What's so bad about 8 track tapes?

You probably already know this, but 8 track is a high maintenance format, especially once they get to be 40 to 50 years old. My guess is that the foam pressure pads on many of those tapes are beyond their useful life and were pushed over the edge by being stored in a hot environment. Also, the tape heads and capstan need to be cleaned pretty frequently for your tapes to continue sounding decent. If the tapes sounded good at one point, there is no reason with some maintenance of both the tapes and the deck that they could not sound good again. Just my two cents.

 

Cassette is way, way more durable than 8 track. The tape formulations were better, the tape is under less stress (it moves half as fast for starters and the tape path is straighter), and the Mylar or whatever the substrate is made of is typically higher-quality. I think 8 tracks also had some kind of lubricant applied to the tape, graphite if I'm not mistaken. That wasn't necessary with cassette. It can wear off over time. Some might have used silicone lubricants, I can't recall offhand. Those could dry up or gum up.

 

I replace every foam pressure pad that comes my way, no point trying to play them without. Also, my decks both have more crosstalk now, so they probably need aligned(despite having not been used lately?). Mostly the speed issues worry me; have the working pinch rollers just died, or has the heat killed the tape's backing lubricant? Also, for a format intended for cars much of the time, 8track is pathetically weak to heat. I don't think 26°C in the summer is that crazy, the average 8T owner probably did not have central air in the 70s especially...

I guess that summarizes the thread(yet again), though; such a picky, high-maintenance format prone to failure, and even in peak condition they din't sound very good or deliver a very good listening experience.

 

From what I understand cassettes also have lubricants. The YouTube channel Ana(dia)log covered the issue of some XDR cassettes issued by Capitol having issues with lubricant that caused the tapes to be unusable. The only way to fix the issue was to apply new lubricant to the cassette. The following is a video about this issue:

​

 

I don't think cassette tape is typically lubricated, but there are slip sheets inside the shell to keep the tape from rubbing on the shell, and I think those might be lubricated with graphite (or possibly silicone, but I think it's a dry lubricant).

 

I've had a few of the clear shells where I had to remove the sheets because of tape drag causing the deck to stop playing. Worked great after removal.

 

Not many high quality players and reel to reel at 7-1/2 speed outperforms any 8 track. As for cassette, only advantage are the better players v s8 track. Reel to Reel outperforms cassette too.

 

Just plain bad.

 

Wow! 600ft of tape in a cartidge. Reminds me of the Ampex 3" reel of the stuff quadriple play I did have when I was around ten for my Sharp RD303 with spools no bigger than 3 1/4".

 

Only 8 track I've ever messed with was a white Weltron space ball or whatever. Didn't power up. Owner asked me to poke around inside. Broken fuse holder. Took right off. And played cartridges very well.

 

I bought 8 track tapes up through 1972. I still have many of them that I keep in the faux alligator cases. I have to be honest and say that it is only for nostalgia and conversation reasons. However, i still play them from time to time when I just want background music and they will continuously keep playing without having to get up and change the music.

The problems with 8 tracks were the same problems for CD's when using in the car. Heat and dirt were their biggest enemies. I actually preferred the 4 track cartridge tapes which were their predecessors. I thought they had better sound quality and they used an actual pinch roller like that of a reel to reel against the capstan. I have some 8 track tapes that actually have different mixes than their vinyl counterparts. I have an original Tommy from the Who that sounds remarkable and is a different mix than that of a later 8 track of the same title.

I still like them, but I maintain them, and they are not left to abuse, or the trash can.

PS: I once spilled a whole can of Budweiser on my tape box ruining a bunch of my tapes. What was I doing driving around with an open can of beer while driving? A sign of the times I guess.

 

-Virtually all cartridges need repair
-Poorer sound compared to newer cassettes
-Rearranged track order
-Song fades out… CLUNCK! …Song fades in again
-Can’t rewind
-Fast forward is only twice the playback speed (normally)
-You can’t (at least it is very hard) record your own music onto a cartridge
-Small/non existent artwork
-Bulkier than cassettes
-Tape head mountings crack and the tape head becomes misaligned

There are many more - for sure…

 

I reviewed my first post in this thread and noticed something that I should correct concerning the smaller size. Four uncased CCs will fit in the space of one 8-track, but only two cased CCs will fit in the space of one 8-track.

 

Fond memories of them in my car. No downside for me as I had great music playing at all times in a very fast car. I had no more failure with em as I did with CC or CD.

 

How about 850 feet of tape - and also requiring some empty room in the cartridge for the take-up reel?


TDK C180

 

It is still stuck in my cars deck

Every time I pull the body out raw tape just spins out of the plastic cartridge and the deck will not let go of what is left in it. Any suggestions?

 

Like as not, the tape is wrapped around the capstan. With patience, you can get out what's stuck in there, but the tape will almost surely be a total loss.

Only other scenario is removing the deck from the car and disassembling enough to get to the tape/capstan mishmash.

 

With compact cassettes, the longest I ever used were some BASF 100 minute tapes which I used for a short time. With that exception, I only used 90 minute tapes because it was long enough for me needs. I could fit two LPs on one tape (one LP on each side) and didn't worry about completely filling the tape except when recording 45s or making tape of my favorite songs.

 

There are still tons of working 8 track tapes floating around out there. The problem is not so much the tapes, but the lack of decent working 8 track players. Until that is dealt with, 8 tracks will be nothing more than a curio hobby going forward. They were designed to play in cars and not take the place of superior sounding LPs. I liked the small virtues of cassette tapes, but I never really bought that many. I still have a tape machine system set up in my garage and that works beautifully. Just pop a tape in and let it go. Great for background music. 8 track cartridge tapes are now close to 40 years old and older. Most will require some kind of maintenance (usually the deteriorated foam pads) but that is simple and really easy to learn. There are tape supplies on the net and they are very inexpensive. You had to know how to repair them back in the day to keep them operating. It was standard operating procedure.

 

Song fading out/CLICK/Same song fading back in? UNACCEPTABLE.

 

May I humbly suggest that you therefore should not get involved with such an "unacceptable" format?

And you probably should stay away from black-and-white movies, too.

 

Anyone going down the eight-track road will definitely need to learn the ins and outs of how the tapes and players work, or don't. Indeed, the foam pads need to be replaced 99% of the time and you should always replace the foil splice even if it looks good. Not doing so is flirting with tape eating disaster. As for the players, it's kind of astounding that the vast majority of decks I've come across still work after 50 plus years. The Japanese built some serious quality electronics back then. Typically all they need is some lubrication at the right points and a new belt. New belts can usually be found at turntableneedles.com. It's a pretty fun hobby if you're into fixing and fiddling with old electronics and bringing them back to life. Here a few that I've rescued recently.

 

That pink one up front looks smaller than a tape! I think it's got one tiny speaker too!

 

Many of those portables were mono, with a single speaker. Also, some had only manual channel-change with a thumbwheel, since a solenoid to move the head would eat up valuable battery life.

Of course, there were quite a few - larger - with stereo speakers and auto channel-change.