Hi, I have a bit of an issue trying to get my DCC setup working. Basically I have a 951 (which will only playback) setup with my main system and one of my 600’s connected to my laptop for creating tapes via a USB to digital converter as I have quite a bit of digital music to put on tape (FLAC to DCC, MP3 to Minidisc as a rule). The problem is dropout. A tape recorded on the 600 plays on the 600 but when run on the 951 dropouts occur. I tried my other 600 and the problem remains. I have a second 951 (which again will only playback) but that still dropsout on 600 recorded tapes. Is there some compatability issues or are there machine tweaks that are needed to cure this? As I have recently purchased over 50 NOS DCC tapes I’m a little downhearted at the moment as my setup doesn’t seem to work how I would like it to. I have yet to recap my 900 and DD82’s so I can’t put a first generation deck into the mix. Please tell me there is a solution!
It is extremely rare that you experience this with two of each generation, did you purchase any of those together or swapped in a part each from the same source? Could be an issue with the write current, speed, bias, or something like this. Do all recorders play a prerecorded tape with zero errors?
Hi,
This is indeed very strange. It could be speed related. If the belts on the dcc600 are worn/not up to specs the speed variation could cause this easily. Speed does normally not affect dcc, but if the variation is near the end of specs, it could cause problems like this on any other player, as those tolerances slightly vary per player.
@Max@drdcc I may have been jumping the gun a bit. The only pre rec tape I have is the Jeremy Heiden Intro Outro one and this plays fine in all decks, so I guess speed is not an issue? I’m perhaps over thinking the hardware and should be looking more at the tapes. I had a bad experience with a used tape purchase so have purchased a batch of new but maybe I am assuming that all these are without issue? I’ll persevere with a few more recordings. To clarify on hardware though, would you say it’s good policy to replace belts, pinch rollers and gears on all newly aquired decks? And is the capacitor issue unique to first generation machines?
Hi,
Speed could still be a factor. Your equipment records on the right speed, so playback should be perfect on other players. If the tapes speed is not correct, you could see problems on other players.
Belts, pinch rollers and gears. YES. Be pro-active and don’t wait for the deck to damage your tapes.
Thanks @drdcc, I’ll get a list together and send you an email for a quote. Does the DCC600 have the same pinch roller as the DCC951? Just a thought as I have a new set of those. Thanks to you and @Max for your guidance. I think I’ll spend some time perfecting the hadware befor I start serious taping.
This is not strange behavior to me at all. I have every model DCC deck Philips made, several pieces of each model, and I can totally conform what you experience here. All models have received the necessary TLC and stuff has been replaced.
Through extensive testing I have found one DCC600 deck that records beautifully and that most of my decks can play back tapes made with that recorder. So that is my record deck. I also bulk erase my tapes before recrding.
My experience is also that the DCC130 is one hell of a player, it plays tapes where other decks experience dropouts. In my opinion the DCC951 is the worst player. But, maybe I have 4 bad ones. I will not let the DCC951’s do any recording, because that is asking for trouble and dropouts. I will stop here
Thanks @pvdm for your comments. It’s a shame we both have issues with the 951. I do have a little more tlc to perform (belts and gears) on my 951’s and one of my 600’s so I’ll see if there is any improvement after that. I’m prepared to have a play only 951 in my system if it works out ok. I have a 900 and a couple of DD82’s to recap so hopefully I’ll have a good range to play with.
Cheers.
That is very different from what we are experiencing. The 951 and 730 are my favorite players and recorders. Tapes that will not play on any of the other 38 dcc players well, perform almost perfect on those. We do not make a lot of recordings on them. For those we use the Victor ZDV919.
Among the tapes that have serious problems are the proto-types from Gijs Wirtz. Those are very early DCC tapes with the original felt pad for Normal CC and no ALP yet. We thought that some of those tapes did not even have music on them, until we started playing them on a 951. Almost no dropouts either.
Hello to all, I’ve just spent some time on one of my 951’s. It now has new belts, pinch rollers (Panasonic RDP0055) and new gear. I managed to get a partial recording on a NOS Philips tape so I’m guessing the electronics are ok? However, I still have a mechanical issue, even with the new gear fitted the transport is still very noisy and even during playback there is still more noise than usual. Also there is a regular ‘tick’ from the transport. Could this be a motor issue? Apart from the gear replacement, does any of the deck need lubricating or greasing? I think I’m getting close with this one (would be nice to get a fully working 951!) so I would appreciate any advice on how to proceed.
Hello Richard,
I would try to find out what is the cause of that noise.
I know such problems caused by cracked ff/rew gear but as I understand you’ve changed it.
IMHO a clicking noise is not good. If you replaced the gear on the spindle motor there could be some dirt in the gears teeth, or gears that hook into that gear. Please check thoroughly.
Maybe the clicking already caused a problem while recording.
Did you check your tape for damages? Might be that while first time recording, the tape got damaged.
