Watching this in 2020 and the first sentence being, "looking at old tech is a departure for me" is so bizarre considering that's the main thing on the channel now 😂
Another reason that the labels can look so bad is because a lot of tapes sat around on the floors of cars when they weren't being played in the car's 8 track player. I was lucky enough to find a case filled with really good condition tapes recently.
It's easy, he built a time machine (ruclips.net/video/t5FqjQlFBDM/видео.html just watch these 10 seconds). Maybe not real but certanily very rich of fantasy :--)
@@qwertykeyboard5901 it's a term for when silence takes place where sound was anticipated, like when someone says "I have something to tell you" and then pauses for 10 excruciating seconds
Homer Simpson still has an 8-Track player in his car. As a kid in the early 90s I had to ask my Dad what an 8-Track was because of it. He laughed as I recall.
Recycle Hin: Don't feel bad, you've actually done better than me; MY first time seeing an 8-track was when Tommy Lee Jones' character forces Will Smith (I get it mixed up who's supposed to be Agents J & K) to listen to one during the "upside down tunnel" sequence from the first "Men in Black" movie! :D
Top tip readers : before playing any unknown 8 track tape, open it up, wind it back on spool and adjust the tape tension, replace the sponge pad and clean the roller, check the splice strip (to re-enforce it, you can put a short strip of masking tape on the back on the none recorder side to ensure the splice doesn’t let go. Keep your players rollers clean and all should be fine!
Just had to add my $.02 worth. Before the end of the 8-Track era many of them came out with Dolby (B of course) noise reduction and even the recorders had it. I still have in an attic somewhere a deck that even electrically inserted and ejected the tape rather than the big CLUNK of pushing it in and pulling it out. You would gently push it to a point and it would reel the tape in the rest of the way motorized, like a CD tray. When done, if not set to continuous play, it would gently feed the tape back out and turn off. I even had a few 160 and 180 minute recordable carts and pairing that fancy deck with my DBX 224x noise reduction and expander, and nobody knew it was a tape at all, let alone an 8-track. -Jay
The electronic insertion was a standard in VHS recorders 📼. I can imagine that a lot could have been done in comfort and quality improvement. Like an azimuth adjustable head to align to the tape tracks perfectly. Or music search sensors
The original purchaser of many of the tapes you show was a member of the Columbia Record (and Tape) Club, which accounts for the letters CRC on the label. Their system caused some folks to end up with a lot of music they never wanted, because it was easy to forget to mail back the card that would stop them from sending you their 'selection of the month' which of course carried a full retail price plus shipping. However, the club was part of the reason I went with 8-tracks in a big way when I did. I lived far enough away from any brick-and-mortar retailer selling music, so going to a record store meant tagging along with my parents and inevitably being questioned and scorned for 'wasting my money' on such things. 8-tracks fit in the mailbox, and I was always home before my folks so I could get them in the house without being seen. Speaking of being seen - many of CRC's tapes were manufactured with the bright plastic like your Elton John tape. If you think it's bright in regular light, put it under a black light and it will REALLY glow.
Wow, at the 13:48 point when you showed the tape, I saw a song on that tape by a very good friend of mine. Werewolf - Five Man Electrical Band. The Guitarist, Vern was my neighbour for over 25 years. Never thought I would see a compilation tape now with his old classic stuff on it. Great stuff as usual.
I'm glad this seems to be going down well. The hardest thing was trying to pitch this at the right level. I know that there will be many viewers who know everything there is to know about 8-track then many others who were born in the 80s or 90s who've never seen these. I'm slap-bang in the middle somewhere.
Maybe so, maybe you are slap-bang in the middle, but I bet not many of your readers know that there was a *car disc player* years before the 8-track. It played single 33rpm records.
well done Matt, I love old electronics (have a collection of tube radios etc) but never got to experience 8track. Anyways its nice to see a broad overview of the tech like this. Happy holidays :-)
Big Guy Review It wore down records really quickly due to having to track heavily to not skip on roads. They didn't gain a lot of popularity and were made for only for a few years.
see thats were your wrong i was born in 85 and i was playing 8tracks as a kid and fixing them then its an acquired taste and yes they have issues but thats part of the fun and character
This sure brought back some memories. Back in the day I was an electronics repair tech here in the US (I am now 55 years old) and I repaired many 8-track decks. In the early 80's I was the only guy I ever new to have both an 8-track and a cassette player in my car, at the same time. One little nit-pick I have though, is that your track diagram is incorrect. The tracks were actually laid out in two sets of 4, the top 4 would be the right channels and the bottom 4 tracks were the left channels (it may have been the other way around, my memory is faded on that point). So if you were on channel one it would actually be playing tracks 1 and 5, track 2 would be tracks 2 and 6 and so on. Other than that this was an excellent review about something folks younger than me know little about. Also, for best tape longevity, make sure you clean the head often, and make sure the capstan is kept cleaned as well, or you will soon experience the infamous "my 8-track is eating my tapes" phenomena. Well done.
Thanks Randy. I knew going into this that there would be people who would be a lot more familiar with 8-track than I am. I tried to find out about the track layout because I know that on my reel to reel they are 1&3 and 2&4, but I couldn't get the info for the 8-track. I won't go to the trouble of annotating the video, I think it would be too confusing to the casual viewer. I do love my machine and enjoy playing the tapes...but convenience and reliability are not its strong points. Thanks again for the info.
@@Techmoan I was also aware of the correct tape layout, being a teenager of the 70's. This reduces the vertical motion required by the head and I assume makes the head easier to manufacture as the two playback heads can be further apart.
@@BradHouser I would assume it also helps improve stereo separation/reduce crosstalk between the left and right channel, by virtue of the “halves” of the head being further apart?
That hiss. I remember that hiss. It would be so loud in between songs. That's what I remember most about 8-tracks (my parents had one as part of their hifi set, along with a turntable and a tuner).
This was a novel video, bringing back some memories from my teen years. The tech •is• really beautiful. I had a Pioneer playback unit. On the other hand, I also realized why I didn't find the 8-Track to be a very good format, clunky, deteriorating mechanisms, breaking tapes, poor gluing of the label etc. You noticed this as well. BTW, I noticed that there was quite a bit of wow in the first two tapes you played. Thanks for the memories.
Seeing this without ever holding a 8-track tape myself, it's kind of annoying to imagine how good it could have been: With wider tape and faster speed, if they had improved the tape and cut tracks to just 4, it would have still held single LP but with either side switchable with push of button, and pretty much studio quality audio... What a waste.
The biggest problem with the 8--track is a design flaw with the cartridge, ie, that the pinch roller is part of the cartridge, not the tape deck. This means, first, that inconsistent quality of the cartridges produces inconsistent performance. Also, it's not possible to produce adequate pressure between the capstan and pinch roller. These problems result in greater wow & flutter than is typical for a reel-to-reel, or cassette machine. I used to work as a broadcast engineer, and had a lot of experience with the "cart machines" used in that industry. They use cartridges that are very similar to 8--tracks, but with a major difference: the pinch roller is part of the machine. It pivots at the bottom, and is pulled up against the tape by a solenoid. Those machines produce wow & flutter comparable to that of a reel-to-reel.
To: Clyde Wary, Of the several items worth mentioning that were not covered here was the 4-track tape which came out at the same time as the 8 track tape but as you noted had vast improvements in usability, the four track tapes ended up losing the consumer battle but in the end won universal acceptance in radio stations all over America as "Cart"-tapes, at first used for actual on air music playback and later relegated to commercial spots and promos. Another foible worth mentioning was that some 8 track tapes had rubber Wheels to drive the tape on the capstan and other cheaper cartridges had hard plastic Wheels to drive the tape, and of course, those were terrible.
I remember 8 tracks hated it when favorite song would split on different tracks and always having to wedge folded up matchbook between the tape and the player to keep it from dragging lol
This video singlehandly changed the course of my life. I'm writing an essay about Geographies of Enthusiasm and how concepts surrounding enthusiasm inform my thinking surrounding a hobby - in my case, vinyl and hifi. The magic moment you put Michael Jackson into that deck completely changed how I saw music and how I thought about old formats and hi-fi. This video inspired me to get into collecting vinyl properly and collecting vintage hifi. I've got almost 300 albums now and about £400 worth of Hifi equipment and that would have never happened without this video. I wouldn't have become close to some people in my life without this video. This video gave me and my Dad a new shared hobby when he got into Vinyl again. It made me much more interested in music and finding music and made me get so much closer to my Mum. I cannot understate what this video has done for my life. So thank you.
I use to find the tapes along the road while riding my bike.I use to put the spindle on my turn table and slowly wind the tape back together.worked great....
Just stumbled across this video. My Grandparents are moving to a new house, and while emptying the place out we recently discovered an 8-track player in pretty good condition up in the loft, with about 25 cartridges. I was born in 1987, so too young to have experienced them during their era. Watching this video has made me think about trying to get some of them playing - I found it very interesting, so you are up one subscriber :)
I was born after the year 2000 and use 8-tracks as an everyday format. My current stereo setup even includes a 1971 Sony HST-388 Hi-Fi Stereo 8-Track deck. I also fix all the cartridges myself with various non-standard parts (example: weather strip for windows, scotch tape, etc.). I also have a portable General Electric 8-track player (GE 3-5505f) that I use all the time to bring my 8-tracks around. Long live the 8-track and great video!
I remember having an 8-track player and used to fall asleep while listening to music. But then then the big CLUNK when the track changed would wake me up again.
Me too.I have 8-Track albums and blank tapes and some of them need repair. I got the replacement pressure pads and I just need to find the time. Its nostalga for me though. And the cassette is still a serious format to this day for me..
At the beginning you say that this is different for you, doing old technology instead of new, but those are my favorite videos -the ones you do about older tech like this one so thanks for giving US a great look at how older tech worked and pleas keep it up and continue to make more of the same!
@@Techmoan its funny looking back because this is now what you've become known for, retro audio tech. And its still my favorite type of techmoan video lol
I've recently discovered this channel, and for all my studio experience & knowledge, I've learned a few fascinating things here. The presentation style is absolutely spot on, too. An easy going , and almost soothing delivery encourages you to watch other episodes.
I had a Sony TC-8 Recorder and Player. It was connected to my Kenwood TK-88 AM\FM Stereo Receiver and my Dual 1019 Turntable. I'd make these custom 8-track tapes for Road Trips and Friday Night Cruising. I had the top of the line Craig Pioneer 8-Track Player installed in my 1966 Mustang, with two Craig Pioneer 6X9 Coaxial Speakers mounted in the read deck area and I believe there were two 6.5 inch Coaxial Craig Pioneer Speakers mounted in the Front Door/Kick Panel Area. It was installed at this local Stereo Shop in West Texas. It sounded great! No complaints, fun music and wide open spaces of Far West Texas! My favorites were The Beach Boys & Merle Haggard! Those were GREAT DAYS!!!
Thanks for this video! This surely takes me back. My first car stereo was an 8-track. It was simpler changing music than with cassettes and they were actually more reliable, less prone to tape-eating than car cassette players. I also did my share of repairing 8-track cassettes. Leaving them in the car, the summer heat took its toll on them.
..This takes me back! .. me 48 now and yes when I was 5 my mum had 3 carts for her car, 'ABBA, Beach Boys and Carpenters'. But I had totally no idea the record industry was still pushing carts in the 80's! .. in the mid 70's we moved on to compact cassette and lol I remember taking one of my mum's 8 tracks apart to see how the tape was continuous.
Man, that Pioneer recorder is beautiful. Sharp lines, wood panels, metal buttons and, the wonderful glow of the VU meters. They really knew how to design stuff back then.
Mat, you've outdone yourself again. I was enthralled by this video. 8 tracks weren't all that popular here in Australia, they were quickly overtaken by cassettes and then CD's. For a while now I've been wanting to digitise all my music and then sell my turntable, amp etc, but with this and your reel to reel, you're given me cause to reconsider. Cheers from Oz.
Rather than digitise, I'd definitely go in the other direction and embrace the analogue. I think the media is part of the experience. I'm going to do a video about the reel to reel as well as some other old tech next year.
@@Techmoan I was the same once wanting to download or digitise everything. It would've been a fairly big job and then I just started playing them as they were and collecting and repairing turntables. Getting better sounding equipment and realising how much better they can sound than digital. Then there's always the collecting and playing them. Much more enjoyable than playing a file on a phone or computer.
I had the good fortune a few years ago to buy a 1970's motorhome that had the original 8-track player in it as well as a large collection of 8-track tapes. The decor in the camper was all orange and green, psychedelic paisley patterns and paneling, and really took me back to the "Brady Bunch" days. I had a few really nice nostalgic, magical drives that truly felt like I time-traveled back to the 70's, listening to the Beach Boys, Steve Miller Band and Creedence Clearwater Revival hissing and crackling and clunking between tracks on the 8-track player. Had a few good euphoric cries... unless you lived in those times, I think it would be hard to realize just what we've lost since then. I'd give up all the marvelous technologies we have today to return to a more simpler time when today's technologies were the stuff of fancy and imagination, as the dreams of what you don't have and the struggles you experience doing without seem to be far superior than the realities and conveniences of having it.
You've inspired me to listen to some 8's tonight (it doesn't get nearly enough love). Currently blasting Hawkwind's "Doremi Fasol Latido." Completely worth it to seek out the best of the best gems and repair them, love to bring them back to life and impress guests with my beautiful outdated media!
I wanted to say thank you, Techmoan. I found your channel and have enjoyed your retro av videos for a while now. The reason I wanted to thank you is that I have learned a lot about how these old pieces of electronics work so that I've been able to find equipment at flea markets and thrift stores and make them work again. I now have two working 8-track players thanks to you! Again, thank you so much and keep it up. Us nerds enjoy this stuff!
8track was really big here in Canada in the early 70's ..I fixed so many of those, they would tighten up and sometimes i would pull the whole thing out onto the floor and rewind with a compass needle and resplice.. Sometimes the deck would eat the tape and you would have to gently pull it out of the deck leaving the tape hanging out of the cartridge in a big loop.. If you were good you could pull on the inner side and give it a spin and it would suck it back in...I had a Muntz player in my 68 Javelin with pretty good speakers ..It's all we had to be able to hear your own music and we were lucky here in Canada because just about everything was available on 8 track.
I started recording 8-track tapes in 1967. People brought me their records and I put the songs on tape in the order they wanted. Yes, Louis B. Armstrong and I invented the "mix tape". I made a living in the '70's recording 8-track tapes. Thousands of them. I allowed people to bring their own picture to put on the cover. I labeled them, repaired them, and made a new one when a customers wore them out. I cleaned, demagnetized, and adjusted the heads on their players. I believe the last 8-track tape I recorded for someone was in 1982. I made them for my '79 T-Bird until 1986. In all that time I never bought a prerecorded 8-track. I have a huge record collection. I still have many Radio Shack 8-track blanks and a couple of recorders which still work. Wow, 1967 was 53 years ago!
This is great. Thanks for your efforts in making the videos about vintage gear like this. I had an 8-track player in my first car. The year was 1991. Car was a 1977 Oldsmobile. I acquired some 8 tracks easily at that time from second hand shops. I remember having a Chuck Mangione that sounded great. Then the unit stopped working. Cheers from Texas.
1) *READ THE VIDEO DESCRIPTION TEXT BOX* 2) The section around 01:50 where I explain the track layout on the tape is just plain wrong...no excuses. Here is an accurate description of the track layout from a later video I made. ruclips.net/video/zyOKgLtUxto/видео.html&t=4m49s
I need you to do me a favor I can't find the Sony in-car recordable minidisc deck anywhere since you are able to find anything in the world that you want please find it for me and let me know how to buy it when you figure it out and don't let anybody else get one it's mine
@techmoan At 9:18 the tape was probably too tightly wound inside the cartridge. Someone probably took it apart before. I've had that problem before. I just cut the metal splice off, unwound the end a couple times, then taped it back together with new metal tape, and then it sounded normal.
Brings back some wonderful childhood memories. My Dad actually had an 8 track of "Caribou." I used to play it on his Sanyo combo when he wasn't home.I was maybe 5 yrs old. "Don't let the Sun..." on that album is still one of my favorite songs...decades later. Thank you!
hi - your vid brings back memories of my job in the 70's - working for an amusement machine company with equipment all around the midlands. the company built its own 8-track player using a BSR deck from some place near Wolverhampton. the all steel case and illuminated panel were needed as they were installed under the bar in in many pubs. the customer had a free issue of carts and a box to exchange them by post. this is probably why many offered for sale today are in such poor condition around 250 of the deck were built and had a part timer to look after the cart library. i had a new job in the 80's but one of the sales team contacted me to help change the deck for an auto-reverse car cassette deck. i have never seen them since.
Part of what I love about this stuff is finding compilations people made in the 70's! I've not found a cart yet I couldn't fix. You've made me want to hook my 8-track up again! :D
My dad had a '79 Chevy Camaro that had an 8-track player. Rush sounded awesome on it! Couple of interesting tidbits: Pink Floyd's "Animals" album featured an instrument guitar track played by Snowy White, that was only available on the 8-track version. It was a bridge between program 4 and program 1, to make the album a continuous piece of music. The other thing is Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys released a solo album this year that was available on 8-track. They only made a limited number of copies, and they were pretty pricey. Great video, as always!
Absolutely FANTASTIC video, loved the old equipment and the education given. I've just bought a Bang & Olufsen Beocenter 9000 from 1986. Very expensive because of how rare it is, can't wait to open it on christmas day!
That Pioneer 8Track is sooo beautiful! It matches perfectly from the Design to my very well used 1971 Pioneer SX2500 Receiver. This old japanese Stuff is very solid and just works! The SX2500 also has two of these little green Meters for the Signal Quality and Tuning, but they already turned yellow over the Years...
One cool thing about 8-tracks that you didn't mention is that some of the mixes are very different from what was offered on the LP or cassette versions of the same albums. Also, there were quadrophonic versions of many albums offered on 8 track.
Filming In Portland I remember hearing the Elvis Aloha From Hawaii Concert on a quadrophonic 8 track. I felt like the coolest dude in the world till the tape jammed.
@ Trust Me, I'm Black! "Hello there." I really enjoy when someone learns me something - and I'd didn't know that some of the mixes offered on the 8-tracks were different from the LP or cassette versions. I find that "fascinating". I grew up in the 80's with records - then the cassette tape- and then the CD - but just missed the era of the 8-track. Since I now own an 8-track player - and the things are now cheaper than dirt at just about every thrift store I've ever wondered into - could you possible give me a list of just a few titles where in that was indeed the case - so that I may witness and enjoy then? Thanks in advance.
Will Wright III I want to say Black Sabbath's Paranoid had a different edit of War Pigs but I could be imagining that. I used to listen to my older sister's 8-track more than she did and something I listened to had a special edit for 8-track.
Do you have some examples of different mixes? Maybe with links to Discogs? Or do you mean "edits", since AFAIK some tracks had to be faded/edited to fit the length/format of 8-track?
Man, I'm loving your audio rig. Thanks for all of the info on the 8 tracks. I was considering getting one, to hear a variation of a Pink Floyd album that was only available on 8 track.
Goodday Techmoan... I am always excited to watch your videos. You have a lot of High-End Technology in your studio, that I can only dream of owning ! Very informative too !
I remember the foam crumble problem occurring after as little as a year or so...back in the 70's! . I always thought it was something I was doing wrong. I feel like a new person now....this video was the best therapy EVER! Thanks so much!
Another fascinating watch, I'd like to see more random and retro reviews. I have no interest in coffee makers and cameras but I watch because I enjoy your presentation style
We had several 8-track players back in the 1960's and 70's here in the USA. Had them at home, in our cars and at the office but changed everything out to mini-cassette by the mid 70's. Love your 8-track recorder though. Beautiful piece of equipment and Pioneer has always been a top audio brand :)
The one thing I wanted to learn about 8 track was how it was a continuous loop. I could never work it out! Glad I can now store that one away. My brother had one in his mk3 Cortina in the 70s. He always mentioned hearing 2 tracks at the same time! Whenever I think of 8 tracks I can't help but remember The Blues Brothers when he puts in 'The Best Of Sam And Dave' 8 track in the old cop car. Brilliant
we had an 8 track stereo player/recorder at home when I was a kid. You had 2 mics 1 for each channel for recording in stereo. I have fond memories of popping in my parents late 70's early 80's music collection and cranking the volume in the basement. That player always worked well and never ate a tape.
I use to find 8 track tapes unraveled on the weeds on a dirt road riding my bike, I would take them and cram them in my coat pocket and take them home place the center wheel on my turn table and slowly repair them. Just like the old radio carts you had to deal with the Graphite that messed up the heads so had to clean them all the time. But hey thanks for the memories.
Really enjoyed watching this, not seen 8 track in years, did see a player at the carboot on sunday... Ignore the people leaving negatives, this was an excellent upload. merry festive holiday of whatever type you will partake in.
I have several 8-tracks myself and the foam pads have disintegrated in them, I used soft tissue to replace it and it worked fine. I am glad to know there is someone who makes replacement pads out there.
We're about the same age... My dad LOVED 8-Track tapes int eh '70s and I remember long hours listening to them in the den. Later, I had a friend who had a nice recorder --- this was the mid 1980's -- and I have fond memories of dubbing CD's on to 8-track for my dad! :)
"Dross" is the best word I've heard so far for describing the thousands of copies of Elvis, Bach and Guy Lombardo that old-music collectors have to sift through to find the good stuff. That's definitely entering my daily vocabulary.
Don't forget Englebert Humperdinck and Waylon Jennings tapes. Also Jesus music too. Had to dig through lots of that to find a mint in the wrapper Phil Collins 8 track. It felt like Christmas.
Orange Harrison: Slightly different thing, but that totally reminds of the seemingly limitless supply of "Frampton Comes Alive!", Guy Lombardo, and that one album featuring "Wichita Lineman" whose artist and album title I can never remember that gets dug through everytime one hits the LP bins at the flea markets and thrift stores. :D
My first encounter with these was when watching Omega Man with Charlton Heston as a wee lad. I had no idea what they were, but when I saw pics of 8-Tracks years later I instantly remebered that scene.
This episode was great. You should really make more videos about Audio Equipment and everything related to it because you seem to be more passionate about those things than cheap Car Cameras (which is understandable) Oh, and now I also want to find out more about your equipment and how you integrated the Sonos.
At least here in North America, a goodly number of 8-track cassettes were filled with "Hits of/in the Style of [insert band or genre] - As Performed By The [insert session band name] Studio Musicians". Naturally, they ranged from so-so but listenable to "what were they thinking?" I even owned one where an awful George Carlin imitator performed amateurish versions of the real Carlin's stand-up comedy routines, all to a ridiculous track of canned "audience" laughter that repeated every few seconds. Their only upside was that they sold much more cheaply than the actual artists' releases, often at gas stations and truck stops, for road trippers and truckers with 8-track decks to inexpensively amass a library of musical diversion.
That also happened well into the CD era. Music was expensive, and an investment. We sometimes looked for our favorite songs on compilations, to maximize value. Then the mp3 came and changed all that, not necessarily for the better.
Well, quality, for starters. But what I mean is you could buy or download just one song in mp3 format, just the song you wanted, not the whole album. CDs were expensive, so you had to plan carefully your purchase. So artists put a lot of effort on albums, at least the good ones. A Led Zeppelin or David Bowie casual fan had to wait for greatest hits compilations, since buying every album was not an easy task. Those compilations were not commonplace. David Bowie's greatest hits CD didn't come out until around 2002. It's good that you can buy just your favorite song on iTunes, but artists just now focus on singles, and great whole albums are rare. Great albums like "Appetite For Destruction" are a lost art.
+Steve What I'm saying is that without that old music business model, we wouldn't have classic albums like U2's "Achtung Baby". We would only have the song " One", the most successful single from the album. We would have missed the opening song "Zoo Station", as a sort of shocking intro to the band's new sound. Great albums were regarded as whole masterpieces, not a collection of songs. We wouldn't have Pink Floyd's " Dark Side Of The Moon" either. Those were great sonic experiences, not just the newest, hottest song. The mp3 revolution changed that for better and for worse.
@Captain Confederate Man I always thought that it was ungodly. Like: That was an ungodly amount of fish you ate last night at the swingers party Have a good-ly one
My dad used to swear by 8-track back in the 70s and 80s, he never really took on CD until he got a car that had a CD player then he just collected lots of Rock n Roll compilation CDs. Bless him, he left me all his vinyl when he passed away but I have no idea what happened to his 8 track collection.
Got an old 1970 K5 Chevy Blazer with an 8 track in it, plus the truck still has daisy chains of old beer can pop top leavers hanging from the rear view mirror, back when you opened a beer can and you ended up with two pieces
Great video. Appreciate you taking the time to review this technology and the various aspects of it. I didn't have an interest in it before, but this video certainly made me reconsider that due to its thoroughness.
That was a nice presentation that brought back memories. I never had a car player. I did own a couple of Radio Shack decks and one portable 8-track player sold by Western Auto back in 1969-1970.
interesting video, i was born in '85 so i almost never heard of 8 tracks and certainly never seen one (on TV or in person) Congratulations on unboxing the oldest box on youtube.
I remember these 8 track machines very well. Many cinemas used them for background music, they simply played without attention for ever. Well that was in theory!! in practice they suffered from wow and flutter, getting worse with time until the tape would just seize up. Flutter was coursed by the fact that there was almost no fly wheel. Lots of hiss was because unlike the cassette which had Dolby B noise reduction, the 8 track had none. Recording music yourself on a good tape did give really quite good results, mostly due to the higher tape speed of 3.75 inches per second. This made a better high frequency response and less compression. Even in it's day the blank 8 track cartridge was quite expensive, I guess mainly as the medium was a playback only system, very few recorders were sold. People did not really understand how to record on them, took quite a while to master the track switching timing, always seamed to switch half way through a song.
UK resident. My dad had a car player and a recorder at home as part of his hi-fi system around 1969/70. It didn't last long, the tapes were expensive and there wasn't a wide choice available in record shops. The tape regularly snapped/got tangled. It was also awkward to find the start of the track you wanted to listen to. We were the only family we knew who bought into the 8 track format.
Thank you for the inspiration, Techmoan! I fell in love with the H R99 and thought I would never see one. And yet, I was immensely lucky to acquire a beautiful fully functional unit in an eBay auction for USD$154.00. Aesthetically it looks beautiful. I have not fully tested it but due to the quality of the components I'm sure I'll end up having a perfectly working unit. Even as an ornament, it is delightful to look at and I'm proud to have it on display along with my very humble audio setup!
I think you've hit on all the pros and cons of 8-tracks! For my 70s money, I found 8-tracks to be fuller and had more vibrant bass. I also found that a lot of tapes I had exhibited bleed-over. The thing I hated most was that MOST of the tapes had tracks in a different order than my records, as you mentioned. That was annoying. But the most annoying problem ever, was that you had to listen to several tracks to get to what you wanted to hear. If you missed it, you had to start all over again. I still think they sounded fuller than cassette, records and even CDs. Mine hit the bin decades ago, but I agree, that is a nice bit of kit!!!
+Larry Talbot Yes, the tracks were usually in a different order. But if I bought an album on 8-track, to me, that was the album's song order. For albums that I later got on record or CD, the song order seemed "wrong" because I was used to the 8-track's order.
Old magnetic tapes also suffer from "print through" where the magnetism from one part of the tape, overlaid in the windings over another piece of tape, can impress some of its magnetic pattern onto the adjacent wind of the tape. This can happen on 8-Track, or reel to reel, or cassette. Also, some particularly cheaply made mag tapes would degrade and stick to their adjacent layer and essentially bind up in the machines, potentially ruining the machines motors &/or pinch-rollers. I've heard of people actually putting these tapes in the oven at a low temp and heating them up which apparently could unstick them enough to be able to play and dup their content off onto something else. I've encountered these sticky tapes but haven't tried the oven technique. I still have a bunch of old 8-track tapes and an 8-track player/recorder. This inspires me to want to dig that stuff up and see if they still work...
"Tape" was very uniform rust (oxide) in a glue, stuck to cellophane. Pretty fragile really, and heat is the enemy. Your description of baking tape is exactly right. The thought us, you get one play after they're baked, so better hit Record to capture it to something else. :)
This was caused by a "faulty" binder that was used in the oxides on certain Cassette Tape formulations in the mid 70's through the mid 80's. It absorbs moisture (which it is NOT supposed to do) and this degrades the tape and causes screeching, squealing, slow binding of the tape, etc. and makes these Cassette Tapes unplayable. It is also referred to as "Sticky Shed Syndrome". Have never seen this happen on 8-Track Cartridge Tapes, though.
Excellent. I had a lot of 8 track tapes and a player in house and one in my car. I love that 8 track player / recorder you found. I always enjoy your program. Thanks.
The label bubbles up because they have more than likely been left out in extreme heat and cold weather in cars. The 8 Track system were invented by the guy that started Lear Jets, he wanted a music system for his planes. Some 8 Track tapes had the name "LearJet 8" on them.
8-tracks was hit when I was a kid. I'm 49 years old now and coming up as a kid. My father and my uncle had 8-tracks in there Coupe Deville, Cadillacs. Our home stereo included 8-tracks players built in. My father had a large collection of prerecorded 8-tracks. Like Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Fats Domino and comedy like Redd Foxx, and Bill Cosby. I remember my father, trying to fix his 8-tracks when the tap pop and I could to see they was a hassle to repair. I was in high school, when first introduce to Kraftwerk with a prerecorded Trans Europe Express album on 8-tracks in a Chevy Camaro Z28 , which my sister boyfriend drove. I still today own a 8-track recorder and remember saving up to buy blanks 8-tracks from radio shack as teenager. I had to have one because, my sister boyfriend was also a Dee Jay and he use to record all his mixes from his Dee Jay set on 8-tracks and blast them in his Z28. His car was louder than a home system. Man, those was the days.
Hey fellow Brother in the music and sound equipment world over in the UK. I've been watching your video's for sometime now. And I truly enjoy them. You give a very good and honest review of every peace equipment you touch on in your video's. Thank you very much for telling it like it is. I like how you explain and show us whats really going on with these old vintage sound gear back in the Day. Keep the Video's coming. Again, Three Thumps up. Dj Robbie Out
8 Tracks were huge here in the U.S. in the 1970's, so much so that at one point some point car manufacturers started to offer optional AM/FM/8Track players as a factory option. If you didn't want the factory option...Panasonic, Sanyo and Pioneer also sold an 'aftermarket' combination 8 track/FM 'under the dash' players for the car. These were especially popular at the time because most cars still only came with an AM radio, so it was a win win marketing concept. In the latter part of the 1970's, some manufacturers like "Audiovox" even started producing 'in dash' AM/FM/CB radio and 8 Track players, there were sold around $250 to $350 USD. Later the price of these eventually came down some. You can see one here at ruclips.net/video/GrPSIKGWyQ4/видео.html At some point 8 tracks became so popular here that you could have bought "off brand" (no name manufacturers) under the dash 8 track players for as little as $25 USD in some places. "Off brand" 90 minute blank tapes could often be found for as little as $2.00 USD each or less... At one point in the early to mid 70's, prerecorded bootleg 8 track tapes were readily available at nearly every corner store for as low as $2 a piece! Sometimes the sound quality was sometimes OK to even pretty good, most times they seem to have more 'hiss' than legitimate 8 Tracks. 8 Tracks had some other drawbacks besides the inability to rewind. Some inexpensive and portable 8 track players didn't have the capability to automatically change tracks. You had to change it manually with a knob or a 'plunger' (like those portable Panasonic players). In addition, the portable players often required 8 'D' cell batteries to operate and the battery life wasn't good at all. The biggest drawback was that some prerecorded 8 Tracks had songs were split between two tracks. (Dark Side of The Moon by Pink Floyd was a prime example). So in the the middle of the song it would fade out and you had to wait until it changed tracks (or had to change it manually) and then hear the rest of the song on the next track. To solve that problem, you bought an 8 Track recorder. These were about $100 and up to $200+ USD. You'd record your record album onto the 8 Track and put the full song on one track. Eventually more people started using cassettes and by the very early 1980's the 8 track pretty much fell out of favor. But it had a heck of a run here in the U.S. for the time that it did...The audio quality was pretty good on average, no doubt due to the 3-3/4 ips (9.53cm) speed.
Very interesting video. At school in the 80s, we seemed to come across all kinds of obsolete kit, especially at the school jumble sales. One year (I think it was 1986) one of my friends bought a Pioneer music centre for £5. Made in 1975, it had a turntable, FM stereo tuner (with 'FM Stereo' written all over it) and an 8-track cartridge slot. We only had one cartridge, I think it was Johnny Cash's Greatest Hits. Certainly taught us teenagers to appreciate obsolete tech like in your video, and, if my house were bigger and my wife didn't give me a hard time, I'd be all over this stuff! Great video, and yes, you certainly got the tone just right - enough info for those new to the subject, but lots of interest for those know know a little more!
Watching this in 2020 and the first sentence being, "looking at old tech is a departure for me" is so bizarre considering that's the main thing on the channel now 😂
Brandon Giesing I was about to comment the same thing
Agreed
Yeah, I was gonna say so too XD
i know right
also i like that song
Another reason that the labels can look so bad is because a lot of tapes sat around on the floors of cars when they weren't being played in the car's 8 track player. I was lucky enough to find a case filled with really good condition tapes recently.
Hello Bosh
That 8 track recorder unboxing is the closest thing to time travelling i've ever seen.
It's easy, he built a time machine (ruclips.net/video/t5FqjQlFBDM/видео.html just watch these 10 seconds). Maybe not real but certanily very rich of fantasy :--)
The Pioneer packaging looks incredibly modern.
Exactly!! I got goosebumps during the unboxing.
Without a flux capacitor of course...
A bit of a time capsule to be sure; brought back a lot of memories...
"now let's put Michael Jackson in and listen to that for a second"
\*pregnant silence*
Ah, yeah that *sounds* about right... thanks copyright
Damn you Sony!!!
HalfiplierMania they won’t even reissue their Walkman’s
"pregnant silence"?
@@qwertykeyboard5901 it's a term for when silence takes place where sound was anticipated, like when someone says "I have something to tell you" and then pauses for 10 excruciating seconds
I assumed it was because the track lengths were different and he simply encountered a blank spot.
FYI: You can record over any 8 track tape, you don't need a "blank" tape
cool
Homer Simpson still has an 8-Track player in his car. As a kid in the early 90s I had to ask my Dad what an 8-Track was because of it. He laughed as I recall.
Recycle Hin
The brand of Homer's 8 traks player in his car is" Trackstar " , have you noticed it ? (I'am a huge fans of the Simpsons serial !)
Recycle Hin: Don't feel bad, you've actually done better than me; MY first time seeing an 8-track was when Tommy Lee Jones' character forces Will Smith (I get it mixed up who's supposed to be Agents J & K) to listen to one during the "upside down tunnel" sequence from the first "Men in Black" movie! :D
@@MateDrinker33
A car with alien technology, uses 8 track for music.
Seems legit.
@@MateDrinker33 Elvis Promised land!
Yes I do, doh!
Top tip readers : before playing any unknown 8 track tape, open it up, wind it back on spool and adjust the tape tension, replace the sponge pad and clean the roller, check the splice strip (to re-enforce it, you can put a short strip of masking tape on the back on the none recorder side to ensure the splice doesn’t let go. Keep your players rollers clean and all should be fine!
Just had to add my $.02 worth. Before the end of the 8-Track era many of them came out with Dolby (B of course) noise reduction and even the recorders had it. I still have in an attic somewhere a deck that even electrically inserted and ejected the tape rather than the big CLUNK of pushing it in and pulling it out. You would gently push it to a point and it would reel the tape in the rest of the way motorized, like a CD tray. When done, if not set to continuous play, it would gently feed the tape back out and turn off. I even had a few 160 and 180 minute recordable carts and pairing that fancy deck with my DBX 224x noise reduction and expander, and nobody knew it was a tape at all, let alone an 8-track. -Jay
The electronic insertion was a standard in VHS recorders 📼. I can imagine that a lot could have been done in comfort and quality improvement. Like an azimuth adjustable head to align to the tape tracks perfectly. Or music search sensors
what was the model? :O
"Sponge Crumble" is a fantastic name for an audio equipment problem.
+Draccyness it sounds like something you'd eat. At school dinners, with some disgusting custard :)
If I started an English punk band, I'd name it Sponge Crumble.
Sounds like a discount biscuit you'd find at a pound shop.
Sounds like a skin disease >.
Draccyness "Ah sh**, this's got the Sponge Crumble!
The original purchaser of many of the tapes you show was a member of the Columbia Record (and Tape) Club, which accounts for the letters CRC on the label. Their system caused some folks to end up with a lot of music they never wanted, because it was easy to forget to mail back the card that would stop them from sending you their 'selection of the month' which of course carried a full retail price plus shipping. However, the club was part of the reason I went with 8-tracks in a big way when I did. I lived far enough away from any brick-and-mortar retailer selling music, so going to a record store meant tagging along with my parents and inevitably being questioned and scorned for 'wasting my money' on such things. 8-tracks fit in the mailbox, and I was always home before my folks so I could get them in the house without being seen. Speaking of being seen - many of CRC's tapes were manufactured with the bright plastic like your Elton John tape. If you think it's bright in regular light, put it under a black light and it will REALLY glow.
Wow, at the 13:48 point when you showed the tape, I saw a song on that tape by a very good friend of mine. Werewolf - Five Man Electrical Band. The Guitarist, Vern was my neighbour for over 25 years. Never thought I would see a compilation tape now with his old classic stuff on it. Great stuff as usual.
Of course, Five Man Electrical band was best known for "Signs"...I got all their 45's LOL including "Werewolf"
Wow, somehow I went my whole life without hearing that song!
Small world, init?
ruclips.net/video/XHTc5n8aY-g/видео.html
absolutely Right
14:08 - I was about to be impressed on how you fixed that
14:12 - *pokerface
I laughed so hard when he said "... and this is what happened".
bro you just posted cringe
...two years ago.
HA! I remember having that happen! I would repair them of course, it was LONG, LONG before downloading digital albums.
He just basically just gave up at this point
I'm glad this seems to be going down well. The hardest thing was trying to pitch this at the right level. I know that there will be many viewers who know everything there is to know about 8-track then many others who were born in the 80s or 90s who've never seen these. I'm slap-bang in the middle somewhere.
Maybe so, maybe you are slap-bang in the middle, but I bet not many of your readers know that there was a *car disc player* years before the 8-track.
It played single 33rpm records.
angelface22322 Really no kidding. Must have been a bulky thing. thanks for the FYI.
well done Matt, I love old electronics (have a collection of tube radios etc) but never got to experience 8track. Anyways its nice to see a broad overview of the tech like this. Happy holidays :-)
Big Guy Review It wore down records really quickly due to having to track heavily to not skip on roads. They didn't gain a lot of popularity and were made for only for a few years.
see thats were your wrong i was born in 85 and i was playing 8tracks as a kid and fixing them then its an acquired taste and yes they have issues but thats part of the fun and character
This sure brought back some memories. Back in the day I was an electronics repair tech here in the US (I am now 55 years old) and I repaired many 8-track decks. In the early 80's I was the only guy I ever new to have both an 8-track and a cassette player in my car, at the same time. One little nit-pick I have though, is that your track diagram is incorrect. The tracks were actually laid out in two sets of 4, the top 4 would be the right channels and the bottom 4 tracks were the left channels (it may have been the other way around, my memory is faded on that point). So if you were on channel one it would actually be playing tracks 1 and 5, track 2 would be tracks 2 and 6 and so on. Other than that this was an excellent review about something folks younger than me know little about. Also, for best tape longevity, make sure you clean the head often, and make sure the capstan is kept cleaned as well, or you will soon experience the infamous "my 8-track is eating my tapes" phenomena. Well done.
Thanks Randy. I knew going into this that there would be people who would be a lot more familiar with 8-track than I am. I tried to find out about the track layout because I know that on my reel to reel they are 1&3 and 2&4, but I couldn't get the info for the 8-track. I won't go to the trouble of annotating the video, I think it would be too confusing to the casual viewer. I do love my machine and enjoy playing the tapes...but convenience and reliability are not its strong points. Thanks again for the info.
You can look at the tape head and see how far apart the two pickups are.
@@Techmoan I was also aware of the correct tape layout, being a teenager of the 70's. This reduces the vertical motion required by the head and I assume makes the head easier to manufacture as the two playback heads can be further apart.
Both cassette and 8track in your car? You must have been rich!
@@BradHouser I would assume it also helps improve stereo separation/reduce crosstalk between the left and right channel, by virtue of the “halves” of the head being further apart?
That hiss. I remember that hiss. It would be so loud in between songs. That's what I remember most about 8-tracks (my parents had one as part of their hifi set, along with a turntable and a tuner).
And also a wobble sound when it fast forward to the next track to play the next song.
This was a novel video, bringing back some memories from my teen years. The tech •is• really beautiful. I had a Pioneer playback unit. On the other hand, I also realized why I didn't find the 8-Track to be a very good format, clunky, deteriorating mechanisms, breaking tapes, poor gluing of the label etc. You noticed this as well. BTW, I noticed that there was quite a bit of wow in the first two tapes you played. Thanks for the memories.
Searching for a song on the album: KA-CHUNK, KA-CHUNK, KA-CHUNK, KA CHUNK.
Seeing this without ever holding a 8-track tape myself, it's kind of annoying to imagine how good it could have been: With wider tape and faster speed, if they had improved the tape and cut tracks to just 4, it would have still held single LP but with either side switchable with push of button, and pretty much studio quality audio... What a waste.
The biggest problem with the 8--track is a design flaw with the cartridge, ie, that the pinch roller is part of the cartridge, not the tape deck. This means, first, that inconsistent quality of the cartridges produces inconsistent performance. Also, it's not possible to produce adequate pressure between the capstan and pinch roller. These problems result in greater wow & flutter than is typical for a reel-to-reel, or cassette machine. I used to work as a broadcast engineer, and had a lot of experience with the "cart machines" used in that industry. They use cartridges that are very similar to 8--tracks, but with a major difference: the pinch roller is part of the machine. It pivots at the bottom, and is pulled up against the tape by a solenoid. Those machines produce wow & flutter comparable to that of a reel-to-reel.
To: Clyde Wary,
Of the several items worth mentioning that were not covered here was the 4-track tape which came out at the same time as the 8 track tape but as you noted had vast improvements in usability, the four track tapes ended up losing the consumer battle but in the end won universal acceptance in radio stations all over America as "Cart"-tapes, at first used for actual on air music playback and later relegated to commercial spots and promos.
Another foible worth mentioning was that some 8 track tapes had rubber Wheels to drive the tape on the capstan and other cheaper cartridges had hard plastic Wheels to drive the tape, and of course, those were terrible.
I remember 8 tracks hated it when favorite song would split on different tracks and always having to wedge folded up matchbook between the tape and the player to keep it from dragging lol
This video singlehandly changed the course of my life. I'm writing an essay about Geographies of Enthusiasm and how concepts surrounding enthusiasm inform my thinking surrounding a hobby - in my case, vinyl and hifi. The magic moment you put Michael Jackson into that deck completely changed how I saw music and how I thought about old formats and hi-fi. This video inspired me to get into collecting vinyl properly and collecting vintage hifi. I've got almost 300 albums now and about £400 worth of Hifi equipment and that would have never happened without this video. I wouldn't have become close to some people in my life without this video. This video gave me and my Dad a new shared hobby when he got into Vinyl again. It made me much more interested in music and finding music and made me get so much closer to my Mum. I cannot understate what this video has done for my life. So thank you.
What a great looking player, seems surprisingly modern. Must be the lack of fake wood trim.
I kinda like the way wood grain looks. I'm 21...lol
@@adamziolkowski2549 I have a similar 8 track player and mine has wood trim. Techmoan's looks infinity better.
I use to find the tapes along the road while riding my bike.I use to put the spindle on my turn table and slowly wind the tape back together.worked great....
Just stumbled across this video. My Grandparents are moving to a new house, and while emptying the place out we recently discovered an 8-track player in pretty good condition up in the loft, with about 25 cartridges. I was born in 1987, so too young to have experienced them during their era. Watching this video has made me think about trying to get some of them playing - I found it very interesting, so you are up one subscriber :)
I was born after the year 2000 and use 8-tracks as an everyday format. My current stereo setup even includes a 1971 Sony HST-388 Hi-Fi Stereo 8-Track deck. I also fix all the cartridges myself with various non-standard parts (example: weather strip for windows, scotch tape, etc.). I also have a portable General Electric 8-track player (GE 3-5505f) that I use all the time to bring my 8-tracks around. Long live the 8-track and great video!
I remember having an 8-track player and used to fall asleep while listening to music. But then then the big CLUNK when the track changed would wake me up again.
+PeowPeowPeowLasers Thanks for that, this was my first ever attempt at splicing a tape. I'm learning all the time.
You should do a review on the Pocket Rockers there like a mini 8 track with only 2 songs on each tape like a 45 I think that would be very cool!
Me too.I have 8-Track albums and blank tapes and some of them need repair. I got the replacement pressure pads and I just need to find the time. Its nostalga for me though. And the cassette is still a serious format to this day for me..
My dad in high school was making good money by being the best hand splicer for 8track available.
At the beginning you say that this is different for you, doing old technology instead of new, but those are my favorite videos -the ones you do about older tech like this one so thanks for giving US a great look at how older tech worked and pleas keep it up and continue to make more of the same!
Jared Connell Thanks, I do have a few more old tech videos planned for the coming months.
+Techmoan Do it more please!!
@@Techmoan its funny looking back because this is now what you've become known for, retro audio tech. And its still my favorite type of techmoan video lol
I've recently discovered this channel, and for all my studio experience & knowledge, I've learned a few fascinating things here.
The presentation style is absolutely spot on, too. An easy going , and almost soothing delivery encourages you to watch other episodes.
I had a Sony TC-8 Recorder and Player. It was connected to my Kenwood TK-88 AM\FM Stereo Receiver and my Dual 1019 Turntable. I'd make these custom 8-track tapes for Road Trips and Friday Night Cruising. I had the top of the line Craig Pioneer 8-Track Player installed in my 1966 Mustang, with two Craig Pioneer 6X9 Coaxial Speakers mounted in the read deck area and I believe there were two 6.5 inch Coaxial Craig Pioneer Speakers mounted in the Front Door/Kick Panel Area. It was installed at this local Stereo Shop in West Texas. It sounded great! No complaints, fun music and wide open spaces of Far West Texas! My favorites were The Beach Boys & Merle Haggard! Those were GREAT DAYS!!!
That Star Wars album by Meco took me right back I remember having that on LP
I had Meco "Encounters of Every Kind" on 8 track
Thanks for this video!
This surely takes me back. My first car stereo was an 8-track. It was simpler changing music than with cassettes and they were actually more reliable, less prone to tape-eating than car cassette players. I also did my share of repairing 8-track cassettes. Leaving them in the car, the summer heat took its toll on them.
..This takes me back! .. me 48 now and yes when I was 5 my mum had 3 carts for her car, 'ABBA, Beach Boys and Carpenters'. But I had totally no idea the record industry was still pushing carts in the 80's! .. in the mid 70's we moved on to compact cassette and lol I remember taking one of my mum's 8 tracks apart to see how the tape was continuous.
It wasn't the Record Companies that pushed it in the 80's, it was the "Record Clubs".
Man, that Pioneer recorder is beautiful.
Sharp lines, wood panels, metal buttons and, the wonderful glow of the VU meters.
They really knew how to design stuff back then.
Those sponges must be made of the same material as my first headset's padding.
Foam Rubber... ("Pressure Pads")
Mat, you've outdone yourself again. I was enthralled by this video. 8 tracks weren't all that popular here in Australia, they were quickly overtaken by cassettes and then CD's. For a while now I've been wanting to digitise all my music and then sell my turntable, amp etc, but with this and your reel to reel, you're given me cause to reconsider. Cheers from Oz.
Rather than digitise, I'd definitely go in the other direction and embrace the analogue. I think the media is part of the experience. I'm going to do a video about the reel to reel as well as some other old tech next year.
@@Techmoan I was the same once wanting to download or digitise everything. It would've been a fairly big job and then I just started playing them as they were and collecting and repairing turntables. Getting better sounding equipment and realising how much better they can sound than digital. Then there's always the collecting and playing them. Much more enjoyable than playing a file on a phone or computer.
I had the good fortune a few years ago to buy a 1970's motorhome that had the original 8-track player in it as well as a large collection of 8-track tapes. The decor in the camper was all orange and green, psychedelic paisley patterns and paneling, and really took me back to the "Brady Bunch" days. I had a few really nice nostalgic, magical drives that truly felt like I time-traveled back to the 70's, listening to the Beach Boys, Steve Miller Band and Creedence Clearwater Revival hissing and crackling and clunking between tracks on the 8-track player. Had a few good euphoric cries... unless you lived in those times, I think it would be hard to realize just what we've lost since then. I'd give up all the marvelous technologies we have today to return to a more simpler time when today's technologies were the stuff of fancy and imagination, as the dreams of what you don't have and the struggles you experience doing without seem to be far superior than the realities and conveniences of having it.
It's been a long time. I'm so glad we're all still here. Keep being you, you're awesome!
ah, back when techmoan looking at old technology rather than new was unusual
You've inspired me to listen to some 8's tonight (it doesn't get nearly enough love). Currently blasting Hawkwind's "Doremi Fasol Latido." Completely worth it to seek out the best of the best gems and repair them, love to bring them back to life and impress guests with my beautiful outdated media!
Fun video, I would recommend storing your 8-Tracks on their side rather than flat. It'll help keep the tape flat.
I wanted to say thank you, Techmoan. I found your channel and have enjoyed your retro av videos for a while now. The reason I wanted to thank you is that I have learned a lot about how these old pieces of electronics work so that I've been able to find equipment at flea markets and thrift stores and make them work again. I now have two working 8-track players thanks to you! Again, thank you so much and keep it up. Us nerds enjoy this stuff!
That tray loading cassette, wow, never seen that before, I love it! :)
8track was really big here in Canada in the early 70's ..I fixed so many of those, they would tighten up and sometimes i would pull the whole thing out onto the floor and rewind with a compass needle and resplice.. Sometimes the deck would eat the tape and you would have to gently pull it out of the deck leaving the tape hanging out of the cartridge in a big loop.. If you were good you could pull on the inner side and give it a spin and it would suck it back in...I had a Muntz player in my 68 Javelin with pretty good speakers ..It's all we had to be able to hear your own music and we were lucky here in Canada because just about everything was available on 8 track.
The best and most thorough explanation of 8 track I've ever seen or read. Thanks for the effort and thanks for sharing. Look forward to more videos.
I started recording 8-track tapes in 1967. People brought me their records and I put the songs on tape in the order they wanted. Yes, Louis B. Armstrong and I invented the "mix tape". I made a living in the '70's recording 8-track tapes. Thousands of them. I allowed people to bring their own picture to put on the cover. I labeled them, repaired them, and made a new one when a customers wore them out. I cleaned, demagnetized, and adjusted the heads on their players. I believe the last 8-track tape I recorded for someone was in 1982. I made them for my '79 T-Bird until 1986. In all that time I never bought a prerecorded 8-track. I have a huge record collection. I still have many Radio Shack 8-track blanks and a couple of recorders which still work. Wow, 1967 was 53 years ago!
This is great. Thanks for your efforts in making the videos about vintage gear like this. I had an 8-track player in my first car. The year was 1991. Car was a 1977 Oldsmobile. I acquired some 8 tracks easily at that time from second hand shops. I remember having a Chuck Mangione that sounded great. Then the unit stopped working. Cheers from Texas.
1) *READ THE VIDEO DESCRIPTION TEXT BOX*
2) The section around 01:50 where I explain the track layout on the tape is just plain wrong...no excuses. Here is an accurate description of the track layout from a later video I made. ruclips.net/video/zyOKgLtUxto/видео.html&t=4m49s
Techmoan I don't know if. T
I need you to do me a favor I can't find the Sony in-car recordable minidisc deck anywhere since you are able to find anything in the world that you want please find it for me and let me know how to buy it when you figure it out and don't let anybody else get one it's mine
@techmoan At 9:18 the tape was probably too tightly wound inside the cartridge. Someone probably took it apart before. I've had that problem before. I just cut the metal splice off, unwound the end a couple times, then taped it back together with new metal tape, and then it sounded normal.
Oh how the times have changed
Hey what nrand is the player you tore apart i have a similar one
Brings back some wonderful childhood memories. My Dad actually had an 8 track of "Caribou." I used to play it on his Sanyo combo when he wasn't home.I was maybe 5 yrs old. "Don't let the Sun..." on that album is still one of my favorite songs...decades later. Thank you!
hi - your vid brings back memories of my job in the 70's - working for an amusement machine company with equipment all around the midlands.
the company built its own 8-track player using a BSR deck from some place near Wolverhampton. the all steel case and illuminated panel were needed as they were installed under the bar in in many pubs. the customer had a free issue of carts and a box to exchange them by post. this is probably why many offered for sale today are in such poor condition around 250 of the deck were built and had a part timer to look after the cart library. i had a new job in the 80's but one of the sales team contacted me to help change the deck for an auto-reverse car cassette deck. i have never seen them since.
OMG, that thing is beautiful. I love this old tech. It really is a work of art.
Bozz Skaggs on an 8-track rocked. Who can forget "Lido" except for anyone born after 1975?
Can you forget that second Z in Bozz?
Part of what I love about this stuff is finding compilations people made in the 70's! I've not found a cart yet I couldn't fix. You've made me want to hook my 8-track up again! :D
My dad had a '79 Chevy Camaro that had an 8-track player. Rush sounded awesome on it!
Couple of interesting tidbits: Pink Floyd's "Animals" album featured an instrument guitar track played by Snowy White, that was only available on the 8-track version. It was a bridge between program 4 and program 1, to make the album a continuous piece of music. The other thing is Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys released a solo album this year that was available on 8-track. They only made a limited number of copies, and they were pretty pricey.
Great video, as always!
Absolutely FANTASTIC video, loved the old equipment and the education given. I've just bought a Bang & Olufsen Beocenter 9000 from 1986. Very expensive because of how rare it is, can't wait to open it on christmas day!
You are a chap after my own heart - would love to get hold of a BeoSound 9000 6-CD player. Gorgeous piece of tech.
WOW thats awesome!
Techmoan I have a B&O Beosound 9000 its just oustanding paired with Beolab 4 speakers , a David Lewis classic its the Mk3 version
I lost it at the "iTunes solution" lol, great video!
Just watched this video. I holds up 100%, even after all these years. Great YT content is timeless.
That Pioneer 8Track is sooo beautiful!
It matches perfectly from the Design to my very well used 1971 Pioneer SX2500 Receiver. This old japanese Stuff is very solid and just works!
The SX2500 also has two of these little green Meters for the Signal Quality and Tuning, but they already turned yellow over the Years...
One cool thing about 8-tracks that you didn't mention is that some of the mixes are very different from what was offered on the LP or cassette versions of the same albums. Also, there were quadrophonic versions of many albums offered on 8 track.
Trust Me, I'm Black! I forgot about the cool mixes!! 45s often had different mixes too. Often different mastering as well on different mediums.
Filming In Portland I remember hearing the Elvis Aloha From Hawaii Concert on a quadrophonic 8 track. I felt like the coolest dude in the world till the tape jammed.
@ Trust Me, I'm Black! "Hello there." I really enjoy when someone learns me something - and I'd didn't know that some of the mixes offered on the 8-tracks were different from the LP or cassette versions. I find that "fascinating". I grew up in the 80's with records - then the cassette tape- and then the CD - but just missed the era of the 8-track. Since I now own an 8-track player - and the things are now cheaper than dirt at just about every thrift store I've ever wondered into - could you possible give me a list of just a few titles where in that was indeed the case - so that I may witness and enjoy then? Thanks in advance.
Will Wright III I want to say Black Sabbath's Paranoid had a different edit of War Pigs but I could be imagining that. I used to listen to my older sister's 8-track more than she did and something I listened to had a special edit for 8-track.
Do you have some examples of different mixes? Maybe with links to Discogs?
Or do you mean "edits", since AFAIK some tracks had to be faded/edited to fit the length/format of 8-track?
Man, I'm loving your audio rig. Thanks for all of the info on the 8 tracks. I was considering getting one, to hear a variation of a Pink Floyd album that was only available on 8 track.
Goodday Techmoan... I am always excited to watch your videos. You have a lot of High-End Technology in your studio, that I can only dream of owning ! Very informative too !
I remember the foam crumble problem occurring after as little as a year or so...back in the 70's! . I always thought it was something I was doing wrong. I feel like a new person now....this video was the best therapy EVER! Thanks so much!
Another fascinating watch, I'd like to see more random and retro reviews. I have no interest in coffee makers and cameras but I watch because I enjoy your presentation style
We had several 8-track players back in the 1960's and 70's here in the USA. Had them at home, in our cars and at the office but changed everything out to mini-cassette by the mid 70's. Love your 8-track recorder though. Beautiful piece of equipment and Pioneer has always been a top audio brand :)
The one thing I wanted to learn about 8 track was how it was a continuous loop. I could never work it out! Glad I can now store that one away. My brother had one in his mk3 Cortina in the 70s. He always mentioned hearing 2 tracks at the same time! Whenever I think of 8 tracks I can't help but remember The Blues Brothers when he puts in 'The Best Of Sam And Dave' 8 track in the old cop car. Brilliant
we had an 8 track stereo player/recorder at home when I was a kid. You had 2 mics 1 for each channel for recording in stereo. I have fond memories of popping in my parents late 70's early 80's music collection and cranking the volume in the basement. That player always worked well and never ate a tape.
I use to find 8 track tapes unraveled on the weeds on a dirt road riding my bike, I would take them and cram them in my coat pocket and take them home place the center wheel on my turn table and slowly repair them. Just like the old radio carts you had to deal with the Graphite that messed up the heads so had to clean them all the time. But hey thanks for the memories.
Really enjoyed watching this, not seen 8 track in years, did see a player at the carboot on sunday...
Ignore the people leaving negatives, this was an excellent upload.
merry festive holiday of whatever type you will partake in.
I have several 8-tracks myself and the foam pads have disintegrated in them, I used soft tissue to replace it and it worked fine. I am glad to know there is someone who makes replacement pads out there.
We're about the same age... My dad LOVED 8-Track tapes int eh '70s and I remember long hours listening to them in the den. Later, I had a friend who had a nice recorder --- this was the mid 1980's -- and I have fond memories of dubbing CD's on to 8-track for my dad! :)
"Dross" is the best word I've heard so far for describing the thousands of copies of Elvis, Bach and Guy Lombardo that old-music collectors have to sift through to find the good stuff. That's definitely entering my daily vocabulary.
+Orange Harrison thats all i find whenever i go find Laserdiscs
I would take that dross over 99 percent of current "pop".
Don't forget Englebert Humperdinck and Waylon Jennings tapes. Also Jesus music too. Had to dig through lots of that to find a mint in the wrapper Phil Collins 8 track. It felt like Christmas.
Orange Harrison: Slightly different thing, but that totally reminds of the seemingly limitless supply of "Frampton Comes Alive!", Guy Lombardo, and that one album featuring "Wichita Lineman" whose artist and album title I can never remember that gets dug through everytime one hits the LP bins at the flea markets and thrift stores. :D
Can't believe those bran new machines you find! AMAZING!!
My first encounter with these was when watching Omega Man with Charlton Heston as a wee lad. I had no idea what they were, but when I saw pics of 8-Tracks years later I instantly remebered that scene.
Great macro photography shots in this video. Loved the VU Meter shots with the needle dancing. 👍🏻
This episode was great. You should really make more videos about Audio Equipment and everything related to it because you seem to be more passionate about those things than cheap Car Cameras (which is understandable) Oh, and now I also want to find out more about your equipment and how you integrated the Sonos.
At least here in North America, a goodly number of 8-track cassettes were filled with "Hits of/in the Style of [insert band or genre] - As Performed By The [insert session band name] Studio Musicians". Naturally, they ranged from so-so but listenable to "what were they thinking?" I even owned one where an awful George Carlin imitator performed amateurish versions of the real Carlin's stand-up comedy routines, all to a ridiculous track of canned "audience" laughter that repeated every few seconds. Their only upside was that they sold much more cheaply than the actual artists' releases, often at gas stations and truck stops, for road trippers and truckers with 8-track decks to inexpensively amass a library of musical diversion.
That also happened well into the CD era. Music was expensive, and an investment. We sometimes looked for our favorite songs on compilations, to maximize value. Then the mp3 came and changed all that, not necessarily for the better.
Well, quality, for starters. But what I mean is you could buy or download just one song in mp3 format, just the song you wanted, not the whole album. CDs were expensive, so you had to plan carefully your purchase. So artists put a lot of effort on albums, at least the good ones. A Led Zeppelin or David Bowie casual fan had to wait for greatest hits compilations, since buying every album was not an easy task. Those compilations were not commonplace. David Bowie's greatest hits CD didn't come out until around 2002. It's good that you can buy just your favorite song on iTunes, but artists just now focus on singles, and great whole albums are rare. Great albums like "Appetite For Destruction" are a lost art.
+Steve What I'm saying is that without that old music business model, we wouldn't have classic albums like U2's "Achtung Baby". We would only have the song " One", the most successful single from the album. We would have missed the opening song "Zoo Station", as a sort of shocking intro to the band's new sound. Great albums were regarded as whole masterpieces, not a collection of songs. We wouldn't have Pink Floyd's " Dark Side Of The Moon" either. Those were great sonic experiences, not just the newest, hottest song. The mp3 revolution changed that for better and for worse.
Goodly?
@Captain Confederate
Man
I always thought that it was ungodly.
Like: That was an ungodly amount of fish you ate last night at the swingers party
Have a good-ly one
Seeing an unboxing video of a vintage Pioneer hifi equipment was the best part of my day.
My dad used to swear by 8-track back in the 70s and 80s, he never really took on CD until he got a car that had a CD player then he just collected lots of Rock n Roll compilation CDs. Bless him, he left me all his vinyl when he passed away but I have no idea what happened to his 8 track collection.
Got an old 1970 K5 Chevy Blazer with an 8 track in it, plus the truck still has daisy chains of old beer can pop top leavers hanging from the rear view mirror, back when you opened a beer can and you ended up with two pieces
loved this video! brings back so many memories of my youth :) thanks
Great video. Appreciate you taking the time to review this technology and the various aspects of it. I didn't have an interest in it before, but this video certainly made me reconsider that due to its thoroughness.
That was a nice presentation that brought back memories. I never had a car player. I did own a couple of Radio Shack decks and one portable 8-track player sold by Western Auto back in 1969-1970.
interesting video, i was born in '85 so i almost never heard of 8 tracks and certainly never seen one (on TV or in person)
Congratulations on unboxing the oldest box on youtube.
You are the perfect person to watch this video...glad you liked it.
I remember these 8 track machines very well. Many cinemas used them for background music, they simply played without attention for ever. Well that was in theory!! in practice they suffered from wow and flutter, getting worse with time until the tape would just seize up. Flutter was coursed by the fact that there was almost no fly wheel. Lots of hiss was because unlike the cassette which had Dolby B noise reduction, the 8 track had none. Recording music yourself on a good tape did give really quite good results, mostly due to the higher tape speed of 3.75 inches per second. This made a better high frequency response and less compression. Even in it's day the blank 8 track cartridge was quite expensive, I guess mainly as the medium was a playback only system, very few recorders were sold. People did not really understand how to record on them, took quite a while to master the track switching timing, always seamed to switch half way through a song.
+Michael Beeny My Radio Shack (Realistic brand) 8-track recorder has Dolby B on it. But yes, that was unusual on 8-track machines.
Thanks for taking apart that 8-track cart. I always wondered how it looped around. Never use or liked them anyway but your effort is appreciated!
UK resident. My dad had a car player and a recorder at home as part of his hi-fi system around 1969/70. It didn't last long, the tapes were expensive and there wasn't a wide choice available in record shops. The tape regularly snapped/got tangled. It was also awkward to find the start of the track you wanted to listen to. We were the only family we knew who bought into the 8 track format.
Great video! I love old technology.
The first music I ever bought was on 8 track: Queen, The Game, When I was 9 years old.
Thank you for the inspiration, Techmoan!
I fell in love with the H R99 and thought I would never see one.
And yet, I was immensely lucky to acquire a beautiful fully functional unit in an eBay auction for USD$154.00.
Aesthetically it looks beautiful. I have not fully tested it but due to the quality of the components I'm sure I'll end up having a perfectly working unit.
Even as an ornament, it is delightful to look at and I'm proud to have it on display along with my very humble audio setup!
In the late 70's, the trucks my dad had were equipped with 8 track players. A plastic milk crate was the standard carrying case for his 8 tracks.
I think you've hit on all the pros and cons of 8-tracks! For my 70s money, I found 8-tracks to be fuller and had more vibrant bass. I also found that a lot of tapes I had exhibited bleed-over. The thing I hated most was that MOST of the tapes had tracks in a different order than my records, as you mentioned. That was annoying. But the most annoying problem ever, was that you had to listen to several tracks to get to what you wanted to hear. If you missed it, you had to start all over again. I still think they sounded fuller than cassette, records and even CDs. Mine hit the bin decades ago, but I agree, that is a nice bit of kit!!!
+Larry Talbot Yes, the tracks were usually in a different order. But if I bought an album on 8-track, to me, that was the album's song order. For albums that I later got on record or CD, the song order seemed "wrong" because I was used to the 8-track's order.
Old magnetic tapes also suffer from "print through" where the magnetism from one part of the tape, overlaid in the windings over another piece of tape, can impress some of its magnetic pattern onto the adjacent wind of the tape. This can happen on 8-Track, or reel to reel, or cassette. Also, some particularly cheaply made mag tapes would degrade and stick to their adjacent layer and essentially bind up in the machines, potentially ruining the machines motors &/or pinch-rollers. I've heard of people actually putting these tapes in the oven at a low temp and heating them up which apparently could unstick them enough to be able to play and dup their content off onto something else. I've encountered these sticky tapes but haven't tried the oven technique.
I still have a bunch of old 8-track tapes and an 8-track player/recorder. This inspires me to want to dig that stuff up and see if they still work...
"Tape" was very uniform rust (oxide) in a glue, stuck to cellophane. Pretty fragile really, and heat is the enemy. Your description of baking tape is exactly right. The thought us, you get one play after they're baked, so better hit Record to capture it to something else. :)
This was caused by a "faulty" binder that was used in the oxides on certain Cassette Tape formulations in the mid 70's through the mid 80's. It absorbs moisture (which it is NOT supposed to do) and this degrades the tape and causes screeching, squealing, slow binding of the tape, etc. and makes these Cassette Tapes unplayable. It is also referred to as "Sticky Shed Syndrome". Have never seen this happen on 8-Track Cartridge Tapes, though.
I still have fond memories of that soft glow coming from the level indicators while listening to 8-tracks at night! Long live 70's tech!
Excellent. I had a lot of 8 track tapes and a player in house and one in my car. I love that 8 track player / recorder you found. I always enjoy your program. Thanks.
The label bubbles up because they have more than likely been left out in extreme heat and cold weather in cars. The 8 Track system were invented by the guy that started Lear Jets, he wanted a music system for his planes. Some 8 Track tapes had the name "LearJet 8" on them.
My new old stock 8-tracks bubbled up in the house within a few hours of being taken out of the shrink wrap.
I would think that whatever adhesive they used has broken down over time,thus causing the bubbling
Bill Lear, God rest his soul...
@@andyvasquez8337 NO, it is Heat , Humidity and carelessness (condition) that caused the bubbling!
Annnd Thriller is blasting from the speakers for the next couple hours. :)
8-tracks was hit when I was a kid. I'm 49 years old now and coming up as a kid. My father and my uncle had 8-tracks in there Coupe Deville, Cadillacs. Our home stereo included 8-tracks players built in. My father had a large collection of prerecorded 8-tracks. Like Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Fats Domino and comedy like Redd Foxx, and Bill Cosby. I remember my father, trying to fix his 8-tracks when the tap pop and I could to see they was a hassle to repair. I was in high school, when first introduce to Kraftwerk with a prerecorded Trans Europe Express album on 8-tracks in a Chevy Camaro Z28 , which my sister boyfriend drove. I still today own a 8-track recorder and remember saving up to buy blanks 8-tracks from radio shack as teenager. I had to have one because, my sister boyfriend was also a Dee Jay and he use to record all his mixes from his Dee Jay set on 8-tracks and blast them in his Z28. His car was louder than a home system. Man, those was the days.
Hey fellow Brother in the music and sound equipment world over in the UK. I've been watching your video's for sometime now. And I truly enjoy them. You give a very good and honest review of every peace equipment you touch on in your video's. Thank you very much for telling it like it is. I like how you explain and show us whats really going on with these old vintage sound gear back in the Day. Keep the Video's coming. Again, Three Thumps up. Dj Robbie Out
I have this same exact 8 Track deck. easily one of the best made in the US!!
8 Tracks were huge here in the U.S. in the 1970's, so much so that at one point some point car manufacturers started to offer optional AM/FM/8Track players as a factory option. If you didn't want the factory option...Panasonic, Sanyo and Pioneer also sold an 'aftermarket' combination 8 track/FM 'under the dash' players for the car. These were especially popular at the time because most cars still only came with an AM radio, so it was a win win marketing concept.
In the latter part of the 1970's, some manufacturers like "Audiovox" even started producing 'in dash' AM/FM/CB radio and 8 Track players, there were sold around $250 to $350 USD. Later the price of these eventually came down some. You can see one here at
ruclips.net/video/GrPSIKGWyQ4/видео.html
At some point 8 tracks became so popular here that you could have bought "off brand" (no name manufacturers) under the dash 8 track players for as little as $25 USD in some places. "Off brand" 90 minute blank tapes could often be found for as little as $2.00 USD each or less...
At one point in the early to mid 70's, prerecorded bootleg 8 track tapes were readily available at nearly every corner store for as low as $2 a piece! Sometimes the sound quality was sometimes OK to even pretty good, most times they seem to have more 'hiss' than legitimate 8 Tracks.
8 Tracks had some other drawbacks besides the inability to rewind. Some inexpensive and portable 8 track players didn't have the capability to automatically change tracks. You had to change it manually with a knob or a 'plunger' (like those portable Panasonic players). In addition, the portable players often required 8 'D' cell batteries to operate and the battery life wasn't good at all. The biggest drawback was that some prerecorded 8 Tracks had songs were split between two tracks. (Dark Side of The Moon by Pink Floyd was a prime example).
So in the the middle of the song it would fade out and you had to wait until it changed tracks (or had to change it manually) and then hear the rest of the song on the next track. To solve that problem, you bought an 8 Track recorder. These were about $100 and up to $200+ USD. You'd record your record album onto the 8 Track and put the full song on one track. Eventually more people started using cassettes and by the very early 1980's the 8 track pretty much fell out of favor. But it had a heck of a run here in the U.S. for the time that it did...The audio quality was pretty good on average, no doubt due to the 3-3/4 ips (9.53cm) speed.
Yep, the faster speed had better "Fidelity".
My '66 Riviera had an in-dash Delco AM/FM 8-Track
Very interesting video. At school in the 80s, we seemed to come across all kinds of obsolete kit, especially at the school jumble sales. One year (I think it was 1986) one of my friends bought a Pioneer music centre for £5. Made in 1975, it had a turntable, FM stereo tuner (with 'FM Stereo' written all over it) and an 8-track cartridge slot. We only had one cartridge, I think it was Johnny Cash's Greatest Hits. Certainly taught us teenagers to appreciate obsolete tech like in your video, and, if my house were bigger and my wife didn't give me a hard time, I'd be all over this stuff!
Great video, and yes, you certainly got the tone just right - enough info for those new to the subject, but lots of interest for those know know a little more!
Thanks for the young MC sample, I'd totally forgotten about that album so some of its tracks are now in my spotify playlist