1800-gauss sound made affordable! A new standard offering excellent value.
High Position. Since 1986.
First Generation, 1986
46 minutes - ¥550 / 54 minutes - ¥650 / 60 minutes - ¥750 / 90 minutes - ¥1050.
The package had a large transparent area, with discreet touches of gold giving it a premium appearance. The cassette had an extra-wide window, and reinforcing ribs in the black base increased rigidity and reduced modulation noise. Inside, the DP-II mechanism for wide-window shells ensured stable tape travel, while the パラレル・スプリング・パッド (Parallel Spring Pad) pressure pad ensured reliable tape contact with the head.
Explanatory Note
UX-S was a new High Position cassette introduced in 1986.
Its name suggested a successor to UCX-S, previously the top High Position model. Judging by price, however, the successor to UCX-S was the UX-PRO released earlier, while this model appears to have succeeded the standard High Position UCX.
Nevertheless, its performance came from UCX-S: this was a capable cassette with residual magnetic flux density of 1800 gauss and coercivity of 660 oersteds. It used the newly developed Super Uniaxial magnetic material. Its fine, uniformly sized high-performance particles were densely and evenly dispersed using a high-polymer binder system and Super Dispersion Control (a special dispersion system), then coated with good particle orientation. The tape surface also became smoother, increasing high-frequency MOL and sensitivity while reducing modulation noise.
UX appeared after this model was released, and Sony’s High Position range was reorganized as the UX series. This model occupied the middle of the range. It continued for three generations as a standard High Position cassette offering good value.
Second Generation, 1987
46 minutes - ¥550 / 54 minutes - ¥600 / 60 minutes - ¥650 / 80 minutes - ¥800 / 90 minutes - ¥850.
Prices were changed later.
The package received a new design, and the cassette adopted a high-precision, high-rigidity IS (Infinity Shape) shell, changing the window to a long horizontal slit. Fine Super Fine Uniaxial magnetic particles with a total surface area of 40 m² per gram reduced the noise level by 3 dB. New technology allowed 300 billion magnetic particles to be densely coated per centimetre of tape, expanding the high-frequency dynamic range by 4 dB.
Third Generation, 1989
46 minutes - ¥530 / 50 minutes - ¥550 / 54 minutes - ¥580 / 60 minutes - ¥630 / 74 minutes - ¥720 / 90 minutes - ¥820.
The third generation was released alongside the fourth-generation Normal HF-ES. It was a minor update to the second generation: the package received a new design in subdued brown tones, but both the cassette shell and tape retained almost the same specifications as the second generation. It remained a capable High Position cassette. Versions of 50 and 74 minutes were added for recording CDs, bringing the number of playing-time options to six.