Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) was the late-life kicker for the cassette format. DCC machines could process regular analog cassettes (to protect existing collections) and acccept special media for digital recording.
DCC used a lossy (perceptual encoding) data compression scheme similar to the one (ATRAC?) used by the Sony Mini-disc format. At inception it was widely considered better sounding than the mini-disc. Most hardware accepted and produced a 16 bit 44.1 PCM data steam - but what goes in isn't what comes out.
DCC doesn't support DTS or Dolby Digital recording.
Unfortunately the format died a quiet death a few years ago. The machines are ok, but you'll have lots of trouble finding blank DCC media. To my knowlege its not made anymore.
You'd do better with a good CD recording system.
