An economy High Position cassette with a casual monochrome look.
High Position. Released in 1985.
46 minutes - ¥500 / 60 minutes - ¥630 / 90 minutes - ¥940.
The packaging used a monochrome combination of black, white and gray. Earlier High Position cassettes emphasized a premium feel, whereas this one had a casual, stylish appearance. The gray shell had an extra-wide window like those of higher-grade models. The 46-minute version used large hubs. Its white hubs and gray tape clamps also followed the monochrome scheme.
Explanatory Note
Introduced in 1985, this was Sony’s first economy High Position cassette. High Position cassettes offered high sound quality, but most were expensive. The previous year, in 1984, Maxell’s low-priced High Position UDII had caused a sensation with its strong value for money. DENON’s HD6 and other models followed. Do was released at a time when economy High Position cassettes with lower prices than before were attracting attention.
Even UCX, previously a relatively inexpensive Sony model, cost ¥570 for a 46-minute version, whereas this model cost ¥500. It was slightly more expensive than the Normal tape HF-S but cheaper than HF-ES. Being a budget model did not mean it was cheap and bad. Dense, uniform packing of the newly developed ultrafine, high-performance magnetic material Uniaxial (ユニアクシャル) widened its dynamic range. High-frequency performance improved by 1 dB compared with UCX.
The theme was casual, easy use of High Position. UX, released the following year in 1986, took over that role.