On Mar 13, 3:42*am, Alien Spawn wrote:
Hi All,

Back on usenet after about a 10 or so year hiatus...

have a q about my recently acquired Craig H260 8 track player/recorder.
All looks near pristine and I am slowly acquiring a collection of 8
track tapes to compliment my "70's Marantz and Pioneer supersystem". The
8 track player records and plays very well, but, on some tapes i get
crackling sound - as if there are magnetic filings on the tape "adding"
to the sound as the tape passes the head (which looks as new and
polished). Some tapes are fine, the ones I record are fine, but some
tapes are shocking with the crackling noise = even some straight out of
shrinkwrap. none have bad pinch rollers and i've redone the tape
cushioning on some - with no audible change.

is this a head or tape problem ?

anyone come across this before? My Jethro Tull and Commodres tapes sound
really bad, while my partridge family and country church 8 tracks sound
bewdiful....something's gotta give !!!!

the phenom you are experiencing with crackling tapes, is due to tiny
particles of the graphite backing, coming loose and adhering to the
front play side of the tape. This happened typically on a very old,
very well played tape with lots of "miles" on it. But lately it's
been happening at an ever increasing rate, as even the "newest" tapes
are now 20 years old, and most tapes are at least 30-35 years old.
There are tapes out there that are 40-44 years old now. As they are
played and the backing degrades, some of it ends up on the front of
the tape, and makes a crackling noise when it goes past the tape head.
That's because the graphite is "slightly" conductive- it also "tricks"
the program switch circuit on the Akai 80-81-82 decks, and a real bad
tape will do it on the Pioneer HR-99 types as well. The graphite
drains the program switch capacitor, causing a "no switch" condition.

The "fix" is, use newer, less used tapes. This is one advantage of
buying a "sealed" tape- it will play a long time, several years,
before the crackling starts.