After Welte and Hupfeld, and alongside Popper (Stella), Philipps entered the rapidly rising and falling market for reproducing pianos as the third player – and therefore somewhat late. The disadvantage was that the small market for reproducing instruments was already taken – both in terms of potential customers and in terms of the pianists making recordings. The advantage, however, was that Philipps was able to avoid the shortcomings of the Welte and DEA systems through better technical solutions. There is a very close technical similarity between the Welte-Mignon and the Philipps DUCA – so far it has not been possible to clarify how this close connection came about. Existing patents should actually have prevented such technical similarity. This is the subject of further research.
In 1912, Philipps formulated this motto: “What immortal artists offered us in their playing, the DUCA brings back to us today in all its beauty.” And a little further on in the text it says “…, that this instrument is the best that has so far been produced in the field of reproducing instruments…”. In our view, this statement – for all its marketing relevance – is quite justified, at least as far as the technical realization (instruments and rolls) is concerned.