Hitachi UD - 1980 - EU
A legend of a cassette, Maxell's 2nd "Super Ferric" (not cobalt doped, but better than the basic LN at the time) from over 45 years ago.
Side Note: This one still has its wrapper with the original peel-off security strip (?!), which is quite unusual. We opened one and recorded on it...and they far better than a cassette of this age has any right to be. The one on sale has been re-sealed in-house to keep the original wrapper as intact as possible. Easier to handle without the fear of further damaging the wrapper, as well as it's now impossible for dust and other elements to get to the tape inside. Just a true rarity showing both in English and French! These first came out in 1976 and ended in 1980. RARE? It goes way beyond that.
Note 1: 90 Minutes: Only 1 available.
About Maxell and/or Hitachi:
Maxell Holdings, Ltd. (日立マクセル株式会社 Hitachi Makuseru Kabushiki-gaisha), commonly known as Maxell, is a Japanese company that manufactures consumer electronics.
Maxell was formed in 1960, when a dry cell manufacturing plant was created at the company's headquarters in Ibaraki, Osaka. In 1961, Maxell Electric Industrial Company, Limited was created out of the dry battery and magnetic tape divisions of Nitto Electric Industrial Company, Limited (now Nitto Denko Corporation).
On March 18, 2014 the company was listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.[7]
The company's notable products are batteries—the company's name is a contraction of "maximum capacity dry cell"—wireless charging solutions, storage devices, computer tapes, professional broadcast tapes and functional materials.[4][5] In the past, the company manufactured recording media, including audio cassettes and blank VHS tapes, and recordable optical discs including CD-R/RW and DVD±RW.
On March 4, 2008, Maxell announced that they would outsource the manufacturing of their optical media.[6]
During the height of the Compact Audio Cassette's popularity, Maxell's audio cassettes were held in high regard, producing some of the finest examples of the standard available. The performance of the XLII-S (CrO2) and MX (pure metal particles) cassettes was regarded by many audiophiles to be the ultimate achievement in the pre digital domestic recording medium.
In the 1980s, Maxell became an icon of pop culture when it produced advertisements popularly known as "Blown Away Guy" for its line of audio cassettes. The original campaign conceived by Art Director Lars Anderson began as a two-page spread in Rolling Stone Magazine ad in 1980, and was made into television spots in 1981 which ran throughout the 1980s.[10]
Hitachi UD - 1980 - EU