What's so bad about 8 track tapes?

I got many a speeding ticket driving behind the influence of Creedence Clearwater "Keep on Chooglin". My foot wanted to automatically step on the gas pedal.

 

I'd just about lose it if and when I ever find the Maiden 8-tracks. I think the first three came in this format.

 

One blank page.

 

Nah! For better or worse, there would always be someone who would say something good about them. 8 tracks kind of have a nostalgic vibe thing going for them now for some people. I still have a couple of dozen hanging around. Most if not all had to have the foam pressure pads replaced. Not like a record to where you can keep them in the sleeve for fifty years or so.

 

Lots of good things about them. They may not be audiophile quality but so what?

 

Other than nostalgia, audio quality is the obvious deterrent to their big comeback. At least LPs have a warmthness to then, can't say the same for the 8-Track.

But for any collector, they are awesome, especially if you have an old car with a 8-Track player in it and a bunch of 8-Tracks.....

 

Where to start, but I'm sure at this point, it's all been covered.

 

Aint cheap

Iron Maiden "Number Of The Beast" 8 Track! 34 Year Old Kick Ass! Ultra Rare! WOW | eBay »

 

No rewind only forward. They are also hard to splice. You have to be careful to get splice right. The pinch roller can be defective and often is. There was a product called a 4-track that came just before the 8-track that involved a pinch roller that popped out of the player into the cassette. I always felt that the 4-track was a better design.

 

I had a Supertuner in my 340 Dodge Challenger. People would ask "Can you turn down your CAR?"

 

Those were carts used in radio. 1/4 inch tape, 3.75 IPS. Yes, they were better.

 

No, broadcast carts were 1 mono or 2 stereo tracks with a cue track, 7 1/2 IPS. And Pacific Recorders and Engineering had the TomCat with MaxTrax wide track format and 15 IPS speed. 4 track cartridges (8 track's father used a similar type Fidelipac design but 4 tracks at 3 3/4 IPS)

 

they gave me diarrhea back in the day...

 

I worked in radio, I used the things every day. Very handy when you had to use the bathroom. Yes, 7.5 IPS, it's been too many years. I just meant the design (with the pop-up pinch roller) was the same. Never used a Tomcat. Wouldn't have needed high fidelity for AM anyway.

 

You and I share that background.

 

They made some decks that were pretty high-end - at least by 8-track standards. But keep in mind by the time really high-fidelity cassette decks were rolling out in the mid-'70s, 8-track was already really in decline and the technology had been pushed as far as it could go. It was clear the cassette was far more convenient and reliable, especially as a recording medium, and the arrival of chrome and high bias tape formulas and Dolby noise reduction allowed the cassette to easily overcome 8-track's tape speed advantage.

 

Techmoan has a good installment regarding a new-in-box '75 Pioneer 8-track recorder - great illustration of some of the issues 8-tracks suffer from:

 

Techmoan did a great video on the Elcaset, too:

 

What contributed the most to bad sound in 8-tracks was the duplication process done at high speed, wiping out all high end when played at normal speed, any variation in speed or tracking at high speed is also more noticeable at normal speed.

 

Steely Dan, "Reelin the Years" at 90 MPH. (a 13 second '69 GTO)

 

I never turn down work when it comes in. But sometimes you just have to say "no".

 

Very nice. The best thing about 8 tracks seems to be this beautiful Pioneer recorder.

 

I remember some of my 8 tracks sounded good, examples: Elton John: Honky Chateau, (Universal City on Lear Jet cartridge) The Hollies: Distant Light, (Columbia TC-8) Chicago II (Columbia TC-8) Three Dog Night on GRT, and others. The worst were the Moody Blues on Ampex (all albums) Led Zeppelin (terrible)

 

Bad for the planet, you would see gobs of tape in the ditches people would throw out of their cars!