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HiPac

Magnetic tape sound recording technology

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
1 min read
Source updated February 23, 2025

HiPac (stylized as HIPAC) (pronounced as high-pack), is an audio tape cartridge format, introduced in August 1971 on the Japanese consumer market by Pioneer and discontinued in 1973 due to lack of demand. In 1972 it only achieved a market share of 3% in equipping new cars. In the mid 1970s, the format was repurposed as a children's educational toy called ポンキー (Ponkey) and was used in the analog tape delay "Melos Echo Chamber".

01Cartridge

HiPac is a successor of the PlayTape cartridge, which had been licensed by Tokyo Shibaura Electric around 1970, and had similar dimensions of 70 mm × 85 mm × 12 mm (2.76 in × 3.35 in × 0.47 in), which is closer to Compact Cassette than other cartridges containing an endless loop tape. Depending on tape length, the weight of each cartridge is about 50 g (1.8 oz) and used the wider four-track magnetic tape of the compact cassette with 3.81 mm (0.150 in) The four audio tracks are separated into two stereo programs. The second program is recorded in the same direction as the first, unlike the Compact Cassette.

There are two specified tape speeds: 60 minutes at 1+7⁄8 ips or ~4.8 cm/s, and 30 minutes at 3+3⁄4 ips or ~9.5 cm/s. The tape speed is detected automatically by a notch in the cartridge's case. The slower of these tape speeds is identical to the Compact Cassette.

02HiPac Council

In addition to Pioneer, the following companies participated.

Watch videos about HiPacExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “HiPac”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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PlayTape

PlayTape is an 1⁄8 inch analog magnetic tape format which runs at 3¾ i.p.s., has a frequency range of 50 Hz to 8kHz, "the same as most AM radios or TV sets" of the day, approximately the same track widths and spacing as standard 4-track systems, and which featured monaural playback. Introduced in 1966 by Frank Stanton, it is a two-track system, and was launched to compete with existing 4-track cartridge technology.

8-track cartridge

The 8-track tape is a magnetic-tape sound-recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s until the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, which antedated the 8-track system, surpassed it in popularity for recorded music. The format was commonly used in cars and was most popular in the United States and Canada, and to a lesser extent, in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Japan.

Stereo-Pak

The Muntz Stereo-Pak, commonly known as the 4-track cartridge, is a magnetic tape sound recording cartridge technology. The Stereo-Pak cartridge was inspired by the Fidelipac 2-track monaural tape cartridge system invented by George Eash in 1954 and used by radio broadcasters for commercials and jingles in 1959.