8-Tracks and Open-Reels: Who’s Got ‘Em and Whatcha Got?

Since the OP says he enjoys the mechanics-

8-track is so-called because there are 8 tracks of music. The tracks run side by side on the 1/4" wide tape, at 3 3/4 ips. The tape comes off the center of a single reel, moves across the tape head, and goes back onto the outside of the same reel.  

That's right. The tape is constantly sliding past itself.  

If that sounds bad, just wait, there’s more! To change tracks the tape head moves from one to another. Tape head alignment is important to fidelity, so you can imagine how well it works to be banging the heads around back and forth like this. The tape uses a foil strip to tell the machine when to move the head. Or you can move them any time you want, bang, bang, bang, bang goes the head.

Is it any wonder then that these things ate tapes and had all kinds of problems with sound quality? Horrible format. In 50 years audio has yet to come up with anything worse. They came close with the AVR, but the 8-track will always be the King of Crap.

About 20 years ago I picked up a nice Akai 4000ds Mk II.   Had a capable tech go over it, and he pronounced it to be a top working condition.  I've got +/- 100 prerecorded 4-track tapes, and I play a few of them from time to time - - in general, excellent sound.

8-track?  I bought some of those to play in my 1979 Honda Accord Hatchback, which came equipped with an 8-track player.  Hated it - - the "clicking" when the thing was operating (changing from one track to another?) drove me nuts. I made sure the next Honda had  a cassette player.

Party pooper..

4 track were better. :-)

The fun we use to have fixing them too. I got pretty good at it..
Winding the tape back in after untying the knot in your lap, while being DRUNK as a skunk..

The next day you listen to it and half way threw it starts playing backwards.. Drunk repairs back then weren't real reliable.. :-)

Regards

@oldhvymec:   Ahh the good old days when we could drink and fix anything--ok, maybe not well but make it work.  Up until about 10 years ago i kept a Realistic 8 track player in my system just because i had a bunch of 8 track tapes i liked--i disagree with MC that the sound quality was the worst--it wasn't nearly as bad as most cassettes--but i do agree the mechanism was a crazy hassle.  I still have two R to R decks--an Akai GX-265D and a Sony TC-880 which i sent in for refurbishment almost a year ago and still haven't got a due date--i loved R to R solely b/c i could record a vinyl album once and keep it pristine and play R to R endlessly at parties.  Convenience mostly- the TT was always the best.

Prerorded 8-Tracks were usually better than preecorded cassettes, for a while. Sometimes you got lucky. Homemade 8-tr's almost as good as homemade cassettes  8-tr carts had the same track width and twice the speed. Radio PSA's used to be on carts late 60's.
My cassette mix tapes from driving days sound pretty good in the workshop on $20 auto reverse double well decks.
Reel to reel's time has past. I have a wall of tapes and a BQ II 4 channel and a Teac.