copper screws!        
 
The DD-82 is a big old beast (420x132x344mm, WxHxD), and weighs a lot more than your average MiniDisc recorder (8.2kg!). Place it against a modern MD machine - say a Sony MDS-JB940QS - and it's an ergonomic disaster area. With buttons scattered randomly all over the place, huge 16 segment bar graph display and an oppressive black fascia it's very nineties mucho macho.

Round the back, there's a choice of coaxial or optical digital inputs plus line in (running through a fine sounding A-D converter) and fixed and variable analogue outs. Otherwise, that's your lot - the magic of this machine is in the listening, not the beholding.        
 
If you have enough hours in the day to endure DCC's fussy whirring and tedious track search antics, and want something that makes great recordings cheaply, there's simply nothing better. Because DCC went the way of the Dodo, causing Philips to flush away (probably) more money than the EU manages to squander in a decade, it's a terminally unfashionable format. 

This in turn means that you can pick DCCs up in the classifieds for next to nothing - and yes, you can still buy the tapes. This one cost £50 including 10 DCCs - to buy new five years ago it could have added up to over £700 - can't say fairer than that!