8 Track players - worth owning?

[llama]

Yes, 1/4 inch.
Some of the cartridge cases snap together with a barb arrangement. I've often thought of making a plate with 6BA bolts coming upwards from it to release all the barbs at once. Not done it though. Yet...
Graham

[derekheeps]

Originally Posted by Martin Bush

Hi all

I like to have access to various formats and have vinyl, cassette, CD, MD etc and wondered whether owning an 8-track player would be fun or a source of disappointment.

I've seen a few on ebay for reasonable prices but I have no desire to do much in the way or repair (except maybe a bit of servicing) and so I wondered what you guys thought.

I envisage simply playing a few pre-recorded cartridges every now and then for a bit of variety. I can't see myself recording onto them so I don't think I need a recorder.

Over to you

Martin

Nothing wrong at all with collecting different formats and the 8 track cartridges were popular as in car entertainment at one time so you will probably pick up cartridges at car boot sales or on auction sites easily enough .

I probably don’t need to say that it died out , not so much because of competition from the Philips audio cassettes format but because it was an inherently flawed and unreliable system .

The main problem was the basic concept of the tape being an endless loop which had to contain lubricant to allow the layers to slip over each other . While there were a few decent machines , most were cheap tat and poorly constructed .

This was bad enough when the tapes and kit were new ; now that all will be at least 40 years old and probably having lain in disuse for many years , could be troublesome.

The one well engineered deck that passed through my hands , indeed I used to sell them , was a home recording deck made by Dual ( the turntable manufacturers) . It was solidly engineered and potentially the most reliable machine you could get - if you can find one . Sorry , I don’t recall the model number .

Since you are building up a collection of different formats , have you thought of getting an Elcaset deck - made by both Sony and Technics ? Although a commercial failure , it was a good system .

Oh , then there was DAT , still plenty around .

[Martin Bush]

Interesting stuff.

I've had MP3s, CDs, cassettes and vinyl fail in one way or another and also found flaws with streaming, so I guess 8 track is in good company. But I do get what you are saying.

I have heard of Elcaset and read a bit about the format but I think that is some way down the road for me, but you never know.

I may find myself with one of the tat-type players first just to dip my toe in the water. I've my eye on one that allegedly works and has been serviced and worry that if I set my sights on a more complex machine I will be setting myself up for further expense.

[Radio Wrangler]

The cartridges themselves are basically tat. Low quality plastic mouldings, not especially wonderful tape loaded in them. Lubrication is critical to how they work and the lubricants get onto heads and collect dust.

Having one might be an interesting thing to show people, but they aren't very enjoyable to use and maintain. The vibrations of a car probably helped the tape organise itself. You might not want to go beyond a cheapie machine once you've had the experience.

David

[Martin Bush]

Thanks David. Does the lubricant ever run out I wonder?

I suppose if there was someone near me with a machine I could go and see it in action (post COVID of course) - that might scratch the itch

I do actually have one cartridge somewhere. A Jerry Lee Lewis one - I don't like Jerry Lee Lewis.

[derekheeps]

There's the other issue : I doubt that much was released on the format after it faded from popularity , so up to or around the late 70s I guess .

[Ted Kendall]

Originally Posted by Martin Bush

Does the lubricant ever run out I wonder?

Yes it does. And the pads deteriorate. And some of the pinch pollers aren't too clever, either. I had a client who wanted an 8 track transferred because it was the only available source for the material. Despite having an Akai to hand, I just broke the cartridge open and copied it on an 8 track Fostex. The regular dropout-clunk-burp-dropout-resume routine every twelve minutes gets on your nerves after a while, too.

[emeritus]

Re #33, you certainly need a PSU that can deliver a heavy current to operate the track change mechanism. A decade or so ago I looked at an 8 track player that a work colleague had acquired to match his classic 1970's car. He didn't have a cartridge to play in it. I found it had a very soggy belt and a blown output transistor on one channel. I had to float a 12V SLA across my Farnell 2A bench power supply to test the track change mechanism as the heavy pulse current drawn by its solenoid sent the PSU into current limit.

[ben]

Originally Posted by Martin Bush

Thanks David. Does the lubricant ever run out I wonder? .

The 'lubircant' as such with regard to 8 tracks was the graphite backing, unless the cart has seen very heavy usage it should still be good enough for the life of the tape. The main truble was that it ended up coating the inbuilt pinch roller and to a great extent the machine's heads and capstan, giving rise to wow and poor sound.

All tapes have another kind of inbuilt lubricant during manufacture to help them pass the heads smoothly, this has only deteriorated in some brands such as Sony and Ampex. Not really relevant here.

[G6Tanuki]

I always avoided 8-track, if only because of the lack of content. What _was_ available always seemed to be 'easy listening' [Frank Sinatra, James Last] type stuff - and so unappealing to 1970s swingers in their Ford Capris or Vauxhall Victors!

One place I remember 8-track being used was to IPL some 1970s-era CALCOMP 900-series plotter-controllers.

[ben]

And 2XL

[dave walsh]

I'm surprised that the US basis of this format [as I understand it] hasn't been mentioned. Wasn't an 8 Track player the "go to" music source in multi-finned roadsters hurtling along an LA Freeway by the coast at one time? Or is that just a Madison Avenue fantasy? I'm sure there used to be claims of better fidelity [if not reliability] re the 3.75 ips tape speed ie 2x the compact cassette!

I've got three machines in the North Martin, two of which are recorders [I think]. I've never felt inclined to waste my life on them [from the archival point of view] as I've also never come across anything recorded on this format, other than the commercial cassettes of course! If there was ever a great deal of domestic recording on these rather bulky tape cassettes [sometimes found in a dusty box at Car Boots] it must have been in the USA.

Dave W


A Madison Avenue 'Whiz Kid. thought it a disgrace
That no one had explored the possibilities in space
Everythings ok now
The products doing fine

The night they turned our moon into a
Coca Cola sign!

Roger McGough

[emeritus]

The only person I knew with an 8 track in their car was a uncle in Ireland that we visited in the early 1990's. His repertoire was exclusively Country & Western! In the early 1970's one of my friends did have an 8 track recorder. I well remember the clunk and momentary loss of sound that interrupted his home-made recordings when the track changed. Also the commercial 8 track versions of some vinyl LP's had their tracks in a different order. No doubt this was to avoid the track change problem, but shifting the tracks could spoil the arrangement of an album: I seem to recall that "Sgt. Pepper" was one affected by this, but it was a long time ago.

[ben]

Originally Posted by emeritus

. Also the commercial 8 track versions of some vinyl LP's had their tracks in a different order. No doubt this was to avoid the track change problem, but shifting the tracks could spoil the arrangement of an album: .

Worse still, others faded out mid way though a song then faded it back in again on the next track! I had a couple like that, think one was a Beach boys album and another Paul McCartney but it's been almost 30 years since I had 'em.

[Joe_Lorenz]

Hi,

yes I do basically agree that the 8 track system itself has some flaws that surely helped the Philips cassette system to sell much better.

Nevertheless, in one of my cars dating from 1975 there is a Blaupunkt "ACR" 8 track player. I think the original buyer had it installed from new. I got quite a bunch of cartridges , most country and western (Charlie Pride, Hank Williams, Kenny Rogers, ...) but there also are some Led Zeppelin, Beatles and The Who tapes. The machine is still ok, and if you keep your eyes open you can still find such stuff from time to time.

Regards, Joe

[Martin Bush]

Having had a good look round I've found theres plenty of stuff I'd like to listen to on 8 track. Curtis Mayfield, Yes, Isaac Hayes, Genesis and so on. So I don't think content will be a problem.

I may have a go at refurbishing one of the less interesting ones I should be able to pick up for a few pounds as a practice first though. If anyone has a James Last they'd like to sacrifice do let me know

I take on board the comments about general sound quality and the clunks etc. But most formats have some sort of annoyance factor. 7" singles need flipping every few minutes and my deck doesnt have auto return so I'm foreven going back and forth if I'm playing singles.

[jamesperrett]

When I worked in an electrical shop I remember the manager giving me the sole blank 8 track cartridge that they had in stock. This was in the late 70's and I think that he had given up on the idea of anyone coming in and buying it. I probably still have it somewhere. I had an 8 track car player lying around for a while but never used it although I recently picked up a home 8 track player from a for sale post here which I'm looking forward to trying when I get the time.

Ted - I'm interested in your use of the 8 track Fostex machine to play a tape. Did you modify the machine to run at the right speed or did you just transfer at a higher speed and slow it down digitally?

[Ted Kendall]

Originally Posted by jamesperrett

When I worked in an electrical shop I remember the manager giving me the sole blank 8 track cartridge that they had in stock. This was in the late 70's and I think that he had given up on the idea of anyone coming in and buying it. I probably still have it somewhere. I had an 8 track car player lying around for a while but never used it although I recently picked up a home 8 track player from a for sale post here which I'm looking forward to trying when I get the time.

Ted - I'm interested in your use of the 8 track Fostex machine to play a tape. Did you modify the machine to run at the right speed or did you just transfer at a higher speed and slow it down digitally?

High speed transfer is not the way to go if you want the best results. It's a simple enough matter to juggle resistor values in the Fostex varispeed circuit to bring 3 3/4 into range. The EQ needs tweaking, of course, but this can be done externally.

[Martin Bush]

Hopefully I am not straying too far from the topic here, but I wanted to ask about cleaning the rubber rollers in the cartridge.

I'd have expected to use a bit of IPA to do this but I have read online that alcohol "dries the rubber" and you should use "rubber cleaner".

So, what should I be doing?

I know that some of the rollers turn to goo, but not because they have been cleaned with IPA.

[Superscope]

Well, I have certainly used IPA in the past with no noticeable ill effects.
At least yet!

It might well depend on the exact chemical make up of the Rubber used in production.
Just like whether the Rubber goes to Goo or not over time.

However, like you, I read that IPA might not be good idea on Rubber and don't
use it now.

Wiping with a Damp cloth also seems to work well, and for very soiled
Rollers, a Cloth with a bit of Washing up liquid first, then Just Water for
cleaning off Detergent residue then dry with a clean Dry Cloth.



Ian