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I totally dissagree. 8-tracks are fine if you want
to be nostalgic but if your talking about quality there is no comparison.
It's the difference between living under a bridge in winter and living in a top
story loft in Manhattan. 8-tracks are old. They have been replaced by newer
better technology. That's the way it wokrs.... the new better thing comes out to
replace the old not-as-good thing. Unfortunately for 8-track it was the old
thing 20 years ago. The same goes for TV's. CRT's (tube televisions) will be
discontinued within the next few years. Television manufacturers are loosing
money on them. People will HAVE to buy DLP or LCD rear projection or LCD or
Plasma flat panels displays. That's just the way it is.
If you want to be nostalgic and leave the 8-track
in your car, more power to you. I think bastardizing a classic auto is a
crime. But if youo want to keep an 8-track because you prefer it's tonal
quality over that of a CD.... pass the pipe this way and quit hoggin
it.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 8:48
PM
Subject: Re: IML: 8 track tapes &
Player
A new, working, properly adjusted 8 track sound system in a car
is almost as good as it gets in terms of an audio experience.
We are
conditioned today to think that anything digital is superior, and for the most
part it is, but you would be astonished at how good a good 8 track system can
sound in a car. About the only real disadvantage is tape hiss (that's the
sound of the tape dragging over the heads). When you crank up the volume on an
8 track you will hear tape hiss in the quiet parts of the music-- something
you don't get in a digital recording. But, normally, when you're in your car
you're driving it-- so the sounds of the engine and of the road mask the hiss
and you don't hear it anyway. As an 8 track system ages you also get more wow
and flutter, which is what happens when the tape speed changes due to the
motor speeding up and slowing down ever so slightly. But in terms of bass and
a fullness of sound, 8 track is amazing.
Second, the way speakers are
set up in a car provide an almost perfect distribution of sound for a true
stereo effect. I would never say a home 8 track system could compete with a CD
player. But in your car? Yes, I think 8 track can hold its own there. Which is
pretty good considering it's a 30-40 year old technology.
I would say
get that 8 track working before you toss all that stuff out! Not only will you
have something that is historically "correct" for your car, it will actually
sound pretty good, too! (And everyone who gets in the car will ooh and aah
over it, too!)
Mark M
On Wednesday,
September 21, 2005, at 08:32 PM, Dick Benjamin wrote:
If
the speakers are matched, the balance is correct; you don’t need a control,
balance was provided in the recording process.
Since
your speakers are shot, you’ll have to replace them anyway, regardless of
which sound system you install. Maybe you should do that first, with a
matched set, and see what the 8 track sounds like. You might be very
pleasantly surprised.
As
with the Beta VCR system, the “Apple” color TV system, the true HDTV system,
and other breakthrough improvements in consumer electronics, the 8 track
system lost out in a game of marketing and industry insider manipulation to
technically inferior designs (the Phillips Cassette), and was lost to
history even though it was a much superior system.
Dick
Benjamin (who worked on the early Color TV systems before you were born!)
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