8 tracks!

[wilkes85]

Who here uses 8 tracks?

I'm big on 8 tracks, but few people seem to know much about them. I even had a friend back in high school who never even heard of them; he was all fascinated about my 8 tracks and player at home lol, and he thought it was the coolest thing ever lol

but most of my other friends kinda make fun of me for it. LOL because I put an 8 track deck in my car haha (1974 Ford LTD... a '70s car HAS to have an 8 track!)

but anyway, I was just wondering who else here is big on 8 tracks? They're getting harder and harder to find these days. I remember you could go to almost any garage sale and see a huge box overflowing with 8 tracks, for $1.00 for the entire box, but now you're lucky if you see a few crap tapes at the thrift store.

I got almost 100 tapes, and a few players (1 in the car, 2 in the house, and 1 in the travel trailer).

I can't be the only one who enjoys these big bulky tapes?
They may have more than a few faults, but I love 'em. And anyone who knocks the sound quality of 8 tracks needs to listen to my copy of Trooper - Hot Shots, on my Pioneer H-22 deck.
they have the potential to sound excellent.

 

[Turbota]

Your friends have never heard of 8 tracks just because they are not old enough.

No, you don't see many 8 track players or tapes anymore. Most have been thrown in the trash just because nobody will buy them.

1. Poor sound quality at best

2. Poor tape transport drive system

3. Poor player head design

4. Poor tape speed

5. No rewind capabilty

6. Mechanical click sound every time the tape reverses

7. Unrealiable

8. Constant jamming or breaking of tape

Bottom line .... It is diffecult at best to even give the stuff away anymore.
________________________________________

Here is a little cut and paste from a website called "BadFads Museum":


The 8-Track Tape player was developed by airplane designer Bill Lear (Lear-Jet fame) as a car accessory. Lear wanted to give drivers an alternative to simply listening to radio stations and instead provide them with the ability to choose their favorite styles or artists. The players were initially manufactured by Motorola and were installed in several Ford automobiles and thousands of record companies rushed to put their artists on the new format.

While the format had a strong initial start, several major limitations pointed towards it's quick demise:

First ... although the cartridges offered multiple tracks, the players did not offer the ability to browse forward or back through the tape.
Second ... the cheap components of the cartridges caused the tape material to fray and break, sending many users back to the record store to buy a replacement.
Third ... the audio performance was clearly subpar, with frequent fading of sound at inappropriate moments.
Finally ... the size of the cartridges were inconvenient and bulky, making the coming of the cassette tape a welcome relief for many users.

By the mid 1970s, most record labels had stopped producing music in 8-Track tape format, instead opting for cassette tape and vinyl records. Soon 8-Track tapes were being sold for pennies on the dollar at every thrift store, garage sale or flea market in town.

http://www.badfads.com/pages/collectibles/8track.html

.

 

[jleon92f]

Your friends have never heard of 8 tracks just because they are not old enough.

No, you don't see many 8 track players or tapes anymore. Most have been thrown in the trash just because nobody will buy them.

1. Poor sound quality at best

2. Poor tape transport drive system

3. Poor player head design

4. Poor tape speed

5. No rewind capabilty

6. Mechanical click sound every time the tape reverses

7. Unrealiable

8. Constant jamming or breaking of tape

Bottom line .... It is diffecult at best to even give the stuff away anymore.
________________________________________

Here is a little cut and paste from a website called "BadFads Museum":


The 8-Track Tape player was developed by airplane designer Bill Lear (Lear-Jet fame) as a car accessory. Lear wanted to give drivers an alternative to simply listening to radio stations and instead provide them with the ability to choose their favorite styles or artists. The players were initially manufactured by Motorola and were installed in several Ford automobiles and thousands of record companies rushed to put their artists on the new format.

While the format had a strong initial start, several major limitations pointed towards it's quick demise:

First ... although the cartridges offered multiple tracks, the players did not offer the ability to browse forward or back through the tape.
Second ... the cheap components of the cartridges caused the tape material to fray and break, sending many users back to the record store to buy a replacement.
Third ... the audio performance was clearly subpar, with frequent fading of sound at inappropriate moments.
Finally ... the size of the cartridges were inconvenient and bulky, making the coming of the cassette tape a welcome relief for many users.

By the mid 1970s, most record labels had stopped producing music in 8-Track tape format, instead opting for cassette tape and vinyl records. Soon 8-Track tapes were being sold for pennies on the dollar at every thrift store, garage sale or flea market in town.

http://www.badfads.com/pages/collectibles/8track.html

.

Hi, I just Fixed and sold about (8) 8 track players and recorders, So I think that someone has a use for them. I have been selling them for the last 7 months and will keep fixing them and selling them, as long as they are available. I picked up a few more for repair and sell. I may keep one or two for myself. The Panasonics play pretty Good! Picture of my Dokorder MC-60.

Thanks,
John.

 

[circlesky73]

A quick, friendly rebuttal :thmbsp::

1. Poor sound quality at best

Not necessarily. It depends on the player used as well as the tape used. Some MCA tapes sound horrid, while nearly all RCA and RCA Music Service tapes sound great. Plus, now with it being a dead format, we have to factor in how it was stored and how well its owner took care of it.

2. Poor tape transport drive system

Agreement there.

3. Poor player head design

On some. Find the ones with the metal frame instead of the plastic one; the plastic tended to dry out within a few years and crack or break. A stationary head would have been much better.

4. Poor tape speed

At 7 1/2 ips the cartridge would have to be twice its size to store up to 90 minutes of information. Cassettes are 1 7/8, half the speed of 8 tracks, and some people are gaga over those.

5. No rewind capabilty

Yep. But I rarely rewind cassettes to play a song back, so for me personally, it doesn't matter.

6. Mechanical click sound every time the tape reverses

It doesn't reverse. The tape moves in one direction only. It's not a loud click on most decks. Some cassette decks have a loud click when the side is done.

7. Unrealiable

Once it's tuned up, which takes 10 minutes at the very most, it's good to go for another 20-30 years.

8. Constant jamming or breaking of tape

Constant jamming? I haven't had a tape jam- of course, I tune 'em all up before listening to them. Breaking of tape? Again, tune them up. Change the pads and the splice and you're good to go for, again, another 20some years.

 

[ponderbear]

i have some blanks and a few recorded ones- the only tape we had in our stereo when I was about ten to fifteen was a recording 8-track deck. the tapes I made all sounded pretty great, actually.

I had an 8-track player in my car in high school and the sound quality really stunned me, and I had a regular cassette deck at home, so it was not too shabby.

I don't remember any (unintended) fading on any tapes, and I may have had a few tapes jam over time, but nothing like the bleak picture painted above!

 

[Jack Lord]

I never used them back in their heyday. However I have added a player to my setup so that its complete and for grins. I have a slew of good tapes, but I don't intentionally look for them.

I do remember seeing them all the time at yard sales and the like but now they are rarely found.

 

[Hifirob2]

I just turned 45, and growing up, all my music was on vinyl. By the time I bought my first car (1980), cassettes had replaced 8-Tracks.

I did have a few 8-Tracks as a kid, and was always annoyed when a song faded out, then KER-CHUNK, then the same song would fade back in to finish playing. That REALLY bothered me. Cassettes fixed that problem, and I never looked back.

I'd be curious if anyone has actual specs on some 8-Track players. What was the best signal to noise ratio that could be achieved? I knew they could sound good with the right set up. At their peak, cassette decks had a signal to noise ratio that topped out at around 92dB (metal tape with dbx) - wasn't that about 50% better than a good 8-Track? I'm not trying to pick on 8-Tracks, but tape hiss was a big issue for me. In a car's environment, that may not be noticeable, but with headphones, it would drive me crazy.

Rob

 

[TinCanAlley]

I have over 200 tapes and play them in my Weltron 2001, Panasonic Plunger (TNT) and Wollensak 8050a. I have a number of tapes that when played in the 8050a, they sounded good enough that no one knew they were 8-tracks playing. I do have several tapes that are on my list to replace the missing foil, pads and some needing to be rejoined. Other than those, the rest play just fine.

I don't mind the clunking sound when changing tracks. I do agree that the song fading out on one track and then fading in the the next gets a bit frustrating.

I keep the azimuth properly adjusted, use the cleaning cartridge and de-mag the heads regularly and they are very reliable.

 

[BrocLuno]

I've commented on this stuff before. I used to work at GRT back in the day. For most of you collectors, they are the medium blue cases and labels for house brand. We also made tons of recordings for ABC, RCA, and most of the other labels on contract. GRT made enough money off the 8-Track business to buy Chess/Janus Records and their whole library. We also made R2R tapes and Cassettes by the truck load. By the way, 90% of the bulk tape was BASF. The rest was Scotch. If you think about it, they are still playing today and most have not shed - pretty good binder !!

The deal with Mr Lears design was to get away from the 4-track car decks. The thing about the 4-track car decks was that anyone with a 4 track reel machine could make boot legs, and they did. Same 1/4" tape, same track alignment, still center spooling tape, but only one track change on the splice or it could be done manually at random.

So, Mr Lear came up with the 8-Track. That put 90% of the bootleggers out of business as they had no source of duplicating machines. Ampex made most of the duplicating slaves back then and they would not sell to anyone who was not a legit business. Eventually Eagle (Tx) got into the act making high speed slaves, but they sold far more cassette slave decks than 8-Track. Anyway, it used 1/2 the raw tape and about the same case cost. That lead to production cost cuts in terms of time and materials (twice as much music on each slave pancake on each run).

Anyway, we regularly QC'd 8-Tracks against the other formats. They were about on par with commercial cassettes and a bit behind commercial R2R (@7.5 IPS). You got to remember where these other formats were - only Dolby B, no DBX, no HX-Pro, nada.

In that world, 8-Track holds it's own. But 8-Track died because the format was bulky and the cassette guys just kept making their gear better and better and no one was going to do that for 8-track. There are good 8-tracks out there (cartridges and home machines). Before I pitched all of mine years ago, I had some Robin Trower like Bridge of Sighs on a green label 8-track that was pretty stunning. We didn't do that run, but we did a LOT of Rolling Stones and their QA requirements were pretty tight. It can work, you just need the right pieces

 

[Ronald1973]

By the mid 1970s, most record labels had stopped producing music in 8-Track tape format, instead opting for cassette tape and vinyl records. Soon 8-Track tapes were being sold for pennies on the dollar at every thrift store, garage sale or flea market in town.

Correction....maybe by the early 80's or so, but not the mid-70's. As a matter of fact, until the very late 80's you could find selected releases via record clubs!!! I have some releases that were concurrent w/ CD such as Ronnie Milsap's "Lost In The 50's Tonight," "Lee Greenwood's Greatest Hits" and some others.

As for sound quality, sure some might sound crappy but w/ computer software it is really quite possible to make them sound good. I've dubbed many an 8-track off to CD after restoring via Polderbits and then played them or loaned them to friends. Time and again, I am told that if they did not know what the source was, they would have swore they were listening to a professionally made CD!!!

 

[AnalogDigit]

I never was into 8 tracks. But they do have a following. You might want to try this link:
www.8trackheaven.com When I go to the flea market, I seen a lot of 8 tracks along with the players.

 

[musichal]

Wilkes,

Don't listen to Turbota, listen to your 8-tracks. I did give up on them myself a few decades ago, but I really enjoyed them in my teens. Everybody knows they were the best tape format ever invented; I've heard some recording studios still use them for mastering.

 

[goraman]

My 8 track colection of the 70's incuded Alices resterant and all of Cheech and Chongs early stuff some Frank Zappa and Jhonny Cash.I got ride of all of it by the early 80's because the foam in the middle where the tape head rides rotted and fell apart.I was never a fan of the lear phase loop style tapes due to breakage and spliceing with scots tape and a razor blade or unwinding the tape from the head and pinch rollers from time to time.

 

[Ronald1973]

Those are just a couple of examples of stuff I've had at one point (I sold the Randy Travis on eBay) or another and I've got more on my Photobucket page. If one gets lucky (never have found it myself) you can also find Michael Jackson's "Thriller" on 8-track as well!

 

[blownsi]

You know it would be very interesting to see what the format could achieve with the application of Dolby B,C,S myself I have never been into them or cassettes as I feel open reel is superior but that said cassette WITH dolby can sound surprisingly good....

Also I am a huge yard saler going to thousands every year and your right I see less and less of them every year.... There is however a flea market locally that has a few thousand... The same vendor has alot of vinyl but it's all in VG or lesser condition so I won't buy it... I would imagine the 8T is about the same....

Oh yeah hopefully this is on topic.... How many different standalone players were built? Thru my travels 90% of what I see is a all in one system... as for standalones I have only seen Panasonic, Pioneer and Radio Shack... guess I should pick one up soon before they are all gone!!

 

[Urchinn]

There is an excellent documentary about 8 track collectors. It came as a free dvd with a movie magazine that was published about four years ago. Anyone know the name of it?

 

[devoid]

So Wrong They're Right - Google is your freind

 

[loudenuff?]

i currently own 400+ tapes and 7 home rec+play units. i have 2 3m/wollensack dolby units that sound real nice and a akai unit with a dustless glass head that also sounds good. and a pioneer centrex unit that only came with playback.

 

[Ronald1973]

I've got somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 tapes and my only player is on a Magnavox console that belonged to my parents. I had a gentleman in Oklahoma do some work on it several years ago; when you put in a tape, it made a nasty wobbly sound and the tape would just d....r.....a.....g along. $25 later and it's working literally like brand new.

I guess the thing for me is that I've never gotten out of 8-tracks. I can remember coming in as a kid after being outside all day on a Saturday and my Dad putting in "Hank Williams Live At The Grand Ole Opry." I can remember them getting tapes in the mail via the record clubs. I really never thought it weird when I got old enough to drive to go to the thrift stores and buy tapes.

I am a music lover and it is still tough sometimes to find the music I love on CD. In those cases, if I can find it on a quality 8-track or LP, so be it. I'm a big gospel fan and Word Records, for instance, has never saw fit to re-release their old stuff on CD. Some of it I've had to get on 8-track and some on LP.

It's all about the music anyway!!!

 

[BrocLuno]

You know it would be very interesting to see what the format could achieve with the application of Dolby B,C,S myself I have never been into them or cassettes as I feel open reel is superior but that said cassette WITH dolby can sound surprisingly good....

Also I am a huge yard saler going to thousands every year and your right I see less and less of them every year.... There is however a flea market locally that has a few thousand... The same vendor has alot of vinyl but it's all in VG or lesser condition so I won't buy it... I would imagine the 8T is about the same....

Oh yeah hopefully this is on topic.... How many different standalone players were built? Thru my travels 90% of what I see is a all in one system... as for standalones I have only seen Panasonic, Pioneer and Radio Shack... guess I should pick one up soon before they are all gone!!

I know for sure that Muntz, JVC, Panasonic, & Marantz all made players or record/players