What's so bad about 8 track tapes?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by youraveragevinylcollector, Jan 26, 2016.

  1. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    They're a hipster affect. And at least the players are common enough that they can be played. When your 8-track machine fails, cannibalization of another unit is about your only option.
     
  2. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    It was EMI-America. I have the vinyl.
     
  3. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Where, besides the cheap crap on Ion decks? I seriously doubt a millennial is going to buy a used deck from a thrift store just to play two or three cassettes. On the other hand: they don't exactly care about the SQ, from what I understand. It's like the crackling on vinyl, they think lo-fi is what cassettes are all about. Gotta remember, most grew up in a world of only mp3, and maybe CDs.
     
  4. Lord Hawthorne

    Lord Hawthorne Currently Untitled

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    Task number one -- ban the cat from the room.
     
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  5. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    Actually, I do think they'll get the cassette decks at the thrift store. Same place they hunt for "vinyls" and rotary phones.
     
  6. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    I'm surprised by the number of people in this forum who can't figure out, or will not implement that simplest of all solutions.
     
  7. Peter Baird

    Peter Baird Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Connecticut
    This is absolutely correct. There's a record/vinyl shop near me that is filled with young people, has tons of used cassettes for sale and I whole rack of used cassette decks (and turntables and amps).

    I love vinyl and am happy it's making a come back even if for many it's just nostalgia or hipster cool. The return of cassette decks makes a lot less sense to me.
     
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  8. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    They're a really cheap way to collect a lot of albums, especially ones from the '80s and '90s.
     
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  9. zebop

    zebop Well Known Stranger

    Me too. I don't quite have the patience I had even 10 years ago, especially since eBay probably has other copies. I did take time with my 8 track of Roy Ayers's He's Coming because it sounds great and I've never seen another copy.
     
  10. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I have no idea of what you two are talking about. What do cats have to do with 8-track tapes?
     
  11. OcdMan

    OcdMan Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    I guess you've never seen what a cat can do to that pile of tape when you're trying to re-spool an 8-track!
     
  12. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Nope. I don't like cats. I'm never around them. I'm also allergic to them.
     
  13. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    This reminds of the documentary So Wrong, They're Right. It was a documentary from 2005 about people who collect and are devoted to 8-track tapes. One of the points mentioned is that 8-track is a very low-cost way of purchasing music (8-track tapes cost $0.25 at some stores). Here's the trailer:
     
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  14. Sax-son

    Sax-son Forum Resident

    Location:
    Three Rivers, CA
    There is kind of an underground collection movement going on with both 4 track and 8 track cartridge tapes. I have noticed in the last year or two that tapes going for $.25 all day long are now fetching $2.00 to $3.00. I still have about 50 or so that I keep as conversation pieces. I am not a serious collector.

    However, like vinyl, they are now starting to get the attention of younger music buyers. How do I know this? From conversations with vendors at swap meets and record shops who still sell them. The problem though with 8 tracks is that you have to know how to repair and restore them. For some that can be frustrating.
     
  15. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    That is one advantage of vinyl over tape formats: no moving parts.
     
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  16. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    I didn't broach the subject of cats; I replied to another post.
     
  17. delmonaco

    delmonaco Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sofia, Bulgaria
    The main reason IMO is that the 8 tracks, compared to the vinyl records and compact cassettes (both formats dominated the market for decades, and left a mark to generations of music lovers all over the world) never being a big mainstream format, so there are not many people in this world that are nostalgic for the 8 tracks - most of the living people in this planet actually never heard or saw this format, and 8 track to be marketed anew for a new audience would be just insane.
     
  18. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    RIAA’s Cara Duckworth Weiblinger denied any noticeable uptake in sales:

    "We regularly check with our music label members to see if they are reporting any change in the sales of cassettes, but there hasn’t been for quite some time. It’s such a small number it doesn’t meet the threshold of sales requirements for us to report it (we report sales by category on a scale of millions of dollars and cassettes just haven’t broken that threshold). So there has been no increase in sales of cassettes or a proactive effort to look into tracking this further."

    If it doesn't meet the threshold of reportable sales requirements, it's hardly "mainstream".
     
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  19. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    :unhunh:
     
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  20. youraveragevinylcollector

    youraveragevinylcollector Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hartwell, GA
    I just had a rather odd idea. Have a tape like an 8 track, but have the head follow the tape almost like a record, like a Tefifion. It could work using a small head and reel to reel like technology (maybe).
     
  21. clhboa

    clhboa Forum Resident

    That's a fun movie.
     
  22. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    That would require the head to move. Given the need for pressure, and the chance for the head to drift out alignment is too great. I think a better idea would be for a laser to read/write on a tape.
     
    sunspot42 likes this.
  23. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    side change during a song...
     
  24. recordhead

    recordhead Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kentucky
    "I heard my mama cry. I heard her pray the night........................................KERCHUNK........................................ Chicago died. Brother what a night it really was. Brother what a fight it really was.
     
  25. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Interesting. I'm surprised nobody tried that. Probably couldn't control the heads accurately enough to maintain a precise position.

    I also finally realized what the Tefifon reminded me of - the Dictabelt!



    My aunt had one of these - a late model from the '70s I assume - at her office from the mid-'70s thru the mid-80's. It was eventually replaced by a minicassette-based system.
     

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