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In recent years, manufacturers introduced two new digital mediums to supplant the conventional analog cassette. DCC (Digital Compact Cassette) is one of the two. Introduced in 1992, DCC was aimed squarely at the mainstream consumer market. For various reasons, this format never found much of a following and its founder eventually announced its demise. Needless to say, production of new DCC decks has ceased. Currently, first generation DCC machines are being sold through mail order at 75% off and blank DCC tapes are also available through mail order.
Unlike the DAT tape format, which is completely incompatible with the traditional cassette format, DCC is a format that promises partial backward compatibility with existing cassettes. Existing cassettes, except those recorded with dbx noise reduction (see dbx under Cassette Deck Features), can be played back on DCC decks (but not recorded).
While prerecorded and blank DCC tapes share the same size and relative shape of conventional cassettes, they are more immune to adverse environmental effects because a sliding sheet of aluminum covers the openings of DCC tape shells when not in use. What this means is that users can travel with them without their cases.
In terms of sound quality, there is a general consensus that DCC is capable enough to rival the sound quality of compact discs. This format enjoyed many rave reviews from American audio magazine editors for its ability to make virtually indistinguishable copies of its sources. British audio critics, on the other hand, have mixed feelings about its sound quality. On more than a few occasions, British editors actually preferred the analog cassette, claiming that it generally reproduced higher quality sound than its digital counterpart. It was said that sometimes percussive sounds possessed less impact or power and the perceived soundstage occasionally changed in size or width on recordings.
The conflicting reviews stem from the fact that some sounds, depending on content, are not reproduced. Manufacturers had to work with some restraints when designing the DCC format to keep it partially compatible with the existing analog cassette format. Given that human hearing has its limitations, manufacturers decided to take advantage of them by developing a tape format that would include a built-in algorithm device (PASC for Precision Adaptive Sub-Band Coding) that could automatically and continuously determine which sounds would be inaudible and prevent them from being recorded (a practice called data compression). As a result, DCC recordings would exclude up to 75 percent of the sound present in their sources and the reproduced sound would not always audibly correlate with the technical measurements.
Ultimately, the best way for a prospective buyer to determine how high DCC's sound quality is is to personally listen and decide. But whatever flaws the sound quality may have, newer and more refined models have certainly diminished their importance. Discerning listeners agree.
Digital compact cassette decks share many features
with conventional cassette decks and DAT decks as
well as compact disc players. Features include
recording level controls, recording level meters,
auto tape selection, noise reduction systems, auto reverse, track skip/auto music.
