8-Track Vs. Cassette

[mhardy6647]

"What portable music was there other than radio"

Well for one they had portable battery operated Reel 2 Reels back then by several makers such as Philips and such

oh, and Nagra and Stellavox.

(borrowed photo)

stella by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
(not my Stella, unfortunately)

 

[vwestlife]

Well for one they had portable battery operated Reel 2 Reels back then by several makers such as Philips and such

But many of those were rim-drive and DC bias and thus were not at all suitable for recording or playing music.

 

[BOUXY]

But many of those were rim-drive and DC bias and thus were not at all suitable for recording or playing music.

The Philips I had were very suitable for recording and playing back Music,all the several different models were vg here's one example!

 

[danj]

The best 8-track deck I've ever heard, an Akai, I would rate on a par with a cheap cassette deck like your typical Sanyo or maybe something a bit better like a Pioneer 500. A good cassette deck would blow the doors off any 8-track deck. It's not that the decks are bad but the format design and standards left much to be desired. Much effort and engineering went in to cassette decks to reduce their noise and distortions, steady their speed, and give it a good frequency response. Cassette heads, especially, were works of wonder, as were modern noise reduction systems. 8-tracks sounded fine in cars but in a good home system their limitations were clearly audible.