[geeks] Sony DAT Walkman and DAT Tapes

[Sheldon T. Hall]

Quoth Aaron Finley ...

> I bought a Sony DAT Walkman, TCD-D3, at Goodwill. It came with a
> battery, carrying case, and power adapter, but unfortunately no
> digital cable.
> 
> I'd like to play around with it, but I don't know where to start. The
> battery is dead, but it's a simple connection, could easy be replaced
> with 4 2500mah rechargable AAs.
> 
> I cannot find much information at all about the unit. I don't know
> where to go for a service manual -- I need the pinouts for the digital
> cable (sells for $60-70 just for the cable on eBay) so I could make my
> own.
> 
> Finally, does anyone have any DAT tapes, DT-120 or otherwise? I'm
> envisioning myself using this in my backpack as a replacement for my
> iPod, as I'd imagine the sound quality is quite a bit better if I were
> to rip CDs directly to it digitally.

SGI machines of the 90s often had DAT/DDS drives that did DAT audio through
the SCSI bus, as well as software that supported this.  I had one in an
Indigo2, but never used it.  As far as I know, DDS and DAT tapes are the
same.  I know people in the music business who still use DAT tapes for
moving various music stuff around, using the standard "station wagon full of
tapes" bandwidth paradigm.

I don't know anything about the Sony cable, but finding an Indigo2 with a
DAT drive might be a good way to make DAT tapes.  I may still have some DDS
tapes, though, if you don't get a better offer.

-Shel