8 Track and Cassettes

I picked up a Wollensak reel to reel audio recorder. I don't know why, just thought it looked cool. Its in a case with as I guess it was meant to be portable. I'm sure its worthless. I think I will go back tomorrow night and check it out again.

My first reel-to-reel was a half-track Wollensak. It made great mono recordings. If I knew that my first three stereo R2Rs would be pieces of crap that failed shortly after the warrantees ended, I probably would have kept that old Wollensak!
 
When I saw this I just had to add it to my console. Plus I now know how to restore the tapes.

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Both but I was referring to the tapes. 8track.co has the supplies. The player itself has 2 moving parts so not much to restore.
 
It's not worth saving, and it's not coming back.

He's dead, Jim.


I dunno bout that DV? There far more sites dealing with this archaic format that ever before in the cyber world. Some of the astro sales on these 8 tracks are astonishing to say the least! Check out "Discogs" and you will be amazed at the astro prices that some will pay for the few 8 tracks out there.

I know it depends on the entertainer and condition, but many are still following this way to take in the sound. They (the cartridges) DO have their inherent foibles/designs, but there's just something about this old way of playing the tunes of the time what just went with this plastic format. They just go hand and hand. The CD's with the 50's music, even the 60's just doesn't seem right. And I know it's my bias showing, but with the ever increasing interest in this format as of late and to a degree, it still is important to the few out there that appreciate it.

Now how long this music carrier attraction lasts? Well, like all other trends/fads, call it what you may?... it will decline as does the favs that used to be in the vint car world. Sad but true. The times change and the people do as well.

Dead? Not yet, least that's how I see it...so far.

Q
 
Sounds like you don't have any previous experience with 8 tracks.
Any car 8 track players in the bunch?
Man, you haven't lived until the 8 track "eats a tape" and you chuck the tape out the car window at 70 mph.*

QFT.
 
There far more sites dealing with this archaic format that ever before in the cyber world. Some of the astro sales on these 8 tracks are astonishing to say the least! Check out "Discogs" and you will be amazed at the astro prices that some will pay for the few 8 tracks out there.
It will be mainly nostalgia buyers, plus a few collectors and a handful of curiosity seekers, but there's no inherent strength to the format -- it doesn't sound better or work better than other formats, and it's certainly not the sole source of the content it carries -- so once the nostalgia buyers die out there will be relatively few collectors trading among themselves at high prices.

It'll be like Edison cylinders: there's a high-priced but tiny collector market; for the rest of the world, the format is gone and won't be back.

As such, selling 8-tracks makes sense. Saving them to keep?

No.
 
Stereo Review magazine once described 8-track tapes as having a "built-in self-destruct mechanism", because sooner or later the delicate self-tensioning of the endless loop of tape gets upset, and eventually the tape either gets loose and is eaten by the player, or it gets tighter and tighter until it snaps, usually at the splice point.
 
At Vintage Voltage, Denver's annual nostalgia-fest, I usually bring several dozen 8 tracks from my collection (with many worthy titles, mind you), and they always sell.

Same goes for laser discs.
 
It will be mainly nostalgia buyers, plus a few collectors and a handful of curiosity seekers, but there's no inherent strength to the format -- it doesn't sound better or work better than other formats, and it's certainly not the sole source of the content it carries -- so once the nostalgia buyers die out there will be relatively few collectors trading among themselves at high prices.

It'll be like Edison cylinders: there's a high-priced but tiny collector market; for the rest of the world, the format is gone and won't be back.

As such, selling 8-tracks makes sense. Saving them to keep?
No.




Five trues in a row, DV.:thumbsup: And the one false, from my POV, and I think from some others.


But when does nostalgia really count in the world of sound? Many of us are still using TT's. There's tape recorder users on board AK.Then there's the whole vint crowd who'd never trade their Mar/Mac for a newer better specs of the DAC's of today. I was really surprized to see some of the astonishing prices for cassettes on "Discogs".

There had to be a beginning for what people wanted to hear in the car/house/on the beach and not have to run and change the record when it finished, esp the 45's. So, we are just part of the history of our music with all the warts and pimples of that time of music in the way of the crude formats of the day. As already pointed out, you haven't lived if you haven't gone down the road in an early gen Camaro/Mustang vert, with the 8 track blaring as loud as you could make it:rockon:...takin' in the tunes of the day.

Wait a minute. Come to think of it, there was a custom made record player for the car. Darn, I'll bet it came first! Just shows to go ya. Hmmmm? I wonder if they still try to play their tunes on it when rolling down the road? Yikes!

Is the 8 track dead in the water? Maybe for the most part, but there's some of us who still like the music experience in this format..be that what it may. For us it's alive.

But now you got me thinking how to get one of those "Edison's" set up in a car.:biggrin:

Q
 
I'm 65 and had no interest in 8 tracks when they were a going concern. I bought albums and recorded stuff onto R2R then later, onto cassettes. I gave 8 track a complete miss. Six or seven years ago, I saw an Akai 8 track machine in a used furniture store, tagged at $40 which I though was outrageous.

I had been in the HiFi business a long time including some stints with Akai dealers, but until I saw that deck, it never crossed my mind that Akai offered anything in that format. I soon realized that since they were a significant producer of tape machines in general that why wouldn't they be involved in 8 track? So when I got home, I had to go online and suss it out.

What I discovered was that 8 track had somewhat of a following and that the Akai I saw was considered desirable. Being as I have something of a fascination with electro-mechanical audio equipment, I returned to that shop the next day but it was gone.

However, the die was cast and I immediately started actively looking for an 8 track deck. First one was from e-bay, a Realistic. Then I seemed to be encountering them everywhere in including one of those Akai's. The count topped out around 10.

Since I haunt thrift stores incessantly, it was a no brainer to then start looking for tapes there and elsewhere. Found a few "big hauls" but mostly just one or a few at a time. My focus was rock music so that's all I bought unless there were largish lots and I could not cherry pick. Any I did not want, I gave away.

What I ended up with with was the photo below. There are about 1,000 all together and each and every one was reconditioned. And that was done before even attempting a first play. I don't buy them just to have them, I want them to be able to play.

The way I look at it is, 8 track was a huge deal for a quarter century so why not have a bunch and be able to play them? And some recordings, or versions thereof, exist nowhere else but on 8 track.

The most most I've spent on an 8 track tape was $35 and I know that some of those I've acquired for a few cents to two dollars apiece are worth a lot more than what I paid for them.

I don't own any cylinder recordings or machines that play those, but I do have 78's. I maintained an interest in R2R and cassettes so still have that hardware/software and after the 8 track bug bit, I decided to get into Elcaset. But without question, I've found more 8 track tapes out there than recordings in other "obsolete" formats.

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Oh man, me thinks that this 8 track malady doth engulf the globe!:eek:

I too have found artists who I've never encountered in other formats. Eventually I am going to transfer these into either CD or on SD micro.

There is a collector who has a museum in Texas dedicated to the 8 track.

And, any time in the next year or two y'all want to enlarge your collection by 1800 or so, then get back to me.

Take care and have great listening, in whatever way that you can, 62 Vauxhall...and is it an Envoy?

Q
 
So I went back to the hoard tonight. I didn't pick up any 8 track decks but there were a couple Akai. I did pick about 7 cassette decks one being a Pioneer CT-F9191, one is a Luxman, a few lesser Pioneers and a couple Teacs. I addition to that I bought two boxes full of cassette tapes (must be 3 to 4 hundred). I cherry picked the classic rock pre-recorded and then picked up at least 100 high bias cassette tapes. I hope one of those decks work.

I was so overwhelmed with the cassettes I never got to looking at the 8 tracks. There are still hundreds of 8 track cartridges and at least a dozen 8 track players. I really didn't have a clue what to look for. The seller did say a guy was going to come and give him 5 bucks a piece for each 8 track cartridge he cherry picks. So there was definitely some interest in the 8 track.
 
I'm 57 and skipped the 8-track era, my portable medium was cassettes which are also hip now. I mostly remember friend's car players eating the tapes, and yes, they were thrown out the window routinely.
 
It’s funny to me that a lot of us have admitted to throwing 8 track tapes out the window, never realizing we are also admitting to littering! Lol! Now that’s funny
 
I picked up a Wollensak reel to reel audio recorder. I don't know why, just thought it looked cool. Its in a case with as I guess it was meant to be portable. I'm sure its worthless. I think I will go back tomorrow night and check it out again.
If that Wollensak's tube-type flip it over. Underneath a perforated ventilation screen there'll be a pair of 7591s. A few bucks right there.
 
Once in dumpster.. pull up the pickup.. grab the tapes and decks..

And Jetttttt...... :jump:

Later, once sorted and discovering the probably "hard to get titles" and undoubtedly working 8 track mechs... you'll be glad you did :naughty:
 
There was a time about three years ago and I had the 68 Cam vert, had pulled up to a red light, pulled out an 8 track cartridge since I had a GM player in it. Anyways, there was a group of kids in a tuner next to me, and one bellowed out to the rest in their car, "Holly shit look at that big cassette!" I just pulled away, smiled,:) and thought to myself, 'Ignorance IS bliss at times' .

I hope y'all know that anyone either lookin' in, or contributing to this thread will be shunned by the superior music format affectionatos that tend to distain this form of listening. :D

And if you don't care, what/how you listen? Guess yer a rebel at heart...full of nostalgia, or full of something.

Q
 
My Mom once bought an 8 track for her home setup. It was probably the only one I ever saw that was a recorder as well.
I recorded tons of albums onto 8 track to play in my older friends cars. (I was still too young to have a drivers license, let alone my own car)

Nowadays, there are songs I hear on different formats, and my brain still anticipates the Click right in the middle of certain songs.
 
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