8 track tape vs 1st press vinyl

I'm 71, been there, done that. I only drive convertibles (after 25 years of station wagons), and I still have an 8T player in my home system, and a few tapes, for fun/history actually.

When Cassettes were blowing 8 tracks to the curb, I could buy 6 8T's for $5.00, with tax about $0.88 each. I decided, I'll buy 5 every payday, specifically music I would never risk any real money on, things that caught my curiosity, then when the kids are out of the house, I'll discover ... Didn't know the pressure pads would all rot. Oh well. 

NFW.

Master Tape and tape copies played with excellent mechanical transport system, enough track width, fast enough speeds (IPS) can beat an LP. Not 8 track, not Cassette, not 3-3/4 IPS, not 1-7/8 IPS.

see tape use chart here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_tape_specifications

8T was originally designed for only a small amount of tape inside (less weight, smaller ratio of inside/outside diameter, less slip/compression). For pre-packaged single advertising content. DJ just jammed that cartridge/ad in the player. End of AD campaign, toss it in the trash quickly.

Wider tracks and/or faster speed simply uses more magnetic material to capture the content. Anything with narrower tracks than 1/4" tape 4 track and/or slower speed than 7-1/2 IPS cannot beat an LP.

My 1/4" wide tape 4 track tapes, at 7-1/2" IPS, can beat an LP which can beat the CD. 4 track, 3-3/4 IPS loses to LP and/or CD. 1/4" wide 2 track (wider track width) beats my 4 track, and 15 IPS beats 7-1/2 IPS.

Magnificent masters were made on 35mm tape at 30 IPS (modified movie film). I have some 2 tracks made from those masters, best sounding tapes I have. I did have 15 IPS 2 track for a while as well as 15 IPS 4 forward tracks, but gave them to musician friends.

Ever take one apart? 8 skinny tracks on the same 1/4" tape, running 3-3/4 IPS, using the cleverly hideous physical design of a slip sheet.

Inside: how do you put lots of tape on the larger outside circumference, and take small amount of tape off the smaller inner diameter? Tape constantly slip/sliding/compressing as it moves from the outside to the inside, then, to get out of the tightly compressed inside of the reel, the tape is pulled up, constantly wearing the edges of the tape.

A small amount of tape for a single 1 minute AD, that’s one thing, but 40 minutes of tape, it’s incredible they didn’t stretch, or break, wait, I seem to remember, they did stretch and break, and the metal strip fell off, and the glue joint broke, and the pressure pads rotted, and the moving heads got misaligned, holy crappp indeed.

8 Track became extremely popular because they were a revolution of portability, take, share, play in car ... freedom from pre-packaged radio content. The sound quality, beyond ’good enough’ not even considered. Some, not that many, made their own recordings.

Cassette, 1/8" tape, only 4 tracks so essentially same track width as 8 track, but now only 1-7/8 IPS, Originally for dictation, offices, classrooms, not music.

Cassettes benefited from very good transport mechanism, and noise reduction, and of course portability and the Sony Walkman revolution. More people made their own cassette tapes, another big acceptance factor.

Hello CD, goodbye ..., oh, is that an LP, hmmm I’ll be dammmmned.

8T, 3D, that's funny,

It just occurred to me, they could have used 8 forward tracks, better transport, noise reduction ....

1 for subwoofer, had 7.1 surround sound so long ago, 

hennigan

thanks for the history, I was passing on what I read somewhere, you certainly filled in some blanks.
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rimci, the Pacer, you got me to LOL. Did you ever see the movie with Danny Devito, Drowning Mona where a Yugo was a central player? YWLYAO
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mcmvmx

yes, the premium tapes also used special equalization settings (your machine had to have those options), and DBX came along as an alternate to Dolby Noise Reduction you mentioned.

Way back, before 8T, Dolby was available for 4 track 7" reel to reel tapes, Barclay Crocker issued a lot of Dolby R2R. My Teac R2R machines have DBX Professional Noise Reduction as an option, not Dolby. I haven’t seen a R2R player with Dolby option, anybody?
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GuitarSam,

One of the advantages of any Tape format is the physical separation of L from R, separate pickup by the heads, then played back with greater separation.

Phono cartridges have varying degrees of separation during playback, good/better/best cartridge, good/better/best stylus tip to make good/better/best groove contact, not to mention the combo of cantilever/arm/deck/feet of a TT.

I suspect your memory of ’not so 3D’ LP was what you heard from a not so great cartridge/stylus shape/cantilever/TT, Thus LP less separation than your memory of 8T, especially in an era when track separation and experimentation was prevalent.

My new MC cartridge has channel sep of over 30db, channel balance 0.5db. It just retired my former favorite with sep 25db, bal 1.5db. I am sure the greater separation is why I prefer it.

My TT in the days of 8 Track was ..... certainly crappp

So, I’ll concede to your 3D memory, but never on 8T IQ.

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found this link, a site I didn’t know about

http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php/8-track_Tape

excerpt
" in 1964 the 8-track was created by Ralph Miller, an associate of Bill Lear "

It seems 8T arrived in cars first, home players later, I had forgotten that.

OP's point, impression, memory, is that, for him/her, 8 Track gave more of a 3D listening experience.  The mistake is to to explain why, especially to say crapp was better than milk and honey.

My only guess is greater separation.

I remember the excitement when Toronado was introduced, I was 16. Aside from exciting front wheel drive, it was a 2 door, had HUGE doors, when I closed the door the whole very heavy car shook, seemed like it moved over an inch! Never even rode in one.