The sound of 1800 gauss! A premium High Position cassette with overwhelming energy.
High Position. Since 1981.
First Generation, 1981
46 minutes - ¥650 / 60 minutes - ¥850 / 90 minutes - ¥1200.
The metallized-film packaging combined metallic brown with brilliant silver for a luxurious feel. The labels were also metallic and replaceable. With the DP mechanism and other features, its specifications were at the highest level of Sony cassettes at the time.
Second Generation, 1984
46 minutes - ¥680 / 60 minutes - ¥890 / 90 minutes - ¥1250.
The packaging received a new design, and the shell changed to a high-precision, integrally molded wide-window type. A high-polymer binder system increased high-frequency MOL by a further 1 dB. The 46-minute version used large hubs with striking orange clamps.
Explanatory Note
UCX-S appeared in 1981 as a higher-grade model above the High Position cassette JHF. Its name is explained as ウルトラ・クロム・エクセレント・スペシャル: ultra, chrome, excellent, special. It was a product of a time when Metal tape was still expensive and interest was growing in premium High Position cassettes with high specifications at a lower price.
The figure of 1800 gauss refers to the tape’s residual magnetic flux density, one of its magnetic characteristics, chiefly related to power in the midrange and bass. Reducing the magnetic material to extremely fine particles, making particle size, needle-like shape and density uniform, and applying a dense coating greatly increased this figure compared with JHF’s 1500 gauss.
Coercivity, which affects high-frequency sensitivity, was 650 oersteds. This was a top-class figure at a time when many High Position cassettes, including JHF, had values in the 500s. As a result, MOL (Maximum Output Level) improved substantially across the entire frequency range, including a 3 dB increase at 10 kHz compared with JHF, and the dynamic range was extended.