Micro Seiki DD-100

Peak of Micro's direct-drive era, the DD-100 was attempted at becoming an export item but didn't.

As experienced by HiFi Exclusiv's team in 1978, the PLL electronics inside the power-supply did not take well the change of voltage from 100V to 240V : it just didn't work and speed remained erratically unstable.
So the 100 went back to Japan although, apparently, that one 1978 sample remained in Germany.

The DD-100 was not Micro's first direct-drive but the first to sport a very heavy and large platter : 5,2kg for a 40cm diameter of zinc alloy.

The motor is the same as that of the DDL-120 / DQL-120 or DDL-150, very likely to have been sourced from JVC, but it can here be switched for three speeds : the usual two plus 78rpm ! And the shaft rests on a teflon patch (ceramic would be for the DDL-120).
Also available separately as MD-100.

The very beefy external power-supply allows to pitch all three speeds up to ±6% individually and the PLL locking can be defeated ; its oscillator pulses at 35,1Khz.

The enclosure mixes three thick slabs of MDF plus two 3kg plates of lead ; the four feet are mainly big rubber dampers with a natural air chamber - they have to support 26kg.

The fixed tonearm is a MA-505L with a detachable magnesium headshell but a supplementary arm could be installed on the left side of the enclosure with one of five adaptors - even an SME 3012 can fit.

But the twist is not there : there are capacitance and resistance switches in the DD-100 ! Three settings each plus an individual bypass - long nights of sound-tailoring ahead !


A real DD-100 here.