Disk Union announced a special edition cassette tape on August 21. The new UD-60U tapes are the result of a Disk Union and Maxell brand collaboration in Japan. According to the press release, one of the major reasons for the release of the new UD-60U tapes is to appeal to nostalgic customers.
“Before the era when hobbies could be easily shared digitally, exchanging cassette tapes was an important way to share our favorite music and culture,” recalls the Disk Union press release. It goes on to ponder how this product release will “evoke a sense of nostalgia” for those who grew up with the original UD series. Perhaps naughtily, it even seems to encourage folks to indulge in making home recordings from vinyl. “Dub your treasured music purchased at a record shop, and enjoy it together with the unique texture and character that only cassette tapes can provide,” suggests the Disk Union marketing department.
Creating mix tapes is hinted at as a possible use of a pack of UD-60Us. Normal-position tapes (Type I ferric) like these are not the best for high-fidelity audio recordings. I always liked to use Chrome (Type II) or even Metal (Type IV) tapes for my own hi-fi mixes and recordings. Nevertheless, ferric tapes are ideal for 8-bit home computer tape storage. They would be perfect partners to a C64 Datassette, or for any tape interface you may have used with a VIC-20, Plus/4, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX, BBC Micro, and so on. The square-ish digital pulses used to encode data to audio (and read it back) are actually in the sweet spot for ferric tape on low-end mechanisms.
Maxell UD tapes were originally launched in 1970 as a high-output, low-noise mass-market cassette line. Later in the decade, they moved to PX gamma‑hematite iron oxide, a purer and more advanced ferric formulation for higher output, lower noise, and pleasing frequency response. Sources suggest UD tapes were often chosen by major music labels for commercial pre-recorded cassette releases. Maxell UD tapes earned a place in cassette music lore alongside TDK SD and Sony HF rivals.
A wave of UD revivals began in 2016, with tapes marketed by Maxell in retro packaging. Last year, Maxell collaborated with Disk Union on the release of the first batch of UD-60U tapes to “a great response.” Now they’re back on sale, and they are priced at 990 yen ($6.25) each, or 2,900 yen ($18.28) for a triple pack. Denkyosha Co. is listed as the distributor.
Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
I really have to wonder, between using cassettes for audio and for data, just how many of these device's for reading and writing to them are still around?
If you're actually using cassettes in an attempt to specifically make hi-fi recordings in 2026 I think you're kinda missing the point to be honest. That said the Maxell UD brand is an excellent all-rounder, it does have a very pleasing, full-bodied sound, much better than similar level TDK and Sony offerings. I still have 3 full 20 piece boxes of blanks lying around so I won't be running out any time soon.
If you're actually using cassettes in an attempt to specifically make hi-fi recordings in 2026 I think you're kinda missing the point to be honest. That said the Maxell UD brand is an excellent all-rounder, it does have a very pleasing, full-bodied sound, much better than similar level TDK and Sony offerings. I still have 3 full 20 piece boxes of blanks lying around so I won't be running out any time soon.
It's for data storage. They handle under 128MB of storage per 60 minutes tape, which was plenty for commodore 64 and Atari software at the time.
It's for data storage. They handle under 128MB of storage per 60 minutes tape, which was plenty for commodore 64 and Atari software at the time.
The c64 and atari of the time would not even get anywhere close to that much data per minute.
Default for c64 is 0.33-0.50Kb per minute not the 2Mb that 128/60 would get you.
I can't say I have the fondest of memories dealing with tape games on the C64, waiting many minutes for a game to load, and then crash, rinse and repeat.
I was glad we also had the FDD.
I remember my first 250mb tape backup drive I got in the early 90s. I also remember cassette tapes for the C64. Neither makes me wish to have it again. What's will all this old tech being revived?
