Since the OP says he enjoys the mechanics-
8-track is so-called because there are 8 tracks of music. The tracks run side by side on the 1/4" wide tape, at 3 3/4 ips. The tape comes off the center of a single reel, moves across the tape head, and goes back onto the outside of the same reel.
That's right. The tape is constantly sliding past itself.
If that sounds bad, just wait, there’s more! To change tracks the tape head moves from one to another. Tape head alignment is important to fidelity, so you can imagine how well it works to be banging the heads around back and forth like this. The tape uses a foil strip to tell the machine when to move the head. Or you can move them any time you want, bang, bang, bang, bang goes the head.
Is it any wonder then that these things ate tapes and had all kinds of problems with sound quality? Horrible format. In 50 years audio has yet to come up with anything worse. They came close with the AVR, but the 8-track will always be the King of Crap.
8-track is so-called because there are 8 tracks of music. The tracks run side by side on the 1/4" wide tape, at 3 3/4 ips. The tape comes off the center of a single reel, moves across the tape head, and goes back onto the outside of the same reel.
That's right. The tape is constantly sliding past itself.
If that sounds bad, just wait, there’s more! To change tracks the tape head moves from one to another. Tape head alignment is important to fidelity, so you can imagine how well it works to be banging the heads around back and forth like this. The tape uses a foil strip to tell the machine when to move the head. Or you can move them any time you want, bang, bang, bang, bang goes the head.
Is it any wonder then that these things ate tapes and had all kinds of problems with sound quality? Horrible format. In 50 years audio has yet to come up with anything worse. They came close with the AVR, but the 8-track will always be the King of Crap.