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Do you remember your first 8 Track tape?


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I didn't buy any, but I do remember playing them in the house.  Wings Over America, Elton John & Kiss. 

I also remember vacation drives in the 72 Cadillac Eldorado and my Dad having me hold the Fast Forward button, which was anything but fast so he could hear Bob Segers' Night Moves again.

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Nice looking mando...

Thanks.  I've had it for about 18 years now.  Gibson A-1.

 

 

Thought so, but I couldn't tell really well from the avatar. Always wanted to learn, but had a hard enough time with guitar and dobro... no my fingers don't move fast enough and I don't have enough time.

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The concept was ingenious; the execution was less so. Having the tape in a continuous loop that spiraled out of the center of the reel produced wow and flutter to the extreme, with lots of tape breakage, due to the friction. Since tape could be pulled from the center of the roll, but not pushed into it, there was no reversing, only "fast" forward to the metal tape splice that triggered the change of channels. If you wanted to hear Seger's Night Moves again, you had to fast (actually slow) forward through 4 track changes. If you overshot your target, you started the process again.

A high fidelity tape deck, whether reel to reel or cassette, requires precise alignment of the tape heads for optimal performance. Contrast the efforts of Ampex, Sony, Teac, Tandberg, Nakamichi, et al to provide precise head alignment to the "kerchunk" of your Kraco as it shifted the tape head to the next track on the spiraling tape. I just can't understand why they're no longer with us.

Edited by DizRotus
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Had the Pioneer TP-9006, with a Clarion 100-EQB 5 band EQ-Booster (15W x 2) in a '75 GMC High Sierra 3/4 ton 4x4.  Jensen Triaxials in the doors.  Sounded awesome.  I think it was Steve Miller - Book of Dreams or Judas Priest Stained Class that were some of my first 8-tracks.  Ended up switching to the Jensen Triax II's when they came out, then eventually to the fabulous Cerwin Vega HED's (CS-7's?) huge magnets!  Then swapped out the Clarion 100-EQB to the 300-EQB (more power 30W + 30W & LED power meters).

 

When cassette became mainstream I went with a Jensen cassette R-410 I believe they were top quality back then.  As components got better I kept upgrading, I remember getting the Alpine 7307 cassette deck and a Fosgate (long before Rockford Fosgate) PR-2100 which was 50W x 4 and had it's own preamp.  The system rivaled home quality.   

Edited by Frzninvt
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