Portability

The biggest advantage, and the biggest selling point, for 8 track tapes was portability.  Imagine you were getting ready to go to the beach in 1974.  While getting into your swimsuit, collecting your chairs and blanket and stuffing your cooler full of beer, you could listen to your favorite Rolling Stones tape on your General Electric home player.

Once you were all packed up, maybe you’d realize that you still wanted to listen to your favorite Rolling Stones tape.  No problem, you could just pop the tape into your Motorola car player.

Once you got to the beach and you realized, man, that’s a good tape, I think I’ll listen to it again.  Again, no problem, you did remember to pack your portable Soundesign Super 8 player, didn’t you?  Imagine your favorite tape playing while laying on your beach blanket.

Quadraphonic 8 Track Tapes

In 1970 RCA introduced quadraphonic 8 track tapes.  This new system provided discrete 4 channel sound, similar to today’s surround sound.  These tapes required special systems capable of sensing the 4 channels of sound and delivering it to 4 speakers, typically one in each corner of the room.  Music being delivered from all corners of the room gave the experience of a concert hall.

This equipment had to be capable of playing both quadraphonic and stereo tapes.  To accomplish this the cartridges had to be the same with one exception.  The quadraphonic cartridges had a notch in the upper left hand corner.  When a stereo tape was inserted into one of these players, the cartridge would push on a switch and let the electronics know that a stereo tape had been inserted.  When a quadraphonic tape was inserted the switch was not engaged because of the notch in the cartridge.  This let the player know that a quadraphonic tape had been inserted.

Blank recording tapes were also available.  These tapes had a removable plug in the notch.  If you wanted to make a stereo recording, you left the plug in the cartridge.  If you wanted to make a quadraphonic recording, you removed the plug.

The quadraphonic scene was short lived, due mostly to the fact that most people did not want to invest in the new specialized equipment.  Due to its short life span, quadraphonic equipment and tapes are more rare than stereo equipment and stereo tapes.  As such, quadraphonic equipment and tapes are much more valuable in the collector’s market.

In the photo below the tape on the left is a stereo tape (no notch), the center tape is a quadraphonic tape (notch in the upper left corner) and the tape on the right is a blank tape for home recording (plug in the notch).

8 Track Tape Commercials

Blast from the past.  Ktel was famous for the phrase, “As seen on TV” in their mail order business.  They released compilation after compilation of the day’s top, and not so top, music.  There was an audio store on every corner and every mall in the 1970s, but Radio Shack was a constant right up until their recent closures.

© 2010 Ktel Classics, Standard YouTube License

© 2007 oscartripe, Standard YouTube License

Update to the Weltron Project

When I last posted the Weltron PS-804 portable player, it wasn’t in very good shape.  Tape player wasn’t working, radio dial string was broken and it hadn’t been cleaned.  I had to order the cord to restring the radio, find a belt for the tape player and put some elbow grease to the case during cleaning.  I’m glad to announce, IT’S FIXED!  Here’s a video showing the different modes of operation.  AM/FM and 8 track tape player powered from either an AC outlet, a cigarette lighter adapter for use in a car or boat or 8 D cell batteries.  I simulated the last two using a 12 VDC power supply.  The audio is there, hit unmute, if necessary.