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

[Hajidub]

Strong condemnation coming from minimal knowledge.

LOL, nice response!

 

[thumper69]

Yes its nice when ya have an 8 track WITH NO SPLIT SONGS!!! (My 1981 rush concert (Exit stage left) has none)

I had my air guitar down to the split second in Van Halen 1 when it switched tracks to complete the song. I think it switched sides 3/4 through Running With The Devil IIRC. I prolly don't

 

[thumper69]

There you have it folks. An end to the controversy (and you never knew there was one, did you?)

Have I ever told you of my opinion regarding sweeping unsubstantiated statements?

Did you know that 83% of all statistics are made up on the spot?

 

[maxhifi]

I think the issue with 8 tracks, is mostly down to terrible quality tape decks being extremely common. I bought a Sony home deck, and was blown away by how good it sounds. The variation in quality of players is stunning, the Sony has stable speed, crisp highs, not much in the way of noise, and just sounds good in general. Not far off a decent 3 3/4 IPS open reel.I almost can't believe it's an 8 track playing when I use it. At the other end of the spectrum, there's the cheap Lloyds machines with nasty dull highs, unstable warbly speed, etc. The cheap machines always suffer from poor head alignment too, and the Sony is right on.

 

[Dude111]

I think it mostly depends on what your listening on....... (I mean the AMP/TUNER its connected to)

My 8 tracks and cassettes sound goregous.... I really try to avoid cassettes with DOLBY because I have found those dont sound quite as nice......


Its eaiser avoiding dolby on 8 tracks then it is on cassettes.....

 

[David_NC]

Back in the day, we had 8-track players in our cars. That annoying clunk! when changing tracks is kind of ingrained in my mind. Even now, when I play a song that we had on 8 track, I add a verbal clunk! at the point where the track change interrupted songs. It doesn't matter if it's a record, CD, or streaming, I still hear that noise... maybe I need a real 8 track to help overcome this and move on!

 

[Dude111]

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

Indeed so... Especially after about 1975 cassettes start sounding like thinned out garbage!!

Well it depends on how they do it but more and more cassettes after 1975 sound like thin crap to me than any 8 track

 

[oldvinyldude]

Indeed so... Especially after about 1975 cassettes start sounding like thinned out garbage!!

Well it depends on how they do it but more and more cassettes after 1975 sound like thin crap to me than any 8 track

Funny, my experience with cassettes is pretty much the opposite. I am always impressed by a Chrome tape recorded with 120us equalization using Dolby HX.

 

[Hajidub]

I'm curious as to what deck these cassette tape naysayer's are using. There's a nominal difference between vinyl and tape in my setup.