Text: Otsuka Koichi
HISTORY OF Maxell CASSETTE TAPES
The story of Maxell magnetic media begins in July 1966. The company played a fundamental role in developing high-quality cassettes designed for faithful music reproduction. Even now, in the Reiwa era1, Maxell cassettes remain in demand, with new models continuing to hit the shelves.
A name with deep Japanese roots
The Maxell brand name was long perceived by many as a foreign one, but it has deep Japanese origins.
It derives from a dry battery brand that had been manufactured since 1950 by Nitto Electric Industrial (now Nitto Denko), part of the Hitachi group. The name is a contraction of the English phrase “Maximum Capacity Dry Cell” - which is exactly what it says on the tin. Japan’s first alkaline battery was launched under this name. In 1964 the magnetic tape division was spun off from Nitto Denko and Hitachi Maxell, Ltd. was officially established. The company’s products were also actively sold under the parent corporation’s brands - HITACHI and Lo-D.
Japan’s first cassette and a technological edge
Maxell’s first product in the new format was the C-60 cassette, released in 1966.
Although Sony, TDK and Fujifilm all began production around the same time, Maxell had a strategic advantage. Unlike the other Japanese manufacturers, the company purchased blueprints and original tooling directly from the format’s creator - the Dutch company Philips. Using those dies alongside Hitachi’s world-class metalworking capabilities gave Maxell exceptional mechanical precision and dramatically shortened development time. As a result, Maxell was the first in the industry to release extended-length tapes: the C-90 in 1967, and the C-120 in 1968.
The UD series: the music tape that changed the market
In 1970 the general-purpose Low Noise tape was superseded by the legendary UD series, whose name stands for Ultra Dynamic.
This was a high-output, low-noise tape that later became the foundation of the Normal (Type I) position. It used pure PX gamma-hematite (iron oxide) developed specifically for music recording. The sound quality was so high that the UD tape was adopted by major music labels for their prerecorded cassette releases.
In 1972 the second-generation UD appeared, with the internal hubs changed from the familiar milky-white to black.
This was not only an aesthetic decision - using black plastic allowed different polymer materials to be blended together, which improved the mechanical accuracy and acoustic properties of the shell by effectively damping internal resonances. A special cleaning layer for the tape heads was applied to the leader tape. The leader also received a “start line” - a marker indicating that the magnetic layer would begin in 5 seconds. For user convenience, the letters A and B for each side were printed on the transparent leader, along with arrows showing the direction of tape travel.
The C-46 standard: a solution ahead of its time
In 1973 Maxell became the first company in Japan to introduce the C-46 format.
At the time, competitors were putting out C-45 cassettes designed to record one side of a vinyl album. Maxell chose 46 minutes to give the user a small time buffer and guarantee the end of an album would not get cut off. This turned out to be such a smart marketing and practical call that the C-46 format quickly became the worldwide standard.
The UD-XL series: designed in the spirit of the Ford Thunderbird
The company paid particular attention to design and materials.
In September 1974 the UD-XL series was introduced, based on Epitaxial magnetic material. The visual concept for this series was developed by a professional designer of the American sports car Ford Thunderbird, who happened to be a big Maxell fan himself. The cassettes came in fully transparent cases with labels that could be repositioned multiple times.
Marketing: from FM radio to world-famous artists
Maxell’s marketing strategy was equally innovative.
From the early seventies the company sponsored FM radio programs and produced artistically crafted TV commercials. The famous commercial featuring a Canadian girl was praised for creating a beautiful brand image rather than hard-selling the product. In 1980 an advertising campaign featuring musician Tatsuro Yamashita and his hit RIDE ON TIME caused a sensation - it was the artist’s first-ever television appearance. Later, global stars such as Wham! and Thompson Twins appeared in Maxell commercials, as did Japanese celebrities Namie Amuro and Toshinobu Kubota. The Wham! members were signed to Sony at the time, which made their choice of Maxell advertising all the more striking.
”Man in the Chair”: conquering the American market
In the United States in 1980, the iconic Maxell “Man in the Chair” campaign launched - depicting a man blown back in his armchair by a speaker.
The campaign gave the brand a dominant share of the American market. Article author Koichi Otsuka recalls that during his work trips to the US in the eighties, he saw Maxell cassettes absolutely everywhere. What was curious was whether Americans even knew they were buying a Japanese product - the brand had so completely become part of their culture.
UD-XL II: the benchmark for High Position
The development of High Position tapes (Type II) was tied to the Epitaxial technology, which made it possible to work around patent restrictions on chromium dioxide while also solving the environmental problems associated with its production.
In 1976 the UD-XL II appeared and became the benchmark in its class. The cultural impact of these cassettes is illustrated by the fact that in 1998, rock band Niacin - founded by bassist Billy Sheehan - named their album “High Bias.” In a personal interview with Koichi Otsuka, Sheehan admitted he simply spotted the phrase printed on a cassette in the studio and decided to use it as the album title.
In 1980, a premium model XL II-S with high-precision mechanics was released for classical music lovers.
In 1984, the affordable UD II appeared, aimed at younger buyers. It had a bright sound with lifted highs, which was perfect for jazz and pop. In 1991, the XL-SI became the world’s first cassette to feature a Dual Surface Film: an ultra-smooth magnetic layer reduced noise, while a special back-coating stabilized tape travel. The cassette shell was molded from a high-density viscoelastic resin blend for vibration damping.
Metal tapes: the peak of the technology
The pinnacle of the engineering effort was the metal tapes.
In 1979 the MX cassette appeared - its name standing for Metaxial. Maxell deliberately delayed the release relative to competitors in order to completely solve the problem of metal oxidation. The company developed its own SP (Stabilized Pure) magnetic particles, coating each 0.3 micron particle with an ultra-thin protective film. In 1989 the Metal Vertex was unveiled. Its name translates simply as “apex.” It was the first cassette with back-coating on the tape for exceptional stability. The Super Composite shell had a density twice that of ordinary plastic, and each cassette’s metal insert was engraved with a unique serial number using a diamond-tipped tool.
The CD era and the final years
As CD and MD formats took hold, the cassette market began to shrink.
In 1992 Maxell launched the CD’s series with the slogan “For CD - only CD’s,” which ran for four generations until 2000. In 2016, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of their first cassettes, the company released a limited-edition UD in retro 1972 packaging. Total production was 60,000 units in C-10, C-46, C-60 and C-90 formats. Inside these anniversary cassettes ran modern tape equivalent to the UR formulation.
While other major players left the market - TDK sold its tape business to Imation in 2007, and Sony stopped production in 2011 - Maxell remains as of 2024 the only major manufacturer still supplying cassettes.
Today the company offers the basic UR model, which traces its lineage back to 1984, maintaining the brand’s tradition of quality and reliability.
Примечания
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Japan is currently in the Reiwa era (令和), which began on May 1, 2019 with the accession of Emperor Naruhito. ↩