Re: IML: 8 track tapes & Player

[Mark McDonald <tomswift@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A new, working, properly adjusted 8 track sound system in a car is almost as good as it gets in terms of an audio experience.

We are conditioned today to think that anything digital is superior, and for the most part it is, but you would be astonished at how good a good 8 track system can sound in a car.  About the only real disadvantage is tape hiss (that's the sound of the tape dragging over the heads).  When you crank up the volume on an 8 track you will hear tape hiss in the quiet parts of the music-- something you don't get in a digital recording.  But, normally, when you're in your car you're driving it-- so the sounds of the engine and of the road mask the hiss and you don't hear it anyway.  As an 8 track system ages you also get more wow and flutter, which is what happens when the tape speed changes due to the motor speeding up and slowing down ever so slightly.  But in terms of bass and a fullness of sound, 8 track is amazing.

Second, the way speakers are set up in a car provide an almost perfect distribution of sound for a true stereo effect.  I would never say a home 8 track system could compete with a CD player.  But in your car?  Yes, I think 8 track can hold its own there.  Which is pretty good considering it's a 30-40 year old technology.

I would say get that 8 track working before you toss all that stuff out!  Not only will you have something that is historically "correct" for your car, it will actually sound pretty good, too!  (And everyone who gets in the car will ooh and aah over it, too!)

Mark M


On Wednesday, September 21, 2005, at 08:32 PM, Dick Benjamin wrote:

> If the speakers are matched, the balance is correct; you don’t need a control, balance was provided in the recording process.?
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> Since your speakers are shot, you’ll have to replace them anyway, regardless of which sound system you install.? Maybe you should do that first, with a matched set, and see what the 8 track sounds like.? You might be very pleasantly surprised.
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> As with the Beta VCR system, the “Apple” color TV system, the true HDTV system, and other breakthrough improvements in consumer electronics, the 8 track system lost out in a game of marketing and industry insider manipulation to technically inferior designs (the Phillips Cassette), and was lost to history even though it was a much superior system.
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> Dick Benjamin (who worked on the early Color TV systems before you were born!)
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