@akg_ca Thank you so much for your very informative post. I suspected this was the case, but given the relatively larger size of the actual tape in the 8 track (compared to cassettes) I was curious as to whether they had some advantage over other formats -- and I see that question answered in your post. Appreciate the time you took to write it.
Welcome to Hell, here's your 8-Track
Neil Postman once said,
"Anyone who has studied the history of technology knows that technological change is always a Faustian bargain: Technology giveth and technology taketh away, and not always in equal measure. A new technology sometimes creates more than it destroys. Sometimes, it destroys more than it creates. But it is never one-sided."
I'm pretty sure that we know that the 8-track was more bad than good.
Question for audiophiles here who might know -- was there anything good about 8-track technology that was lost when it went extinct? And what was that good, audio-wise, specifically?