Help!! Sony DTC-A6 DAT deck

W

wpaldridge

New member
Does anyone out there own a Sony DTC-A6 DAT machine?

I recently acquired one off of eBay. I did about 15min of recording and dumped two of the songs into the computer. Everything worked fine. Then I came back the next day to transfer the third song into the computer, turned the DAT machine on, and when it tries to cycle the tape, it looks like the tape won't move and I get a "CAUTION" on the LED display of the deck. Then it won't do anything--no play, no rewind, I can't even eject the tape.

So my question is: does anyone know how to fix this? Or did I get hosed?

Also, if anyone has a manual for this machine, I'd be much obliged if I could get a copy somehow--scan, photocopy, whatever. Or if anyone knows where to look for one. I've searched the internet to no avail.

Thanks. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Bill
 
Yo -Ridge:

You could contact Sony on the net about the manual. But, I'll bet they will charge for one.

There is some site, or more than one, that deals in manuals. I've been there but don't have the URL.

Sorry, can't help with the DAT -- never have had one but have thought about it. But, I use the 2816 and the unit has about all I need to work with.

Green Hornet :D ;) :cool:
 
Hey Bill -
Did you ever find a solution to your problem? I'm having the identical problem right now!
Thanks for any help..
- Ree
 
Last edited:
I was trying to find out what that error message was too (now 7 years later) and I found it along with a copy of the instruction manual. Thought I'd add my 2 cents just in case another poor soul is looking for the answer.

The manual says when the "CAUTION" appears and the deck cannot be operated:
A safety mechanism is operating because of condensation [or other reasons]. Remove the cassette and leave the deck turned on for about an hour. Then turn the deck off, then on again.
 
cossmo said:
I was trying to find out what that error message was too (now 7 years later) and I found it along with a copy of the instruction manual. Thought I'd add my 2 cents just in case another poor soul is looking for the answer.

The manual says when the "CAUTION" appears and the deck cannot be operated:
A safety mechanism is operating because of condensation [or other reasons]. Remove the cassette and leave the deck turned on for about an hour. Then turn the deck off, then on again.
Click to expand...

Remove the cassette???? The deck is not operational. The cassette cannot be removed. Next....
 
Reesho said:
Remove the cassette???? The deck is not operational. The cassette cannot be removed. Next....
Click to expand...

I had this problem and couldn't open it so I left it on as instructed and then after coming back to it, everything worked again. Though the instructions are stupid about removing the cassette first, the leaving it on helped for me.
 
I ended up taking it in to get fixed to a little mom & pop electronics repair place. It was something mechanical (I don't remember what, exactly). They fixed it for $100. So a $100 eBay purchase ended up costing me another $100 . . . oh well. It still works, though with computers and hard disk recorders, I don't use it that much anymore.

~Bill
 
Reesho said:
Hey Bill -
Did you ever find a solution to your problem? I'm having the identical problem right now!
Thanks for any help..
- Ree
Click to expand...

I know it's ridiculous after all this time but I actually still have the DTC-A6 in the rack in my studio and it's still frozen. I haven't been able to get one suggestion from anyone in all these years. Pathetic yet funny I guess. I will probably start taking it apart to see if I can do anything positive to it before I just throw it out....
 
The thread that would not die . . .

Where are you located, Reesho? There's an excellent pro audio repair place in Chicago called Deltronics (Welcome to Deltronics Pro Audio Repair home page) that can fix damn near anything. Unfortunately they recently raised their bench fee to $50. It is applicable to the repair, but you're s.o.l. if you decide not to fix it. Probably not worth it at this point, as the deck would not fetch much money if you sold it. Looks like they've recently gone for ~$60 on eBay.

Ooh, just found this: Sony Service Manual DTC A6 Digital Audio Tape Deck Original Repair | eBay
Might be worth a shot?

Hope this helps! Let me know if you're successful.

Cheers,
Bill
 
wpaldridge said:
The thread that would not die . . .
...
Hope this helps! Let me know if you're successful.

Cheers,
Bill
Click to expand...

lol - yea never say die! Except now finally I'm ready to let it go. After taking it apart and managing to remove the cassette, the CAUTION message finally disappeared. This of course was hopeful. However after lots of fiddling around I haven't been able to get the thing to work correctly. Frustrating really since there's nothing visibly wrong with anything that I can see. It's not like looking for a leaky hose in your car. All transport etc buttons seem to work fine but there seems to be a problem with the way the cassette is sitting in the unit so that it stops on it's own a little while after pressing play and rewinds to the beginning. There is no sound on output and no audio led reading. Maybe I moved or bent something when taking it apart and trying to remove the cassette. It's not worth the cost to have it fixed so.....bye bye DTC-A6. Hate to see you go but go you must.

Next candidate for the trash in my Ensoniq DP4 Parallel Effects Processor which no longer works.
 
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