Sony UCX 60 High Bias Audio Cassette (1985)

1984 was a year of transition for Sony’s range of blank audio cassettes. The retailers’ shelves saw stock of the early(ish) 1980s design of Sony UCX, with its brushed metallic effect and attractive purple and silver livery. But before the year was out, these heavily updated replacements were ousting them, for a tenure lasting through the mid 1980s and into what we can effectively call the late ‘eighties.

Early 1980s Sony Audio Cassettes

An evocative lineup indeed, featuring six as-new blank audio cassettes of the early 1980s. The group includes five different Sony variants, and gives a great insight into the colour mixes that buyers would be seeing on the shelves of the audio stores between 1981 and 1983.

Why Use Audio Cassettes in the Digital Age?

The answer was once obvious. Decades ago, people used compact cassettes because there was no other media upon which they could conveniently preserve sound at home, and because cassettes allowed pre-recorded matter to be played in places where the delicacy and static requirements of vinyl disc turntables were impractical.