Astonishing performance! Sony’s first chromium dioxide tape.
Chrome Position. Since 1971.
Released: 1971 / 1972.
CHROMI: 60 minutes - ¥900.
CHROME: 60 minutes - ¥900 / 90 minutes - ¥1350.
The packaging had a premium feel, combining a black base with silver reminiscent of chrome plating. The cassette itself used a high-precision black shell to ensure stable tape travel. Initially, only a 60-minute version was offered, priced at ¥900, making it an extremely expensive tape for its time. A minor update around 1972 changed the name to CHROME. A 90-minute version priced at ¥1350 was added.
Explanatory Note
CHROMI (クロミカセット) was Sony’s first chrome tape. A chrome tape uses chromium dioxide instead of the commonly used iron oxide magnetic material. It dramatically improved high-frequency performance, a weakness that could be called an inevitable consequence of the slow tape speed in cassettes.
It was developed by the American chemical company DuPont and apparently emerged from research into videotape. Japanese manufacturers also began production in 1971. Sony’s first chrome tape was CHROMI.
This chrome tape offered such high performance that its dynamic range expanded by a full 10 dB at 10 kHz compared with conventional cassettes. Saturation output increased by 13 dB, reducing distortion even at high volume. A 50% increase in coercivity also brought a dramatic improvement in high-frequency characteristics.
Using chrome tape required a special recorder setting that differed from the conventional one. This was called Chrome Position and later became known as High Position, or High Posi for short.