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Welcome to Hell, here's your 8-Track

Neil Postman once said, 

"Anyone who has studied the history of technology knows that technological change is always a Faustian bargain: Technology giveth and technology taketh away, and not always in equal measure. A new technology sometimes creates more than it destroys. Sometimes, it destroys more than it creates. But it is never one-sided."

I'm pretty sure that we know that the 8-track was more bad than good.

Question for audiophiles here who might know -- was there anything good about 8-track technology that was lost when it went extinct? And what was that good, audio-wise, specifically?

 

128x128hilde45
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
11,005 posts
 

When I first read the header of this thread, I thought it was going to be something along the lines of what we audiophiles are in store for when we do get to hell.

All the best,
Nonoise

minkwelder
256 posts
 

The sound quality of the prerecorded 8-tracks was pretty abysmal but then so were many of the prerecorded cassettes. One thing that bugged me was the LONG and totally unnecessary fade-out and fade-in that made the track change seem like some elaborate, mysterious process. Always striving to improve the quality of the audio experience, I decided to buy an 8-track recorder and tape selections from LP. Not only did the sound quality greatly improved, but people were astounded that my tapes didn't do the fade.

I remember the matchbook trick being used to provide better contact between the capstan and pinch roller, otherwise the tape would run slow or warble. It didn't help that the tape had a healthy dose of lubricant that helped it ease it out at the hub. This would, of course, contaminate the capstan and pinch roller, so it was a constant battle to maintain enough friction to drive it. Then, to make things even worse, some of the tape manufacturers began making the pinch rollers out of hard plastic!

Among the struggles to keep these things moving there would eventually come the inevitable "eaten tape". After fishing several feet of tape out of the player, you then had a tape that couldn't be played unless you knew the secret to getting that tape to wind back in the cartridge. A sharp tug on the supply side of the tape would spin the reel with enough force to snap the tape back in the cartridge.

dekay's avatar
dekay
5,693 posts
 

Just remembered a guy (Roger) I occasionaly hung out with in the 80's.

He had an 8-Track player in his old Dodge Dart, but he only had "one" tape which was David Bowie "Diamond Dogs".

When we played darts @ Kings Head and The Cat and the Fiddle - Roger (born in the American South) pulled off a British accent that fooled the Bri'ts we were playing with.

He wasn't very good @ darts, but it was worth losing just to see/hear the show.

 

DeKay

sejodiren's avatar
sejodiren
192 posts
 

Being that I'm an old relic, I can vouch for the 8-track.  I splurged on a quality player for my 72 240Z.  It far outperformed the cassette deck I had SQ wise.  It had an adjustable head and more power than the pos cassette deck I had.  It never gobbled a tape....unlike the cassette player.  If I'm correct, a wider tape gives better SQ?  I don't miss it.....but I do miss the 240Z.

larsman's avatar
larsman
2,121 posts
 

Since audio cassettes seem to be coming back into favor, will we see a resurgence of 8-tracks, and maybe VHS for videos? 🤣

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