The Promise
After having had so many problems with the Sony DTC57ES and 59ES DAT recorders I figured it better to go with a linear-heads-based machine instead…
Alas, the 900 units were also very unreliable. I had 2 and experienced drop out after drop out. And the transport was LOUD: Click-CLICK-a-di-CLICK click KAAAAA-LIKK! That all happened after pressing play. Nice idea, nice styling and huge efforts in advertising, but DCC was never going to make it. The big selling point was the backward compatibility, but although the decks played analog tapes, they did not do this very convincingly and I returned to proper analog tape for a while, until I discovered Sony Minidisc. Don’t believe what they say about that product: after the first products when ATRAC had ripened, Minidiscs really was a fantastic product both operationally as well as soundwise. Consumers may be unaware but it was used for many years in Radio and TV broadcasting and it proved utterly reliable. Alas, it too was doomed when CD-R became popular.
