The History of Sony Cassette Tapes

Sony is behind the worldwide spread of the cassette tape

The credit for bringing cassette tapes to the whole world belongs to Sony.

The story of Sony tape recorders and magnetic tape goes back to 1950, when the company released Japan’s first tape recorder and a magnetic tape called “Soni-Tape.” The history of Sony cassette tapes specifically starts with the Babycorder¹ format released in 1955 - a magazine-type design holding two-reel magnetic tape in a closed cartridge. Originally developed for professional use, it never reached a wide consumer audience, but it was a compact, lightweight recorder that used cassettes - well ahead of the competition at the time.

Eight years later, in 1963, the Dutch company Philips - which had developed the compact cassette - approached Sony with a licensing proposal. Philips initially demanded royalty payments, but in a well-known episode, Sony’s Norio Oga (then a company director) pushed back and got the royalty requirement dropped entirely. As a result, in 1965 the basic cassette patent was opened up to Sony and other manufacturers for free, on the condition that compatibility was maintained - and the format spread worldwide from there.

Sony’s first cassette came out in 1966, but until around 1970 the company called their cassettes “MAGAZINE TAPE” and their cassette recorders “Magazine Matic.” In the early days, the two halves of a MAGAZINE TAPE shell were different colors - A-side white, B-side black - but later both halves were made the same color, and color-coding by recording time moved to the packaging instead. The first compact cassette recorder Sony released was also in 1966, the “TC-100” (Magazine Matic 100). Its design was noticeably more refined than the Philips “EL3300” - the world’s first cassette recorder, released in 1963 - which showed how quickly Sony was moving.

Around 1970, Sony renamed their cassettes “COMPACT CASSETTE.” The packaging design stayed the same as the previous MAGAZINE TAPE line, but tapes were now color-coded by recording time for easier identification.

At the same time, the “HF” tape for Normal Position was released. The name was short for “Hi-Fi” - and that was actually printed on the early packaging. HF went on to become one of the most recognizable Sony cassettes, with a long run of variations produced all the way into the 2000s. Alongside it, Maxell’s “UD” and TDK’s “SD” were the early leaders in high-performance music cassettes.

Sony meets its first chrome tape - and an unexpected public controversy

In the 1970s, demand grew for higher-quality cassettes that could outperform the standard Normal Position tape. Into this gap came the world’s first chrome tape, released by BASF in 1970 (BASF being the German company that co-developed the cassette format with Philips).

Sony followed in 1971 with its own first chrome tape - “CHROMI CASSETTE.” By using chromium dioxide as the magnetic material, Sony achieved dramatically better high-frequency response, dynamic range, MOL and other specs compared to the iron oxide-based normal tapes. “Chromi” came from “Chromium Dioxide,” naturally. With the arrival of chrome tape, cassette decks gained a Type I / Type II (High/CrO2) switch alongside the existing Normal position. In 1972, this “CHROMI CASSETTE” was renamed “CHROME CASSETTE.” That same year Sony also released “LOW-NOISE” tape for Type I - Normal Position - focused on reducing noise and improving overall performance.

Then in 1973, “CHROME CASSETTE” was renamed again to “CR.” Rumor had it this was tied to the controversy around hexavalent chromium, which had become a serious environmental pollution issue from the late 1960s through the 1970s - so the word “chrome” was dropped from the product name. This “CR” was later replaced in the late 1970s by “HF,” which switched the magnetic material to a cobalt-doped iron oxide called ultra-gamma (ULTRA-gamma). The new HF also introduced the DP mechanism (Dual Protection Mechanism) - a redesigned slip sheet inside the cassette shell that made tape travel smoother, reduced play in winding, and significantly cut down on tape deformation. Better slip characteristics meant better sound.

Creating Type III - the world’s first two-layer cassette

In 1973, Sony developed a third tape type to complement Normal and Chrome and push overall performance further. The result was the world’s first two-layer cassette: “duad ferri-chrome.” By layering high-performance chromium dioxide (used in chrome tapes) on top of a gamma iron oxide base (used in normal tapes and good in the midrange), Sony combined the strengths of both magnetic materials - improving frequency response, dynamic range and noise performance all at once. A Type III (Fe-Cr) position was added to deck bias switches alongside the existing Types I and II (decks without a Type III position could use Type I instead). These tapes were also caught up in the hexavalent chromium controversy, and the name went through a few iterations - originally “Duad” in English, later styled in all caps as “DUAD.” Like HF, Duad also received the DP mechanism.

In 1978, Sony released “AHF” as the top model in the HF lineup, aiming to push Normal Position performance even further. Using gamma iron oxide ground to an exceptionally fine particle size and applied at high density, AHF had noticeably better high-frequency characteristics than HF. At the same time it got the same DP mechanism used in the updated DUAD and HF. After this, the original HF was renamed “BHF” and “Low-Noise” became “CHF,” completing the full HF Series lineup with AHF at the top.

Sony’s first metal tape and the arrival of Walkman

1979 was a landmark year for Sony. First came the launch of metal tape - the ultimate evolution of cassette technology. The world’s first metal cassette had been released by 3M Sumitomo² (Scotch) in 1978 under the name “METAFINE,” but in May 1979 Sony introduced “METALLIC” with its own newly developed metal powder magnetic material. The tape used ultra-fine metallic magnetic particles with residual flux density and coercive force roughly twice that of HF. Beyond widening the dynamic range across all frequencies, the precision shell included the same DP mechanism from DUAD and other models for stable slip performance and minimal modulation noise. The performance was so high (which was true of metal tapes across all brands) that the packaging carried a warning that the tape was incompatible with decks lacking a Type IV or dedicated metal position. 1979 is often called “the start of the metal tape era” for Sony and many other manufacturers. Later on: 1983 brought “Metal-ES” with a two-layer coating of high-performance ultra-fine “Extra Alloy” metal material in a precision-selected shell; 1986 saw “Metal Master” with a ceramic composite shell; and in 1993 came “Super Metal Master” in an aluminum case.

The other enormous event of that year - for Sony and for the audio industry as a whole - was the launch of the first Walkman, the TPS-L2. Through the 1970s and 1980s, Walkman players, portable cassette players and car stereo systems flooded the market, and cassette tapes entered their golden era as the media format for all of them.

In 1982, the CD arrived. The primary use case was playing discs at home on a CD player and enjoying the sound quality - but a parallel style quickly developed: renting discs, recording them onto cassette, and then listening comfortably on portable and car devices. Sony naturally responded with cassettes optimized for Walkman and mobile audio use.

In 1988 came the “CDix” series, specialized for recording from CD (it stayed in production until 2010). Three types - Normal, High Position and Metal - in lengths of 10, 20, 40, 46, 50, 54, 60, 64, 70, 74, 80, 90, 120 and 150 minutes. From the early 1990s, TV commercials featured Princess Princess - a popular all-girl group of the time - using their song ROCK ME³ as the jingle (the same campaign also ran spots for the UX and HF-X series).

In 1996, under the slogan “Stamina Cassette” (extended Walkman battery life), Sony released the third-generation “ES” series. It was a high-performance Normal tape with increased magnetic material density for better midrange reproduction, a new vibration-suppressing shell design, new pad material and new liner material. The series was built around the Walkman’s battery-saving mode (BS), with a fast-start and fast-stop design. The “G-UP” version also featured a new sliding shell that could be opened and closed with one hand. “for STREET” was printed on the packaging.

Slightly out of chronological order, but speaking of artist-fronted ads that became major hits: there was the spot featuring Teri DeSario (TERI DESARIO with CARBONE & ZITO) and the song Overnight Success⁴, which ran around 1984. “Flashdance” was massive at the time, and Irene Cara’s “What a Feeling” was a worldwide hit. The Sony commercial, which seemed to channel all that energy, was genuinely outstanding - emotionally it was right up there with the famous Maxell ad featuring Wham!. The spot promoted the HF cassette series and Betamax videocassettes. Sony’s cassette advertising had exactly the same spark and intensity as Maxell’s - a true overnight success.

The iPod arrives, and the Walkman-and-cassette era ends

Metal tape’s performance was obvious to everyone, but it was expensive enough that carrying your whole collection over to metal wasn’t practical. “Metal-S,” released in 1984, kept the high-quality ambitions of the flagship Metal-ES while making metal tape more accessible - essentially the standard metal tape. The shell corners weren’t chamfered, but the mechanism was updated to the DP-II version.

For the combination of convenience and high performance, High Position tapes were hugely popular too. Sony produced a long line of them going back to the chrome era. “UX,” which appeared around 1986 (early Showa 60s era), had an energetic sound thanks to ultra-fine gamma iron oxide magnetic material. As the material kept improving, the line stepped up through “UX-S,” “UX-PRO” and eventually “UX-Master.” UX-Master was the top model, using hyper-uniaxial magnetic material and a ceramic shell.

Sony also pushed innovation not just in the magnetic layer but in shell materials and winding mechanisms. The shell design innovations are especially visible in the “ES” series released in 1990, where the shell halves were joined by ultrasonic welding rather than screws - suppressing vibration in a construction called the One-Piece Rigid Shell.

From the second half of the 1990s, OEM production and overseas manufacturing gradually increased - as was happening across the cassette industry generally, with domestic Japanese production declining. Then the iPod arrived in 2001. Music went digital, and cassettes lost their role both as a source medium and as a copy medium for CD. Manufacturers one by one stopped making cassette tapes, decks and recorders, and Sony finally ended domestic production of cassette Walkman in October 2010. Some Sony cassette models (like HF) continued as OEM products until around 2015, but unfortunately they’re no longer made.

Sony cassettes leave an impression not just through their technical performance, but through the thoughtful design of their shells and packaging. They’re a “phantom” format now - you can only find them on the secondhand market and at auction - but Sony’s quality, that “Sony Quality,” remains unchanged.

Примечания

1. Sony Babycorder (SA-2) was a revolutionary portable recorder released in 1956-1957. It was the world’s first recorder using a magazine-type cassette system (a closed cartridge with two-reel magnetic tape), predating the Philips compact cassette. ↩

2. Sumitomo 3M was a joint venture between 3M and Japan’s Sumitomo, operating in Japan. ↩

3. A selection of the Princess Princess TV commercials mentioned in the article. From the early 1990s, Sony ran a TV campaign featuring Princess Princess - a popular all-girl group of the era - using their song “ROCK ME” as the jingle (the same campaign also included spots for the UX and HF-X series).

   ↩

4. The commercial featuring Teri DeSario (TERI DESARIO with CARBONE & ZITO) and the song “Overnight Success,” which aired around 1984.

   ↩