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?

 

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Showing 1 response by re-lar-kvothe

mellifluous

I learnt a new word today. I can't wait to use it in normal conversation.

As Ron White once said, "It's a great day, Tater."

I had an 8-track player when I was 16, given to me by my uncle a few years prior. With my first real paycheck I bought a Kenwood receiver, a whole 18wpc and connected that tape player to the Kenwood. The first tape I played was my favorite album ever, Led Zeppelin ll. That was the end of my 8-track days as the tape was immediately eaten by that damned machine. I chalked it up to bad juju. The next thing I bought was a turntable and the rest as they say was/is history. And yes, my first LP purchase was Zep ll.