[usc goose]

just curious. i don't really remember them. was the format as bad as they say?

 

[fewtch]

Yep, sound(ed) pretty poor. I seem to remember some sonic crossover between tracks (likely an adjacent track playing *backwards* in the background as you listened to the current track).

They were really a bit before my time too, but my grandmother had an 8-track deck (and probably my parents when I was a younger kid, altho I don't remember for sure). From what I recall, the tape was just too narrow (for 8 tracks) and ran too slowly for good SQ. Getting to the beginning of a track was cumbersome too... it was easily to select the desired track, but you'd likely be right in the middle of it.

 

[rickcr42]

pure crap

i grew up with eight tracks and had thousands invested in them

had no choice for the car until the cassette arrived as a high fidelity medium and if you wanted any music of choice on the road it was 8-track or nothing

1-songs would be chopped off if it ended up being at mid point when the track changed

2-they always seemed to get eaten up by the player and were not easy to open up for repair (unlike the cassette0 without damaging the case

3-you could hear another track in the background more often than not

4-the head/tape contact was not the best.the pich roller design sucked and if the spring clip brushes got bent the contact was non-existing

5-they were pretty big and took up a lot of space in the back seat ,mine eliminated a passenger at least !

6-no slip case to keep out grit and dirt so if the suitcase size storage container got any thing in it it always ended up in the tape itself

need i continue ?

there is more !

bottom line is :

It was once commonplace to see tape all over our nations roadways and anyone that had an eight track player when seeing the flowing tendrils of brown tape would just smile in understanding and drive on

 

[GWN]

Quote:

Originally posted by usc goose just curious. i don't really remember them. was the format as bad as they say?

Yes, it was. Poor sound quality, clunky design. And endless loop tape that switched (stepped down) at the end of each track to the next one. They would break easily and suffered from drop-outs . But it was one of the first means of having something else to listen to in a car besides the radio, so they were popular until superceded by the cassette. The sound of early cassettes was not that much better but it had better reliability and easier access to specific tracks.

 

[GlowWorm]

Quote:

Originally posted by usc goose i don't really remember them.

I do, but I'd rather forget.

 

[cpw]

I had lots of friends who were about 4yrs older than me w/ huge investments in those things. I was too young to drive so didn't need the portability and it just drove me nuts when a song would fade out right in the middle only to resume after an audible "clunk". Musta listened to thousands of the f%#kers in various states of mind but I was never out of it enough to buy one! I do remember buying them for friends as gifts. Some of them still speak to me!
CPW

 

[usc goose]

Quote:

Originally posted by cpw I had lots of friends who were about 4yrs older than me w/ huge investments in those things. I was too young to drive so didn't need the portability and it just drove me nuts when a song would fade out right in the middle only to resume after an audible "clunk". Musta listened to thousands of the f%#kers in various states of mind but I was never out of it enough to buy one! I do remember buying them for friends as gifts. Some of them still speak to me! CPW

hahahhahhaha... hilarity....

what made that "clunk" anyways?

 

[Tuberoller]

My thoughts are......are you serious?

 

[Demolition]

Quote:

Originally posted by usc goose what made that "clunk" anyways?

It was caused by the play head moving to play the next program.

There are four programs comprised of two channels (left and right), hence eight tracks in total. Each program occupies a certain place on the tape, and each one starts and stops at a piece of conductive metal tape. When the metal tape passes through the play head, it activates a circuit that physically moves the head to the next program.

The sound was less of clunk and more of a sharp click.

By the way, one of my first cars (1970 Mercury Marquis Brougham with a premium-leaded-burning 429 V8 -- a huge land yacht) had an eight track player. I bought it from my Dad with the idea of putting the engine in a 1970 Mustang fastback coupe. That idea didn't pan out. But, I did spend a lot of time driving the Marquis, listening to my Dad's old tapes. Most of them were country/western (e.g. Hank Snow, Merle Haggard, etc.) but I did manage to find some Beatles, Black Sabbath, and Jimi Hendrix tapes in a pawn shop.

When I finally got rid of the car, I had a pile of tapes left over, so I bought a Soundesign Model 493 stereo eight track player. I guess it's about 30 years old. Still works like a charm and even has a decent heaphone out.

D.

 

[eyeteeth]

Quote:

Originally posted by Demolition It was caused by the play head moving to play the next program. There are four programs comprised of two channels (left and right), hence eight tracks in total. Each program occupies a certain place on the tape, and each one starts and stops at a piece of conductive metal tape. When the metal tape passes through the play head, it activates a circuit that physically moves the head to the next program. The sound was less of clunk and more of a sharp click.

Wow, you're memory is better than mine. Remembering that it was divided in 4 is easy to remember but the name of those divisions "programs" escaped me.

"The sound was less of clunk and more of a sharp click." You must have had a higher end unit (LOL

) , I remember a "thunk".

 

[eyeteeth]

Quote:

Originally posted by rickcr42 if you wanted any music of choice on the road it was 8-track or nothing 1-songs would be chopped off if it ended up being at mid point when the track changed 2-they always seemed to get eaten up by the player and were not easy to open up for repair (unlike the cassette0 without damaging the case 3-you could hear another track in the background more often than not 5-they were pretty big and took up a lot of space in the back seat ,mine eliminated a passenger at least ! 6-no slip case to keep out grit and dirt so if the suitcase size storage container got any thing in it it always ended up in the tape itself

All too true!!! But being a kid at the time fidelity was not important at the time. I forgot about hearing another track in the background!

I remember them all over the floors of cars, front & back. Hollow empty sounding cases always hiting the floor.

BTW, for some strange reason my grandmother had 'Led Zeppelin I' which was a godsend in the middle of nowhere. The endless looping of that 8-track was indeed endless.

 

[rickcr42]

Quote:

The endless looping of that 8-track was indeed endless.

put it on before bad

wake up to it

unless of course something went wrong then it was

click click....click click...click click...

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally posted by cpw I had lots of friends who were about 4yrs older than me w/ huge investments in those things. I was too young to drive so didn't need the portability and it just drove me nuts when a song would fade out right in the middle only to resume after an audible "clunk".

Yeegads, I can remember that "clunk" sound too (and it's been decades since I've listened to one of those things). A truly memorably bad format!

P.S. Goodwills and thrift stores with boxes of grungy, nicotine-stained country/western and Barry Manilow 8-track cartridges, salvaged from the floors and glove boxes of yellow Ford Pintos and beat-up green station wagons with fake wood paneling... let us not ever romanticize the 70's...

 

[daveman]

So what are the hottest portable 8-track players? The vintage players ought to be the best.

 

[wallijonn]

Quote:

Originally posted by daveman So what are the hottest portable 8-track players? The vintage players ought to be the best.

An 8 track from the car and an automotive 12V battery on a shopping cart.