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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?

 

128x128hilde45
jnovak's avatar
jnovak
406 posts
 

Also, 8 tracks played at 3.75 ips technically making them better than cassettes. My first player was a Pioneer. It made a loud "clicking" sound when I changed tracks. I remember pushing the button late into the night (I was 15 years old). My Dad yelled from his bedroom "STOP IT ALREADY"! Now I'm feeling sentimental. I wonder if they make bell bottom pants in my size???

edcyn
1,876 posts
 

Over the course of my audio existence I’ve had Reel-to-Reel, Four Track Cartridge, Eight Track Cartridge, Cassette, CD, and Direct-to-Bits recording media. I’ve spent more than my share of time making recordings off the radio, and off of various borrowed LPs & Singles. I also made recordings of records I’d gotten sick of and wanted to sell for pocket cash. Anyway, of the bunch, in terms of SQ I gotta tell ya that Eight Track was the proverbial ugh-o-rama.

And oh yeah. over the years I have made many live recordings of me and my musician mates.

emrofsemanon's avatar
emrofsemanon
292 posts
 

Dekay-

ah youth, simpler times, those were the days, no? ;)

rodman99999
6,032 posts
 

     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.

 

waytoomuchstuff's avatar
waytoomuchstuff
1,009 posts
 

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.

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