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.
