Welcome to Hell, here's your 8-Track

     Saw/heard many, back in the day, but: never desired/owned one.

     Still believe it to be an ingenious use for the Mobius Strip.

Can’t think of another application*, outside of some obsolete typewriter ink carts, computer tapes and conveyor belts.      Can you?

              *Aside from the studies of Math/Physics Topology, that is.

Question:

If the Nakamichi brothers had designed and built an 8-track player/recorder with autoazimuth adjustment would we still be listening to 8-tracks today? What would they have named it?

A little trivia: A full 20 years after Pioneer announced that whey were no longer going to build an 8-track player, you could still order the 8-track option in a new Lincoln Continental.

Ok, here's what I remember about them. They played at 3and 3/4 IPS. Cassette's played at 1 and 7/8. The Radio Shack car cassette player I had was bad for wow. My friends 8-track was better sounding for about a year till I upgraded and got a Pioneer cassette deck. Then the cassette was far superior. After I got a home   cassette recorder my friend switched and didn't look back. I still remember my first listen to Dark Side on 8-track in friends old beat up Corolla. Thanks for the great memories! By the way, I miss my 240Z as well.

Yes, there was something good about 8-tracks. At a moment in time when the standard audio format was the LP, there were no real portable/automotive options beyond FM & AM radio. Good as those were/still are, something was missing.

Much like VHS videotape, 8-track tape players failed in all manner of resolution and usability details, but at least served to get the portability ball rolling. Next came cassette tapes, a huge leap sonically and technologically...then Walkmans and the rest is history.

Such a funny Title on post. They were great in cars and only 1 of 50 spewed tape out all over the place.