Another 8 track bugaboo...magnetization

On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 23:38:36 GMT, "William W Western"
wrote:

Good points, Bob. You are to be congratulated for putting thought and
effort into your posts. The "banter" between you and Trippin' has often been
amusing (from both perspectives) as well. Of course, since you are in the
thick of it the amusement factor is probably on the thin side for you. snip

I just want him gone. After that, this group will improve immensely.

I have not burned a lot of stuff to CD from other formats but am
generally more pleased with 8 track transfers than LP. Even what looks like
pristine vinyl has a fair amount of popping and sputtering. I use DePopper
but (and I may not be fully using it properly) still prefer the lack of
surface noise found on the 8 track. snip

There's no substitute for clean, unmarred vinyl! The impulse noise
associated with mishandled or badly pressed LPs is more irritating to
some than the steady state presence of tape hiss, to be certain.
Years ago, I started using a prototype "click and pop" reduced from
SAE (analog, mind you) that worked pretty well for really bad,
ocassional pops caused by a large scratch, and it still works better
than "DePop" or other digital algorithms for that. However, overall
worn out LPs are impossible to deal with using that scheme...there's
simply too much for the circuitry to deal with to prevent it from
garbling the program material.

Although there are no "clicks and pops" on 8 track, there is the issue
of truncated dynamic range and high noise floor, so it's somewhat of a
trade off. A good, clean, well pressed disk will always sound better
than 8 track, but getting such an example may not be easy, and if you
can get one, it'll surely be comparitively expensive. Also, to get
good sound from a disc, expensive playback equipment is a must; the
usual cheapie turntable with a ceramic cartridge just isn't going to
do it, and most "better" turntables aren't really that good,
especially when using their factory supplied tone arms. 8 track
offers an easy, cheap alternative that's already "custom compressed"
for listening in the car, so I generally just dub direct from an 8
track deck to the inputs to the sound card. The resulting .wav file
is, if you use the 44 KHz sampling rate, a transparent copy of the 8
track cut.

dB

On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 20:59:13 -0500, "TC8trax" TC8traxH@atesSpam
wrote:

Bob-

I do mean this in as friendly way as possible...but you are definitely a bag
o' hot air... snip

LOL!

Cool Tapes...Cool Toys . . . Cheap Toys! nothing more, nothing less...
Audiophiles please shop elsewhere... snip

Well, of course. But, the fact remains, I got some metrics on 8 track
performance that were virtually non-existant before. Knowledge is
power, and if you can use the frailties of a format to an advantage,
so much the better. The natural compression afforded by those ****ty,
skinny little tracks on 8 track actually works as an advantage for 8
track in the car...it's like having a UREI compressor without the
expense!

dB

On 25 Feb 2005 04:04:21 -0800, "trippingtoo8track"
wrote:

Get a Telex Viking or carousel deck, and input it into a good tube amp-
8-tracks are more "audiophile" than any digital format going. snip

What a crock of ****! Yeah...a Telex "merry-go-round" and the crappy
tube amp ripped out of a Magnavox console..."better than digital!"

Shut the **** up, Noodles.

We can all see how you lifted the "ebay ruining 8-track" idea from So
Wrong They're Right, that's in the update at the end of the tape I made
for you- which you would not even HAVE as it was not available new.

Did you go out and buy it on modern DVD from Russ, for $15, being you
made such a fuss over my VHS dub ??

No, you didn't. You complained, then pocketed a $5 savings over buying
the authorized copy. That is hypocritical on your part.

Stop talking in "academese", post like a normal person and a man- not
college professor. We can tell you're bluffing.

You should also think of what the FEDS are going to do, after they
investigate and find no wrongdoing...if they waste expensive field time
over a non-issue- they aren't going to like it very much.

they're gonna come looking...for YOU. For giving them false leads.

Since when is selling on ebay "fraud" ?? There's like what, millions
of members on there now ?? Get a life. You are confusing your emotions
with fact, and your sore ego over losing a flame war against me has
clouded your judgement. Just cuz you "lose" all the time in these net
wars, doesn't mean I'm wrong.

It means your'e wrong.

Allow me to digress on the D-Bob issue:

Notice how D-Bob uses the El Cassette quote (directly taken from the
beginning of the VHS So Wrong movie) and also the quotes on Ebay
ruining the 8-track hobby (again, ditto lifted from the movie trailer
update, a quote directly from the woman writer/author) Now take that
info, add to it he's using the worst deck Wannabesak ever made with a
DC motor- it all comes together to form a picture- he's way behind the
learning curve with 8-tracks actually...and he's posing and constantly
getting his ass kicked here cuz of it. The guy basically is not very
bright.

He thought Aerosmith Live Bootleg, was a real bootleg.

He had no clue about Ebay offering delayed auction time scheduling- and
went around parading my auction had been pulled- when in truth it had
not even started yet.

He saw a pic of Dan Gibson, and actually thought it was me, and said to
morph it with a penis on the face. When he was told that was not me,
he changed his tune and said he knew that.

What we are seeing with D-Bob, is what is known as a "compensatory
facade", which he tries to hide by constantly attacking me- I am a
threat to him because I can see through his veil and know the truth
about him. I am constantly exposing his mistakes and misconceptions.

It's not wrong to be an 8-track newbie- it's wrong to be a newbie, and
act like a veteran- D-Bob is the typical 8-track neophyte who knows
**** about 8-tracks and is on a very steep learning curve- and lacks
the money and good sense to buy a really good deck. Or perhaps he has
a pre-conceived notion that 8-tracks just CAN'T sound good- so he's too
cheap to invest in a good deck. That's why the high prices that ebay
decks bring $200-400 each, incenses him so much. It goes against his
nature and thinking about 8-tracks.

Bob in reality, hates 8-tracks- you can tell by his posts when his true
feelings come out about them. The only reason he has to live now- is
to log onto Usenet and come after me. Otherwise, he'd most likely be
sitting watching re-runs of old TV shows on cable, until he shriveled
up and died.

Just enjoy 'em for the nostalgia and the fact most other people you
know don't even know why you'd use 'em. Heck, a few younger kids in my
school don't even seem to know what a cassette is; older ones are all
on CDs: "Got a new CD? Burn it for me! Oh, wait, I already downloaded
it off KaZaA." I just enjoy 'em and say, "So the sound stinks. It's
cheap, it's amusing, and it's got more character than a CD any day."
Don't sweat the stuff unless you're called to restore a decades-old,
filthy cart for a local rich eccentric. (Not very likely.)

I think that I still try to improve the listening quality of the tapes,
though. Tape hiss is annoying, so I adjust treble and bass as much as I
can. Records: Pops and cracks annoy me, too, but I learn to live with
it. Tapes are good, of course. And I continue to imprison what may be
secret "Go to CD and get true quality!" urges for the sake of my
obsession for old tech. =D

On 24 Feb 2005 17:41:55 -0800, "trippingtoo8track"
wrote:

Bob,

The reason you are having such lousy results from your tapes, is you
have a lousy deck. snip

****wad...the TAPES are MAGNETIZED. Do you READ anything, or just
scan the first line and then start crapping in your pants? Can you
comprehend more than a simple sentence at a time? Can you entertain
anything more complex than a light bulb or a pocket compass in your
diminished brain? Again, you just do this to irritate me and others,
and have no basis in fact. You just blather on with your 7th grade
stoner mentality, saying stupid things, making yourself look like a
complete moron.

I gave up on Wollensak long time ago (I've had 3 of
them here), when a quick comparison to Telex Viking, Akai, Sony, JVC,
Zenith, Pioneer, showed all of the latter decks to be superior to the
Wollensak. snip

That's probably because 1.) the front panel confused you too much, 2.)
you have no concept of how DC tachyservo circuits work, 3.) don't
possess the skills necessary to make complex mechanisms work properly,
and on and on and on.

Even an old Lear Jet snip

Junk.

Muntz snip

More junk.

or Automatic Radio snip

Better junk.

would
improve over a Wollensak. snip

Again...do you READ anything? Do you even attempt to understand
anything, if you DO read? Do you have any idea what those
specifications I laid out earlier on the Wollensak decks I have mean?
Do you have ANY clue as to anything electronic? To a total dunce,
yes, a Wollensak would be a problem, since the dunce wouldn't have a
clue as to what would be wrong with it...and there are plenty of
things that could be wrong with any 29 year old Japanese consumer
electronics machine. This isn't to say that these things are the apex
of 8 tracks...Superscope gets that award in my book...but, when things
work right, they're one helluva lot better than anything put out by
Rat Shack or other low-end crap I've seen you promote.

While we're on the subject, do you even have a ****ing clue as to
where those Telex/Viking merry-go-round jokes even came from? Telex
has been a supplier to the avaiation industry since after WW II, and
is most famous for their headsets and pacsets. The Telex "changer"
was designed (at the beckoning of none other than a money hungry
William Lear trolling for license fees, it turns out) by Telex to
provide a high capacity music program storage/playback system for the
707 and the DC-8 on long flights. Back then, CAB regulation provided
enough profit for all carriers to provide little "perks" for their
passengers, and this was one of them. Remember settling back in a
seat on a 707 or 720 back in those days and hearing that tinny,
fluttery, hissy program come through those acoustic headphones? Guess
what was providing it...a Telex cart changer, stuffed with carts
provided by various programming services to most of the major
airlines. It didn't last long, due to high unreliability and
maintenance and poor performance. A larger ½" cartridge, not seen
much today, was developed to replace the 8 track cartridge idea, and
was replaced the Telex system. In fact, the ½" cart format worked so
damned well, it was marketed quite successfully to dental offices,
with programs piped to each work station, which would have an
"on-the-ear" headphone set and a selector button. The patient would
step through 8 different selections of program material, which were
all played simultaneously through two staggered 8 track heads using
the same .62 mm track width at Lear's system, the switching being done
at the outputs to each station. I know this system well, as my
dentist, after 20 years, is still using that service and system, and
is still working...fairly well, anyway. In the planes, the machine
pinch roller elminated most of the failures of the idiotic cartridge
captive pinch rollers in 8 tracks, and this system was used on United,
TWA, Continental and probably others until conversion to digital. I
know Delta had it also, at least on their L-1011s, because my Lockheed
buddy used to install them on the planes at the Palmdale plant. I
know the 707s and 720s that Delta inherited from their hostile
takeover of Western Airlines in the '80s had them too.

Hell, I just serviced a Craig AM/FM 8-track
today with AC motor, that would make mincemeat of any Wolly in
reliability and stable operation. snip

Yeah...right...complete with telephonic frequency response, cranky and
noisy early silicon circuitry and "made for best profit" design. Give
me a ****ing break.

So there, I just weighed in- and in
ernest- not flaming you. snip

Horse ****. This is one of your many "passive/agressive" taunts.
Anyone who looks at the record going back to 2002 will see you've done
this very same thing to Dan Gibson, John Winnard, and
others...pretending to be lucid while really just teeing yourself up
for another go-'round of your stupid, uneducated blather and
hyperbole, all tailored to make everyone else look bad, and you good.
Ain't workin' anymore, Noodles. You met your match with me.

You are crippling yourself with that Wolly
deck, and listening to 8-tracks with one hand tied behind your back in
a sense- esp. since a Wolly has tons of wow/flutter due to an
engineering design oversight with the speed regulator on the DC motor. snip

Really! Then how is it that, after a good overhaul, I got results of
..05% weighted wow/flutter using an Ampex TU-40 bridge and a custom MRL
alignment cartridge (not the frauds you sell to unknowing victims on
ebay...this is the real deal.) 3M spec'd out this machine at .1%
weighted. Running the bridge unweighted, I got .12% total deviation,
almost the same as a new Ampex 351 (upon which MOST music of all kinds
from the late '50s onward was mastered) running at 15 IPS! The ONLY
time I wind up with objectionable wow/flutter when listening to any 8
track cart is when there is an obvious CARTRIDGE MALFUNCTION, of which
there are many that can happen at any given time on these silly
things. To test that, I did indeed try offending carts out on an AC
motored deck...SAME EXACT thing. Somebody told you awhile back that
they liked AC motors better, and you went along with it. In fact,
some people in this "hobby" are so clueless, I saw one idiot actually
quote you in one of their ebay sales. Talk about hitching ones wagon
to a falling star!

Even the Wolly 8050 with AC motor can't hold a candle to an Akai
80-81-series deck. snip

Used an 81...was not impressed at all. In fact, the Wollensak 8075
AND 8056 BOTH beat the Akai 81 on frequency response. I learned many
years ago that Akais are a pain in the ass to work on, and are
somewhat unreliable as well. Plus, with a synchronous motor, you have
the disadvantage of no speed control at all. Too someone like me with
perfect pitch, this is a big bummer, and of course, the tempo will be
considerably off with even small amounts of error, especially at 3¾
IPS. A similar situation existed back in the early '50s with Ampex
300s, due to their indirect rubber wheel drive...there was no way,
short of replacing the expensive drive and driven wheels and bearings
to correct speed inaccuracies, and even then, you wound up settling
for whatever you got when the drive was overhauled, unless you had a
60 Hz oscillator/amplifier (which almost all mastering studios had
with those monsters.) That's why studios that still have 300s and
MR-70s, including one of the best transcription studios in the
country, chucked their AC drive altogether and went to DC servo drive.
Granted, the system used on later Ampexes, MCIs and Scullys was FAR
more complex and reliable than something like you'd find on a consumer
cassette or 8 track machine, but the theory of operation is basically
the same...shaft slows down, motor gets more current; shaft
overspeeds, motor gets less, and so on. If DC servo design is so bad,
as you claim, how the hell do I get such low results using a GOOD
cartridge? Simple...you don't know what the **** you're talking
about...as usual.

Your tech posts are interesting. Where you go astray is lacing them
with political rants and diatribe, and personal attacks. snip

More projection. YOU are the one who started all that. I challenge
anyone reading this to check the record in the archives. You might
think you can scam people with your projection fantasies, but the
problem you have there is that the record, held by your precious "goo
goo groopz," proves you wrong.

And there's
no way I (or anyone else) will stand still and let you attack auctions
and reputations without putting up a vehement defense. snip

There's no defense against fraud. Fraud is a crime. You are guilty
of petty fraud on several occasions, TWICE with me. A "refund"
doesn't eviscerate the crime...you are still guilty of a
fraud...PERIOD.

You have to
give respect, to get respect- snip

LMAO! The motto of that bunch of low lifes of the biker world, the
****ing Vagos. Figures you'd sidle up with a bunch of zilches like
them.

...and since you came onto this NG in Sept.
you have done nothing but attack. What do you expect ?? snip

I didn't "attack"...I alerted this NG to two documented frauds you
committed against me, and started tracking down other frauds you were
perpetrating on ebay. Funny, since I started doing that in earnest, I
notice no more of your infamous "quad frauds" popping up on ebay
anymore, either. The same goes for your attempted mp3 scams you were
going to launch. Seems like the threat of a call to the RIAA
prosecution office nipped THAT NudoFraud in the bud, didn't it?

The self-destructive crusade you have gone on here since September
2004, is definitely not worth the damage you did to your own reputation
on Usenet- all over an alignment tape you paid $40 for, and got all
your money back with no problems. snip

You are guilty of fraud, and are guilty of fraud each and every time
you sell one of those pieces of **** on ebay to an unsuspecting buyer,
whether or not they're even aware that the item IS a fraud. I know
the law, and know how a prosecution in such a case would come down.
You are guilty of several misdemeanors. End of story.

As for "self-destructive," that's just more projection on your part,
Noodles. You have a WORLD WIDE reputation as a con artist and a nut
case. Ask anyone...ask for public comment in here. You are most
likely a paranoid delusional either off his meds or going on without
proper diagnosis and treatment.

What are you thinking, man ?? How
is that worth it ?? You lost no money, then destroyed your own rep. snip

My "rep" is a sterling as ever. You're the one with the "rep"
problem...fraud boy.

If you continued to post constructively like above, you could easily be
amongst the top 10 contributors here of all time. The problem is, your
posts quickly degenerate to the flame war level- which then disrupts
the entire NG- snip

Oh, GIVE ME A BREAK! Ask Dan Gibson...ask John Winnard...ask
Riviera...ask RUSS! ASK ANYONE! YOU ARE THE CAUSE OF ALL THE
PROBLEMS! You go away, PROBLEM SOLVED...as you'll soon find out when
you find you cannot post here anymore...ever.

and also undermines your own reputation and credibility. snip

My credibilty rests on what I've posted and stands up to any scrutiny
to anyone with even an inkling of professional magnetic tape
experience.

I believe you may have been hoodwinked into fighting Dan Gibson's
8-track war for him, while he sits on the sidelines and watches. If so,
stop being his toadie. snip

Gibson and I communicate once in awhile...and, oddly enough, the
subject isn't always about YOU, other than ways we can eliminate you
from the NG. The Yahoo 8 track group already did that, now it's our
turn. Then what're you going to do, Noodles? Keep spamming NGs
across Usenet with your scams and spams, with me in close rearward
proximity warning everyone off?

It's not worth it, as any "war" takes
tremendous effort and cost to fight- flame wars included. snip

Not for me. I'm good at it.

You get the
**** kicked out of you, while he just keeps selling tapes and pads and
8-track supplies. snip

Frauds to unsuspecting lemmings. One by one, I'll clip your sales off
until you finally give up when you realize you have to take that job
at Mickey Dee's to cover your monthly nut.

Either that, or you took that last presidential election WAY too
serious... snip

No, YOU did that. Go read the posts. Anyone...go read the posts,
paying special attention to the dates and time. He's projecting his
own delusions upon me again.

You are right on the dub over aspect- it is possible to trump the
recording quality of some factory authorized 8-tracks by dubbing them
over from a vinyl record ! I've been recording via 8-track since circa
1976. snip

Probably another delusionary lie. The record clearly shows you didn't
know **** from shinola about 8 track anything until around 2002, when
you (unfortunately) got Internet access and started harassing this NG.
It's painfully obvious from those early posts you didn't have a CLUE
as to what you were talking about, and gleaned knowledge from other
posters' output, claiming it as your own. You even picked the brain
of that Mechanicky (or whomever) fellow to try to bolster your shabby
credibility.

On the other hand, some factory 8-tracks have stellar sound
quality that will simply destroy the comparable CD, SACD or DVD-audio
copy- due to the newer ones being re-mixed and screwed with during the
process. snip

Many "remasters" are done by a new crop of people in the recording
industry who had no experience in analog and have no "ears" to speak
of. Just because some pot smoking moron in a control room has NO clue
as to how to do a remix/remaster, don't blame the medium its
on...blame the label and especially blame those snotnoses now calling
themselves "engineers" in that industry. Many are a joke, and many
old timers in that business will tell you so...in spades. However,
that doesn't make CD-A or SA-CD (which you didn't even KNOW about
until I posted about it awhile back) a "worse" format. 8 track's the
inferior format, sonically. Maybe a good 8 track cart DOES have a
better mixdown, and that makes the difference between that and the
"remaster" crap we hear now. But blaming the medium...that's about as
stupid as saying George ****ing W. Bush is a "great president."

But I've found that dubbing from CD to 8-track, ends up being tinny and
thin sounding just like the CD- and inferior to anything but the worst
worn out original 8-track, or bootleg 8-track. snip

Idiot...the TOP end goes first on a "worn out" 8 track, not the
bottom.

An original pristine
cart will still sound better than a CD, I back to backed them with
headphones and that is obvious. snip

Yeah, right...like you have ANY ears, listening to all that stoner
rock while killing off your brain cells with bad pot in the '70s. You
stretch credulity to new elastic limits when you say crap like this.
You lost ANY credibility over that Magnevox amplifier comedy! What
pieces of **** those were...5-10% THD at "rated" power! What's that
piece of **** got in it for output, two 6BQ5s? 12 watts...TOPS...on a
good day. Oh, by the way...are you properly matching output
impedances when you hook that toaster up to speaker loads? Do you
know what happens when you DON'T? I didn't think so...idiot.

Reel to reel tapes degrade over time, heck so do studio master tapes.
So that is a characteristic of analog tape, not a deficiency of the
8-track format. snip

Errrr...really! BRILLIANT theory. So 8 track cartridges don't use
analog tape then, huh? Just what DO they use?

If you are giving up on 8-tracks after trying them
again for 6 months- you never were really into them to begin
with...just my gut feeling intuition. snip

I never was. They were a joke back when they were still being sold to
anyone with any audio credentials or ear. They're just, as one poster
put it, "fun". What got me in here in the first place were two
events: 1.) there was virtually NO credible documentation as to what
this format is capable of, and 2.) chasing you down to warn people of
your scams and frauds...something I never had to do, since it turned
out they were all wise to you already, as witnessed by that page on
8trackheaven that Malcolm posted LONG before I ever got here.

Sorry, Noodles, this attempt at absolving yourself from blame just
won't work. YOU are the problem. YOU are a criminal. YOU are
uneducated about matters pertaining to analog tape. YOU must go.

ps- the more you attack me, the more lumps and black eyes you give
yourself- I read all your replies to this thread- anyone coming into
this NG would see, you are sounding like a broken record already. snip

The smart child would dive into the archives. In just a few minutes'
time, they'd find you out for the mentally disturbed moron you really
are. My credibility stands. Yours is swirling around in a toilet
somewhere in northeast Pennsylvania.

Give
it a rest and things will definitely improve for you. If you're done
with the format, then move on to another hobby or pursuit. This NG was
here long before you or I, and it will be here long after we both stop
posting here. No one person makes the 8-track hobby. snip

The "8 track hobby" getting rid of you would do it incalculable good.
And, you'll be gone from this NG is short order, anyway. If this
missive was some sort of plea for mercy, it's not going to work.

Shut the **** up, Noodles...you disgusting excuse for a human being.

On 25 Feb 2005 15:15:39 -0800, "trippingtoo8track"
wrote:

You should also think of what the FEDS are going to do, after they
investigate and find no wrongdoing...if they waste expensive field time
over a non-issue- they aren't going to like it very much.

they're gonna come looking...for YOU. For giving them false leads. snip

Ooops...there he goes, off on yet another delusional rant!

Since when is selling on ebay "fraud" ?? snip

When you represent an article as being one thing, and sell something
other than that and of lesser quality without explaining the
difference, that is fraud according to all state and Federal statutes.
You are guilty of fraud. You are also guilty of pirating another
person's personal intellectual property when you were bootlegging
Russ' movie. Just offering a "refund" or agreeing to stop bootlegging
the movie doesn't eviscerate the underlying crime, although most
prosecutors will decline to prosecute. You're just lucky we're
talking low dollar amounts; if this were expensive stuff, you'll be up
before the Feds already.

Notice how D-Bob uses the El Cassette quote (directly taken from the
beginning of the VHS So Wrong movie) snip

ELCASET...the trade name was ELCASET...and the guy in "Big Buck's"
store had an example of one, if you'll remember correctly.

and also the quotes on Ebay
ruining the 8-track hobby (again, ditto lifted from the movie trailer
update, a quote directly from the woman writer/author) snip

Who "lifted" anything? It's fact.

Now take that
info, add to it he's using the worst deck Wannabesak ever made with a
DC motor- it all comes together to form a picture- he's way behind the
learning curve with 8-tracks actually...and he's posing and constantly
getting his ass kicked here cuz of it. The guy basically is not very
bright. snip

....and you're a middle aged, live at home victim of THC induced
infantile personality disorder with paranoic delusionary features.
See your psychiatrist for meds.

He thought Aerosmith Live Bootleg, was a real bootleg. snip

READ the post again, moron. I didn't definitely say it was a
"bootleg." You don't do well with nuance, do you...****head?

He had no clue about Ebay offering delayed auction time scheduling- and
went around parading my auction had been pulled- when in truth it had
not even started yet. snip

Yeah, but it was fun while it lasted! Made ya look, too!

He saw a pic of Dan Gibson, and actually thought it was me, and said to
morph it with a penis on the face. When he was told that was not me,
he changed his tune and said he knew that. snip

That's because you're a low life scumbag who uses visages of others to
hide behind...you ****wad low life.

What we are seeing with D-Bob, is what is known as a "compensatory
facade", which he tries to hide by constantly attacking me- I am a
threat to him because I can see through his veil and know the truth
about him. I am constantly exposing his mistakes and misconceptions. snip

You haven't been successful yet. You also do not know how to use test
equipment, know nothing of analog tape technology, and are a
simplistic moron beguild by right-wing oriented religious kooks and AM
radio political crazies...because you are UNABLE to THINK FOR
YOURSELF...a feature of THC induced infantile pesonality disorder.

It's not wrong to be an 8-track newbie- it's wrong to be a newbie, and
act like a veteran- D-Bob is the typical 8-track neophyte who knows
**** about 8-tracks and is on a very steep learning curve- and lacks
the money and good sense to buy a really good deck. Or perhaps he has
a pre-conceived notion that 8-tracks just CAN'T sound good- so he's too
cheap to invest in a good deck. That's why the high prices that ebay
decks bring $200-400 each, incenses him so much. It goes against his
nature and thinking about 8-tracks. snip

I was recording stuff on Ampexes while you were still trying to figure
out which end of a 4 track went into a Muntz machine, ****wad. Go
kill yourself...do the world a favor.

Bob in reality, hates 8-tracks- you can tell by his posts when his true
feelings come out about them. The only reason he has to live now- is
to log onto Usenet and come after me. Otherwise, he'd most likely be
sitting watching re-runs of old TV shows on cable, until he shriveled
up and died. snip

I ask anyone to take a digest look at my technically oriented posts.
I won't say they're the "last word" on the subject, but there's more
there than is available anywhere else on the Internet at this time.
That's what I wanted to do, I have the equipment and expertise to do
so, and I did it. All Charlie Nudo has been able to do is perpetrate
more frauds.

Shut the **** up, Noodles. Oh, that's right, with moderation, the
modbots will shut you up FOR us! ENJOY LIFE IN THE ****CAN SOON,
****NUTS!

On 25 Feb 2005 19:32:42 -0800, "Jonny the 8-Tracker!"
wrote:

Just enjoy 'em for the nostalgia and the fact most other people you
know don't even know why you'd use 'em. Heck, a few younger kids in my
school don't even seem to know what a cassette is; older ones are all
on CDs: "Got a new CD? Burn it for me! Oh, wait, I already downloaded
it off KaZaA." I just enjoy 'em and say, "So the sound stinks. It's
cheap, it's amusing, and it's got more character than a CD any day."
Don't sweat the stuff unless you're called to restore a decades-old,
filthy cart for a local rich eccentric. (Not very likely.) snip

A healthy attitude! Here's a little 8 track story that jibes quite
well with that, which happened, in fact, today.

I drove my dog down to the big city for a visit with his cardiologist
today, about a 220 mile round trip, so I took the "grocery getter,"
the only car left with an 8 track in it. I was armed with various
"known good" tapes and some strange unknowns I had opened up, cleaned,
padded and spliced, just to see what was on them. Things sounded
pretty good...within the usual limitations of truncated frequency
response and the like, but overall, pretty listenable. I got down
there, and Buster had to have an ECG, so I went to a Starbuck's (50¢
instant coffee for $4.50 a shot...a scam even Noodles would love!) and
read the morning's Times while trying to discern why I'd want to pay
$4.50 for creamy coffee while I could have it for less than a buck at
the Winchell's catty-corner from this place. Andy Rooney needs to
look into this.

After finishing the op-ed page of the Times, I went back, Buster was
still in x-ray, so I went out to the car and popped in one of the
"mystery" carts while reading the entertainment section. This is one
of a batch of German carts with "far out" psychedelic labels from SMS,
obviously a BASF OEM product, but with seemingly better tape inside
than US marketed BASFs (and Rat Shacks) I've come across and learned
to loathe. This particular one had "Iron Butterfly" printed neatly on
a separate, taped on label, so I popped it in. The brain child who
recorded this started that perennial stoner Top 40 hit,
"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", at the start of the famous drum break, using the
"pause" function, so a really funny start-up wow got things going,
whereafter we got into the drum break. I arched an eyebrow, as things
started sounding pretty damned good...REAL good, in point of fact.
This dub had no flutter, the top end was all there, and obviously the
recorder's head was properly aligned...all things I never expect from
old home recorded dupes. Not only that, the disc that was used to
make the dub was noise free...rare for stoner rock! So, I cranked it
up and sat there listening critically. The performance, of course, is
more laughable now than it was in '69, but at least the quality was
really good! Then, we went to the B side cuts on the next program,
and then some stuff from their next album (you know, the one where
they could actually afford a Hammond B-3 instead of the cheesy Vox
Continental heard on their first hit album.) Some of that stuff, in
retrospect, was pretty good, with a couple of good cuts. I decided
not to just bulk erase the cart, and keep it in the Lebo Double
Strapped Library as-is. In fact, "I.A.G.D.V" DOES sound better without
those over-the-top lyrics

So, I'm sitting there, half reading about what was playing on the
theater circuit and half listening to the cart, when a HOT looking
chick comes up to the window, and she says, "I LOVE classic rock!" I
said, "Yeah, and look what it's playing on." She'd never even seen
one before..."What's THAT?" "Why, that's an 8 track cartridge!
Here...take a look." While she bent over to examine the plastic
sandwich, I was lascivioiusly checking out her equipment...more fun
than Iron Butterfly EVER was. There's something about today's young
chicks, with hip huggers (or whateverthehell they call them these
days) and navel rings that's puriently satisfying to someone who lived
through the '60s and '70s and survived intact. She then asked if they
still make them anymore, which got the negative reply, and she said,
"They're COOL!" There's that word again..."cool". She REALLY liked
the psychedelic color blob on the label...that rated a "TOO cool!"
from her. So, I popped the Butterfly Boys back into their slot and
they continued to bang and croak away, sounding pretty good all the
while. "Wow...I didn't think they had music in cars back in those
days!" Durrr...sexy and clueless...JUST how I like them.

"My mom had these cassette things, but I never saw these." I went on
to explain about 8trackheaven, The 8 Track Mind, "So Wrong, They're
Right," a.c.8-t-t (although she was clueless about Usenet) and on and
on, debating on whether I should try to lure her into the passenger's
seat. "Oh well...gotta jet! See ya!" Curses! Oh well, Buster was
probably waiting for me inside, and as it turned out, he was...along
with a $491 bill and an appointment for his surgery next week.

So, 8 tracks got me some time with an obviously sexually well built
chick...forget the music (she never heard of Iron Butterfly,
either..."What a NAME...like, wow!"...and the fidelity of the program
had NOTHING to do with it. I was "cool"...because I had 8 tracks in
my old hatchback grocery getter! Now...how do I get "cooler" so she
can't resist going for a ride? A matter for further research!

I think that I still try to improve the listening quality of the tapes,
though. Tape hiss is annoying, so I adjust treble and bass as much as I
can. Records: Pops and cracks annoy me, too, but I learn to live with
it. Tapes are good, of course. And I continue to imprison what may be
secret "Go to CD and get true quality!" urges for the sake of my
obsession for old tech. =D snip

Best of all worlds is the key. The Cad I just sold had all
three...CD, cassette with both equalizations, AND 8 track. The
"Delco-Blowz" system relatively sucked though...the tape transport was
marginal, and the CD changer didn't like railroad tracks or expansion
joints on the freeway. When the Blaupunkt tape head would be lined up
for one direction, it would be off on the reverse...a niggly little
problem that took me a couple of days to fix due to a mediocre design.
Once that was fixed, cassettes sounded fine. Although the amps in the
"Delco-Blowz" system were good and clean (and worth about 30 watts
total across three channels, at best), the speakers were pure
Bose..."Got no highs? Got no lows! Sound blows, MUST BE BOSE!" A
different compliment of speakers fixed things up nicely, although the
summed "bass" channel to the back 6X9 was another cheesy thing I had
to fix. The 8 track I had grafted into this system was a Sanyo
Audiospec, which turned out to be a relatively good player all by
itself, although I didn't even use the power amps at all. I
disconnected them entirely, instead taking the pre-driver stages out
to the "Delco-Blowz" system through a selector switch into the CD
changer inputs.

It was a lot of work for little enjoyment, but I couldn't refuse the
offer I got on the car, so off it went. I still wonder why he didn't
question why he wasn't getting a lot of 8 track carts with the car,
but he didn't care. What was cool about the Sanyo deck in that car?
The shade of beige on the face plate matched the dash material
exactly! Also cool was that the Bauxendahl tone controls and balance
pot affected the outputs of the pre-driver stage, so I had two sets of
everything...which actually worked really well.

Now, I just have a Paragoric AM/FM/8 in the old "grocery getter," and
it does well enough (a real good head on that Paragoric), but not
quite as well as that Sanyo. By the way...those 8 track motors
Noodles sells on ebay? I've got the SAME IDENTICAL one in my grocery
getter's Paragoric cheapie player. "High end" my ass, Noodles!

dB

On 25 Feb 2005 10:36:02 -0800, "trippingtoo8track"
wrote:

We can all see how you lifted snip

Shut the **** up, Noodles.