My DCC story so far

Ok I said I was going to write about this in a specific topic and here it is.

I first came in contact with DCC back in the days when it was released (1992)
But as I’ve already read about Sony’s new minidisc coming out I found that to be more interesting than another tape format (though digital)
I went down the minidisc road and did not care about DCC at all.

Until one day back in 2005 or so when I saw an ad of what I believe was a DCC 600 from a seller just wanting $50 for it.
But he lived some distance away and I didn’t have a car by that time.
So that deal never happened.

Time passed and around a week ago I stumbled upon an ad of a 300 player from a seller living a 40 minute drive from me.
I bought the player and 5 pre-recorded tapes and went home and set it up.
All was good for 2 days… then the player stopped and started to search and wind forwards and backwards and switching to B side even though the tape was at the beginning of side A.
It never found any track-info.

I contacted the seller and he was so concerned about the broken 300 player he sold me and he said he had another player up on his attic and that he would get it the next day and see if that player was working.

I went there the next day and he told me that the player unfortunately did not work but that he would give it to me for free to compensate.
I thought it was another 300 he had, but then he told me it was a 951.
He also sold me another 19 pre-recorded DCC tapes for almost nothing.
What an extremely sweet and generous individual.

Well, that wraps it up with my short DCC history.

Thank you for reading :smile:

2 Likes

Maybe your 300 has had a live where it was forced to play analogue tapes… so it just might be a dirty transport. Open the case up and clean all the parts of the transport with q-tips and some iso-alcohol…
It might just go right back to functioning!

Be advised… never use analogue tapes in a dcc recorder! They will kill your head, and since these are no longer available steer clear of those. Except for testing…

Thank you for the heads-up.
Yeah you never know what the player has been through in it’s lifetime :smile:

Yes I’ve read about never playing analogue tapes in a DCC player.
I would never do such a thing.

I will open up the 300 and see what it looks like inside.
But I think I will wait until I get all the parts I’ve ordered from DCC museum.
I will change belts, gears and pinch-rollers on both my 300 and 951 as soon as I receive the parts.
Since the 300 is somewhat trickier to repair/switch parts I would like to do that at the same time I open it up.
So it’ll have to wait until the parts arrive.

What type of players do you have Mr Fender?

I got a dcc 951, a dcc730, 2 dcc175, a dcc170, and my first dcc300…
Most are ready to go, some are in various state of restauration!

Wow that’s some collection you got.
The same seller I got mine from is also having a dcc 134 to sell.
But that’s not even powering up.
I guess that it’s the SMD capacitors that have leaked and need to be replaced.
I don’t know if I would take on such a job.
Im not good at soldering.

If you’re not good at soldering, you definitely shouldn’t take on the job by yourself. :slight_smile: Soldering surface-mount caps by hand, especially when they’re in a space packed as tightly as they are in a DCC134 portable, is almost impossible unless you have soldering and desoldering equipment specifically designed for reworking surface-mount electronics, and a good magnifier to work under.

Might be just the belt, 134 shares the transport to the 170,175…
Lots of desoldering though but not as though as smd’s…