CUE
A fashionable High Position cassette with serious capabilities
First generation: 1987
C46: open price.
The first generation appeared in 1987. Its exterior carried only English lettering, with no Japanese text. The white version had a white shell; the black version had a transparent one. The labeling sticker was attached to the outside of the case.
Second generation: 1988
C46: open price.
The second generation was released in 1988. Both white and black versions were redesigned. The SP-R mechanism was retained, while the tape became equivalent to SR.
CUE: explanatory notes
In the 1980s, products appeared that appealed through their cute appearance and fashionable styling, as well as tape grade and shell performance. Categories gradually emerged known as decorative or fashion cassettes.
CUE probably belonged to the fashion-cassette category. The fashionable Normal cassette if had already appeared, and CUE brought such models to both Normal and High Position. There were white and black versions, differing not just in color but in entirely different designs.
It was based on the second-generation economical High Position tape SF. Its tape performance was no worse even than SA. The shell looked different from SF but essentially used the same SP-R mechanism.
It was therefore more than a fashion cassette: it is better regarded as a stylish SF version with serious capabilities.
AD Type2 / AD2
A High Position version of the long-established AD music cassette
ACOUSTIC DYNAMIC 2
First generation: 1995
C46: 500 yen.
Since its introduction in 1977, AD had long been one of TDK’s main brands: a midrange Normal cassette with sustained sales over many years.
For a long time, AD = Normal had been taken for granted in the cassette world. This changed in 1995, when the series split into two types: the High Position AD Type2 discussed here and the Normal AD Type1.
The series concept was Everything for music. The AD variant was chosen to match the music being recorded and the listener’s sound preferences. This model’s defining feature was natural sound, intended for melodic and acoustic music.
SR High Position cassettes were no longer updated after this model’s release, so it can be considered SR’s effective successor. It lasted three generations, taking the name AD2 from the second onward.
Second generation: 1996
C46: 530 yen.
The second generation appeared in 1996 with the theme Music Spirit AD - hear the soul of music. The impact-resistant shell’s base became blue and its material translucent.
Third generation: 1997
C46: 530 yen.
The final generation was released in 1997. Even a High Position version had inherited the AD name, but this model, released in the brand’s twentieth-anniversary year, was its last.