8-Track Vs. Cassette

[pilotprose]

I have a quad 8 track tape player. Some of the music that was presented on them, in particular, from Motown, sounded quite nice. I managed to remove a chunck of the hiss, but played the unit in a cabinet with the door shut to keep the noise down. Again, some of the music was quite nice, indeed.

 

[Markw]

Like the two previus posts hit upon, there's something "right" about an 8-track unit in a car from the 60's and early seventies. Since that's all they had then, anything else just seems "wrong", particularly for car nuts into restorations.

Now, this doesn't imply that they are the greatest thing since sliced bread, but, just like white-wall bias-ply tires, they just fit some vehicles.

And, for the best of both worlds, you can always get remote controlled CD changers/FM tuners to mount in the trunk of those old cars.

 

[stuckinthe70s]

I have both cassette and 8-track, I use cassette to record tapes for in the car and the 8-track is mostly for fun- I like to see how much I can squeeze out of a tape. My 8 decks are Akai Cr-81D in the main system and a Pioneer H-R100 in the basement for when I'm fartin around down there. I find the most fun is recording from cd to 8-track. If I use a quality blank like Maxell, TDK or Scotch I can get a decent result. Sometime I'm going to try DBX encoding and see how that sounds. And yes I repair all my tapes before use. I've also found that using a good interconnect may get you a tiny bit more HF than a cheap cable(we all knew that though, right?)

But yes 8-track certainly has it's faults, that cannot be denied. As stated in other posts, the pressure pad and splice are the weakest links, fortunately they can be fixed for cheap. What I find the most annoying is that no matter how well the head is aligned it's nearly impossible to avoid all crosstalk on every tape. That annoys the heck out of me.

I like both formats. For me at least, they each have a different purpose and so I can't really vote for one over the other. I would say though if you like a big fat bottom end, get a good 8-track deck, tune it up properly and start fixing some tapes. OTH, if high end is your thing go for cassette. I can easily understand why most people have absolutely no use for the 8-track- they suck but I still love em.

 

[Marantz7t15]

Whew, I'm 42, and even when I was a kid, 8 tracks were dead.and obsolete....so I thought. I put CDs at the top, but cassettes would certainly be a step or two above 8 tracks.

 

[braxus]

Wow SIT70s,

You have almost the same 8 track setup as me. An Akai CR-81D and I have the Pioneer H-R99 instead of the 100. Basically the same deck without Dolby and lit meters during play.

 

[krowmagnum]

Actually those ol' Pioneer Supertuner AM-FM 8-tracks weren't bad sounding (for what they were) and they looked great (in a '70s way). A good friend in high school had one of the early ones (with the backlighted blackout radio dial); the later ones were "all silver" a la the SX-450 and up series of home receivers.

ahh, memories...

Cassette for sure. I don't know how many times I pulled an 8-track cartridge out of the player and the tape stayed in the player.

I had an 8-track Supertuner in my first car and it jammed with a Clarion Amp/EQ and a pair of Jenson Tri-axle 6x9 speakers !

 

[eyg2181]

I would like a Quad 8 Track player. im waiting for an Akai to show up on eBay. then i need a Quad receiver. and of course a copy of Dark Side Of The Moon (Quad). time and money must sound amazing with 4 separate channels. those songs sound great in just stereo mode, let alone Quad mode.

also, how would you go about recording a tape in Quad mode? or isnt it possible? the reason i ask is that i cant think of any other format that puts out in Quad. so the only thing i could think of is having 2 Quad decks and recording 8-Track to -Track, which would be pointless unless your trying to make a mixed tape from all your other Quadrophonic 8 Track tapes.

please keep in mind that im new to the vintage electronics thing, so i dont know half as much as you guys do.

 

[stuckinthe70s]

Wow SIT70s,

You have almost the same 8 track setup as me. An Akai CR-81D and I have the Pioneer H-R99 instead of the 100. Basically the same deck without Dolby and lit meters during play.

So I'm not the only weirdo after all! Yeah Brax, I like both decks. The Pioneer had been in my main system, then I picked up the Akai for almost nothin at an auction a few months back so I'm playing it for a while. BTW, forgot to mention I also have the Akai CR-80D-SS sitting here doing nothing- not sure why I bought it as I have no quad components or tapes.

 

[313guy]

I will admit to owning 8 tracks. But not recently, and not by choice. When I was a junior in high school, I asked for a cassette player for X-mas. I figured if I kept the price down, I may have a better chance versus asking for a full blown deck. Plus, my brother owned a Wollensak top loader , so I could record on his and play on mine. I went so far as to select the exact model from the Olson electronics catalog.
Christmas came and my grandmother came over and when I opened her gift, it was Who's Next, Innervisions(stevie wonder), and Brothers and Sisters(allmans). These were all titles from my list, but they were on 8-track! I thanked her, then opened one from my parents. It was a Realistic 8-Track player. It had exactly one button on the front, the track advance. I did end up adding a tracking adjustment which was a piece of wooden shim. Some tapes sounded better with under, some over.
When I got my first car, I did get an under dash player to complement the FM converter. But by the time I was 19, I was done with the format. It was severely looked down upon in most circles I moved in at the time. I did have friends who had them in their cars or vans, but I never knew anybody else with one in the house.
Flash forward to last year. I was watching "That 70's Show" with my 3 teenagers. The son on the show had the same thing happen to him, except it was his birthday and it was a player for his Vista Cruiser. My daughter remebered my story and asked, "Dad, didn't that exact thing happen to you?"
I answered, "No, I got mine for Christmas."
I switched to cassettes for sonic and convenience reasons. Everybody had them it seemed. I still own hundreds of them, but haven't listened to them in many years. Most are home recorded off albums or FM. Many are the "Mix Tapes" or as we called them "Party Tapes'. My 17 year old discovered them recently and has been playing them in his car. Imagine my shock when I had to move his car from behind mine in the driveway and heard Mott the Hoople blaring when I turned the key. :guitar:

 

[pitts64]

I enjoy the 8 tracks and have a few that really sound good...

I have a Akai CR-81D the records pretty good...

 

[eyg2181]

I got the first 5 Metallica albums on 8-Track. They sound REALLY good, probably because i made them from CD's. the hardest part is arranging the tracks so they wont change in the middle of songs. ive been lucky so far because, the most i had to have a song switch tracks is once.

 

[Hertzz]

I have to agree with an earlier poster in that the format had way too much tape hiss.

 

[Noborigama]

I use a free 8 track I aquired for nostalgia sake, if you have a good tape they can sound decent, nothing astounding. On a good Akai deck they may sound better but cassettes win hands down when compared to 8 track.

 

[pitts64]

delete

 

[Dude111]

8 track is the worst format I have ever heard.
Cassette wins.
Reel to Reel Pwns both.

8 tracks CAN SOUND MUCH BETTER than a cassette if thier stuff has been recorded right....


1) Most 8 tracks do not have dolby filtering so the sound can come out 100%

2) The source on most 8 tracks IS ANALOGUE(100%) on a cassette it might not be depending on when it came out....

I think they sound gorgeous.... (I love and always have loved analogue )

 

[oldvinyldude]

I never gave any respect to 8-Track when starting out in audio in my teens.

Recent years I have acquired 2 top 8-Track decks, and something like 3 large boxes of tapes (probably about 300 total)

Even though both my decks record, I don't think I will ever record anything, despite having a few blanks in my boxes-well, maybe just one, to say I have......

The main value I place in 8 track is that I have quite a few desirable titles that I would not rebuy on other formats. Yes, there is Perry Como Christmas kind of stuff, but there's also Al Cooper and similar mixed in. That, and they are playable in my Wards console, which is another fun story.

Cassette is sonically superior in pretty much all categories. 8-Track is just another fun diversion.

 

[BOUXY]

that's a little apples to oranges, isn't it?

Technically true, but they don't offer the convience of either 8-tracks or cassettes and there weren't too many car or hand-carried porable units made that I can think of

There were plenty of portable R2R's back in the 60's/70's and in Cars as well

 

[johnebravo]

What about the annoyance of having the tape change channels in the middle of a song? 8-track sux!

Yeah, that was priceless. It's hard to believe now that anyone anywhere would accept that kind of thing for even a moment, but at that time people were so desperate to control the music playing in their own cars that they happily did . . .

 

[johnebravo]

does everyone hate the 8-track format

Yes.

 

[1tumbleweed]

I try not to "hate" anything.

My philosophy prof in college taught us that words like "everyone" and "always" in a statement are automatically rendered invalid.

And yes, I collect 8 tracks - among other things.

Cheers,
Larry B.