Elcaset ( think I spelled it right) was a failed taped format that came out in the 70s or 80s. Don’t think they ever made it on to store shelves. It was supposed to be a better version of a casette.
Wow! 8-Track lives!
another question: my late uncle bought a new Ford Mustang coup-1967, I believe. It came with a strange faux-stereo radio-the radio had a reverb feature (a mechanical delay line, which delayed the audio signal from front to rear). This gave a strange "stereo"like effect…until you ran over a bump-in which case, you heard a whole lot of noise and distortion.
I think this system was made by the lear Corp.-anybody know how long these things were made?
Better sound quality, but they achieved that by sacrificing the biggest advantage of the standard cassette: its compact size. Elcasets were huge; about the size of a VHS tape. No wonder they never caught on.
From what friends in radio have told me, they mostly use stored digital media (not CDs, but mp3s or similar formats stored on a hard drive) for everything…ads, music, sound effects.
This brings back memories. We had a nice old stereo (think piece of furniture) that the 8 track player was always breaking in. My grandfather was pretty handy with that type of stuff and he showed me how to remove the covers to access the belts. I was either asking my mom to make the trip to Radio Shack to buy a new belt, or applying some white grease to the existing belt to keep it from slipping.
It’s amazing to me that I can now fit thousands of songs in my shirt pocket.
The 1967 Mustang had an AM/FM 8-track radio available as an option, though it was fairly rare. It was a stereo unit. Such cars came with a ribbed panel at the bottom of each door which concealed the speakers.
But there was also a very rare Reverb system available also. It was a mechanical reverb, so the sound was basically carried down a wound coil spring to give the delay.
In the Mustang, it was controlled by a second headlamp dimmer switch mounted on the floor near the original dimmer switch.
Yep, my memories of 8-track are mostly funny-my dad had a car equipped with one-and many times, the tapes would come shooting out of the front of the player!
My cousin had an 8-track deck, and one day it stopped working-he thought a good repair would be to spray the innards with WD-40 (BIG mistake-WD-40 dissolves natural rubber). Needless to say, it ate the next cartridge inserted, and stopped forever!
It was weird how the tape came off the center of the spindle-how anybody expected this design to last for long, is beyond me.
Damnit…I checked, but they don’t have blank Edison wax cylinders. I can’t even find an Edison cylinder player, much less one that connects to USB.
How the hell am I supposed to enjoy Arthur Fields’ Hunting the Hun properly, now? :mad:
I had a couple of 8-track players in my '68 Bug. They never lasted long enough to break down–they both got stolen.
I had an 8-track recorder as well; I bought blank tapes from the PX at Moffett Field. I think I got both Ampex and Ampeg cassettes back in the day.