Being that I'm an old relic, I can vouch for the 8-track. I splurged on a quality player for my 72 240Z. It far outperformed the cassette deck I had SQ wise. It had an adjustable head and more power than the pos cassette deck I had. It never gobbled a tape....unlike the cassette player. If I'm correct, a wider tape gives better SQ? I don't miss it.....but I do miss the 240Z.
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?