DC International (1965 – 1967)

The DC International cassette was an audio tape cassette launched by the West German Grundig company in 1965 for use in its C100 portable cassette recorder.

It was slightly larger than the competing Philips Compact Cassette that had been launched a couple of years earlier, and it used a slightly higher speed (2-inches per second). It was double-sided, and potentially could have offered stereo sound, but no equipment was produced to record or playback in stereo. Write protection was enabled by putting an insert into a recess in the base of the cassette.

DC stood for ‘double cassette’ as there were two reels, and Grundig hoped that it would become an international standard for small tape cassettes. Unfortunately, the Compact Cassette has already been on the market for a couple of years, and Philips pursued a policy of freely licensing the design.

Pre-recorded content was available on DC International cassettes from launch, with 25 titles available, and two different blank tapes were available, a DC-90 for 45 minutes per side, and a DC-120

By 1967 however, even other West German companies such as Teldec were moving away from the DC International design, and Grundig conceded defeat, announcing that it too would start making tape recorders using the Philips Compact Cassette design.

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