What's with the sound quality of 8 tracks and cassettes?!

I haven't played an eight track in decades but still give my Nak Dragon a regular workout. I'll stick with the inferior cassette.
 
Without the use of loudness, tone controls or equalizer, I have no lack of any frequeccies when listening to cassette.

Best recordings on cassette wil even be very hard to distinguish from ½-track 15ips open reel.

8-track never really go any chance on the European market, I think......

But listening to 8-track 1/4'' open reel never convinced me, so 8-track cartridges?
I don't think so. ;-)
 
Cassette is an adequate but finicky medium. It has been amazingly good. Reliable under heavy use it is not, consistent it is not. It requires far more attention to maintenance just to function semi-reliably. Dropouts more an issue. Travelling in the car and field work it is good. At home, I prefer my open reel and will always do so. Because of it's lower dropouts, wider tracks, better response, and far superior reliability/
 
Cassette is an adequate but finicky medium. It has been amazingly good. Reliable under heavy use it is not, consistent it is not. It requires far more attention to maintenance just to function semi-reliably. Dropouts more an issue. Travelling in the car and field work it is good. At home, I prefer my open reel and will always do so. Because of it's lower dropouts, wider tracks, better response, and far superior reliability/

My open reel decks; Studer A80/820, MCI etc.; Are just as reliable as my Tandberg TCD910/3014A or the other way around.

People experiencing reliability issues with decks like this have had the wrong people to look out for them.

Drop outs is a factor of bad tapes, not the deck.

Quality of recordings on these cassette decks might not get all the way to the stars as the Studers/MCI but most people would not at all notice any difference.

Compared to consumer 1/4-track 7.5ips (or lower) open reel decks, these decks will really have trouble doing the recordings and play back at the same level of sound quality as the TCD 910.

Distinguishing these differences will not be able to most people as it takes the very best of amps, speakers, listening room, tweaking, sources and media to notice even the slightest.

The majority of these consumer open reel tape decks are, over the edge, unreliable due to lack of maintainance and wrong handling.

Most people have never had any experience close to this and probably will do whatever in their technical knowledge to try to analyse and argument against this.

However, that would be like the travel from Herodes to Pontius Pilatus until they get the chance to audition with their own ears, their own mind.

Take ther very best ever LP or ½-track open reel tape or any high rez digital audio, visit me and I will show you how you will not be able, even though acknowledging the once in a lifetime pristine quality of the sound in general, to distinguis between the source and a cassette tape recording.
At all.
 
Ultralyd,

Let us not get off the topic. I use the better cassette machines for travel and convenience. Their performance has reached amazing heights. A home machine like your Tandbergs gets used a lot less. Where you are most likely located, was near where Tandberg machines were made and where most of these machines were sold new. You and my wife has access to resources to keep these fine machines in top order. (P.S. my wife and many of my inlaws are some of the folks who had roles in your favorite machines). The Tandberg best models are along with the best ReVox and Nakamichis the apogee of cassette tape technology. But in the USA, Tandberg Of America had an issue with how owners were supported. They kept little parts stock. And their mindset of selling parts to dealers only hurt Tandberg's reputation. Many dealers would not sell parts or order parts for owners or for other repair technicians. ReVox and Nakamichi treated their owners much better when you needed anything. The Professional open reels are made with different goals in mind, they worked for a living. They had to be reliable and easily maintained. And thusly off topic. The ReVox B 77 in top order at 7 1/2 IPS has the edge over the Tandberg for American owners. As does the ReVox cassette machines, the average AK member can get the spare parts he or she needs to keep their machine in top functioning order. And has the advantage of easier service and maintenance over the Tandberg owner. So, let us get out of the way and enjoy our cassettes (and me even an 8 track or two) with the others in this thread and celebrate the tape medium. And keep the thread going in grand fashion.
 
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Tandberg is good, when you can get the spare parts needed to keep one functioning. Many Americans can't get parts. Knowhow on maintenance is not a problem. Studers I can keep running, ReVoxes I can keep running. I can get parts for those and they are easily maintainable. My wife has many Tandberg machines, and she worked for Tandberg as did her parents. In Norway, they are practical as daily drivers. In the USA, parts stocks never were at high levels even when these machines were new. Too many USA Tandberg owners ran their machines until they had a failure, instead of the Norwegian preventative maintenance mindset. Ultralyd, you and my wife have advantages many AK members do not. We know Tandberg machines and their maintenance and have means of getting parts for our own use or stocked spares on key maintenance items. But no Tandberg while they are superb, is as workhorse under American heavy use as say, a ReVox in the toughest environments like abusive users or broadcast automation. This perspective of mine comes from years of servicing and maintaining machines. ReVox spares with very rare exceptions can still be had and through easier channels. ReVox in the USA was a lot easier and friendlier to deal with to boot and would sell and ship an owner, broadcast engineer, or independent servicer spare parts. Tandberg USA was horrible to deal with, they only offered spare parts through their dealers, and many dealers would not sell parts or order parts outside their service departments. Growing up as a young repairman, I dealt with repairing and adapting equipment from Europe. I saw a lot of Tandberg gear. I got so flustered at the US branch of Tandberg when I needed any part, that I wrote to Tandberg in Norway. The Norwegian branch would sell me and ship me parts. So please understand why Tandberg has their US reputation with some people. In Tennessee, that US branch attitude was a major issue with customers.

That's a very sad situation for the Americans.

The very best Revox cassette deck didn't even have sound quality comparable to the mid market Tandberg TCD 440A.

Isn't it like saying: "Do to spare part situation, you have to accept a Toyota Corolla as the very best up market car ever here where you live"?

Granted that a Toyota Corolla has a reputation as reliable, it never really inspired me to drive anywhere but from a to b.
 
Aage said:
I mean, no FF or rewind (or maybe a FF that is geriatric) and the wonderful "klonk" between trax, what more could one want!?

The noise of that isnt a biggie but what IS a biggie is when they split songs.... But on 8 track its hard NOT to do that..... Its GOOD when they dont!!

All of my 8 tracks are gorgeous and none have dolby crap on them..... (Some of my cassettes dont either which is nice)
 
Best recordings on cassette wil even be very hard to distinguish from ½-track 15ips open reel.

Hmm.. narrow tape running at 1-7/8 IPS vs. the capacity of something 4x wider running at 8x higher speed. Wonder why studios didn't use cassettes for mastering. :thumbsdown:

I enjoy discussions of tape formats as I love them all, but lets keep it real.

Dude, I just noticed you resurrected an old thread!
 
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Wow and oldie but goodie. Personally I found the sound of 8 tracks to be fairly good in their day. Cassette tapes, just by how they operate, offers huge advantages over the 8-track tape. I've found that the sound quality of cassettes (when made with excellent quality tapes and recorders) are very good to excellent. Cassettes are very good with bass, and most sound frequencies are respectfully well done. As far as overall music range, IMO the CD has most sound media (after the master recording) beat.
 
forward to the past!

I smell a billion dollar industry recreating the magnificent 8 track, repairs, new cartridges, new
decks, with Dolby b/c/s, MQA, etc.

then onto quill pens, papyrus paper, stone tablet chiseling. sun-dial clocks, handmade arrow tips,
fur clothing, ...
 
I'll pass on the 8-track,. the WOW just annoyed the crap out of me. A friend kept his recorder and player in the car long after everyone else had abandoned it, and I had to nag him to switch it to FM everytime I rode with him. And I got really tired of "Dark Side of The Moon" being played all the time, not to mention it sounded horrible.
 
. And I got really tired of "Dark Side of The Moon" being played all the time, not to mention it sounded horrible.
Agreed. Both "Money" and "Time" were cut onto different tracks if I remember. That said, I wish I had the Quad version in 8 track: its worth over $500!
 
I think the quality issue is more with the playback of 8-Track and not the recording of manufactured tapes. I worked at CBS Records and Tape from 1976 to 1981. All of our master playback units and duplicators were aligned weekly with level adjustments made daily to keep things in spec. Even replicating tapes at 40x playback speed produced very good sounding tapes. Our frequency response specs were +/- 0.3db at all frequencies, levels +/- 0.5db. Each system run produced 10 reels of which one was QC immediately by line QC, then re-checked by comparing the master against the product. At the time we were running eight 8-Track systems and nine cassettes.

I think a lot of the problem with 8-Track was the cartridge and cheap playback units. With 8-Tracks the pinch roller is in the cartridge, which caused a lot of issues. Also, the tension roller which held the cartridge in place never seemed to be a good system. It never held all tapes in place effectively (anyone remember using a book of matches so the roller would make good contact with the capstan?). The track changing mechanism was a cam system, usually made of plastic. Getting proper tracking and azimuth was hit and miss. I don't miss either.
 
I sure miss the way the 8-tracks switched tracks in the middle of a song. You sure can not get that with modern media.
 
The reality of most people’s experience with most forms of audio has been what they want and how much they don’t want to spend. In the seventies I had a Craig tunnel mount quad 8-Trak AM/FM with Jensen 3:1 speakers and I only bought tapes from Pacific Stereo and they would align the head on your machine. So you get what you pay for in sound quality, then if you don’t keep the head clean on any tape player you will destroy the surface of the tape and it will become sticky. Everything requires preventative maintenance and a persons inabilities reflect in the quality of their experiences. So many people bought cheap stuff and thought the others were having the same experience and so many were. But not everyone only cared about the cost and that’s the common denominator and why CD was so successful as it was cheap bastard proof, you could buy the cheapest equipment with some half way decent speakers and get a great sound....consistently.

The first problem is people themselves and what they don’t want to wrap their heads around as far as involvement. Cassette recording equipment reveals every bit of harmonic distortion of your system in the recording as background noise. So the higher the dampening effect, the higher the S/N ratio and the lower the THD in all components, the use of chrome tape, a clean tape recorder the better all frequencies will be recorded onto tape. It’s about the sonic capabilities of the equipment being used, the quality of the equipment being used as the source and the quality of the recording being copied. A great CD player with a great recorded CD is a great source because of how quiet the signal is coming from that source and not taking your time making a turntable quiet enough to use as a source is most peoples downfall when recording cassette tape.
 
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HTHMAN said:
I sure miss the way the 8-tracks switched tracks in the middle of a song. You sure can not get that with modern media.

Yes its nice when ya have an 8 track WITH NO SPLIT SONGS!!! (My 1981 rush concert (Exit stage left) has none)
 
OK, I've noticed that 8 tracks tend to have a tonne of bass, and hardly any treble, as well as a general tone that just basically sounds like someone took a dump in the cartridge. The ones that sound good, sound REALLY good. But what's with the ones that sound like AM radio?

And cassettes. Why do they always seem to lack bass, but have enough treble to make your ears ring? Geez. Sure they sound very crisp and clear, but i think they over-did it on the treble.

These 2 formats are basically identical in terms of how they work, but they both have an entirely different sound to them.

When you compare one of the few 8 tracks that don't sound like AM radio, to a cassette, they blow cassettes right out the window. I don't care what anyone says, 8 tracks sound better than cassettes.

if you want a real analogue sound, go for 8 tracks. Cassettes basically sound like CDs.

Strong condemnation coming from minimal knowledge.
 
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