8 track tape player

Good finds there!    The case alone is worth the $2. I listen to a wide range of music, all kinds of country, all kinds of rock, soul, blues, Jazz. Some easy listening, depends on what it is. Not so much for classical.

It seems that there are more easy listening 8-track out there than any other genre.

A few months ago I scored about 400 8-track tapes for free off Craigslist.

Here's my 1967-68 Lear Jet H-329 home 8-Track player.

The continuous loop design was originally created in the early 50s for commercial/industrial purposes for use mostly in broadcasting. In the early 60s, Earl "Madman" Muntz (known for his cheap Muntz TVs and the electrical engineering term "Muntzing") picked up on the design and saw its potential as a portable format for use in cars. In '62 he came out with his 4-track system. He used the same Fidelipac cartridges as used in broadcasting (used from the late 50s up 'till the late 90s) but slowed it down to 3.75 IPS and made it 4-track. At that time, most cars only had an AM radio so it was really something when you could listen to your favorite albums in stereo while driving around. Just a few years later in 1964, Bill Lear and his engineers (specifically Ralph Miller) of Lear Jet Industries took a close look at the continuous loop and came up with his own design that allowed twice the amount of music on the same length of tape and automatic program switching. Lear joined up with Ford, GM, Ampex, RCA and a few other companies to promote the new format. By about 1970-71, the 8-track clearly won the format war between the 8-track and 4-track. The 4-track could've been a better format than 8-track, the track width is wider and the player uses a built in quality pinch roller. The Compact Cassette was introduced by Philips in Germany in 1963, at the time it was basically only good enough for dictation. Because of better tape formulations, stereo heads, better deck designs and circuitry, the cassette eventually surpassed the 8-track in sound quality and reliability. By the mid-late 70s, the cassette was clearly becoming the dominate format, however because of all the equipment consumers invested in and factory 8-track players installed in many new/relatively new cars, 8-track tapes continued to to be normally produced and sold in stores until about 1983. By about 1983/84, many department stores began to limit the selection of or completely drop 8-tracks and accessories. Except for a few record stores and truck stops, the only way to get new titles on 8-track was to go through record clubs and mail-order catalogs. This lasted up until late-1988 with what is believed to be the last album released on 8-track by a major record label, Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Hits. Readers Digest continued to offer them through 1989 and Radio Shack listed blanks in their catalog up until 1991. There's reports that small duplication runs were offered by independent manufacturers up until the late 90s, these were really only sold as collectors items and gimmicks by small bands.





As of today, the last largest production run of 8-tracks was believe it or not done in 2009 for Cheap Trick and their album 'The Latest'. The plastic cartridges and parts can still be molded today but no one is producing the graphite lubricated tape anymore, it was likely discontinued by the early-mid 90s as the last major user of the tape was background music companies such as Muzak (who used Fidelipac C size (Model 1200) cartridges) moved to digital. The broadcast quality lubricated loop tape used by radio stations was likely produced up until the late 90s/early 2000 when just about all radio stations moved to digital. Some radio stations still use broadcast cartridges. Reels and pancakes of the broadcast quality tape can still be had but it will cost you a fortune. As for tape-stock for 8-tracks, it now needs to be stumbled upon, no outfit currently offers it for sale. Sometimes it can be found on reels of Shamrock branded tape (reject Ampex tape sold as a budget tape), I have gotten lucky and came across a few reels of the stuff over the years.