8 track tape vs 1st press vinyl


Sam here and the fact that 8 track tape is a tape to tape transfer from the master reel to reel tape gives it the edge as far as overall tone and soundstage although vinyl has a wider stereo image it sounds more 2d than 8track 3d soundstage in my opinion. 
guitarsam
I'm 63 and helped put myself through college selling stereo equipment at the Sound Machine in Charlottesville VA. My memory of 8-track is that there were no high frequencies (and I mean NONE above about 8000 hz), dynamically compressed, and just otherwise sucked. That said, new releases from Woodstock recorded on 8 track and remastered in high-res (available on Tidal) sound pretty good, although the records (Woodstock 1 and 2) both sucked sonically.

I sold Revox A77 and A700 open reel recorders, and Nakamichi cassette decks, and remember the differences in recordings were LARGE.
The best copy of let it bleed that I remember hearing was on an 8 track In a VW beetle.   It might’ve been because of a chemically altered state of mind.    
Soundstaging of the media was outstanding ? What ? On what planet ? Earth one to Earth 2...can you hear.me ? 
You have got to be kidding me . 8T to me is not even a hi fi media . Since its inception it was compromised mechanically and sonically . It was introduced because of its convenience , not sonics . At the time when you visited a fellow audiophiles home to hear music on his system they always had as source a turntable or cassette player or reel to reel . Never , none of them had 8 track to hear music . Up to this moment , 48 years hearing music in maybe hundreds of systems never , not even once did I hear or see a 8 track player in a audiophile audio system . There is a reason for this . It never was recognized as a true hifi audio source .