I like big band, and Harry James was always a favorite, so I bid
on/got a 2 cart set from Reader's Digest of a compliation of a lot of
his stuff on both Capitol and Decca, hoping maybe to get some cuts I
already don't have on vinyl or CD. The carts appeared to be later
(1980) RCAs...until I got them open. They're "glued" carts (actually
chemically welded), have different spring pads than did the RCAs and
Lear/Ampexes, and have the identical tape path ("K" wrap) as the early
Orradio/GRT carts...the big white ones...before GRT went to the white,
then blue "cheapies" that seem to cause a lot of trouble. The styrene
plastic also feels very much like what Orradio used on their early
carts...very hard, not flexible at all.

The pads were interesting in that they don't just use a pad of felt,
but rather a square of thin foam rubber with a felt topping...and they
were all gone from the springs and laying inside the carts! Some
Scotch 77 took care of that. After putting a fresh splice on both and
lubing with PTFE, I reassembled and was amazed by how well they seemed
to perform. The quality of the recordings is good (although in that
irritating "phony stereo" on all the mono cuts that RCA used to do all
the time) and indeed I did get several singles mastered off the old 78
matrices that were top notch. Anyway, I'd hardly call the Reader's
Digest stuff "crap"...these carts seem to perform up with the best of
them, and are loaded with obviously an Ampex red oxide formula tape,
which looks very similar to the old Ampex 341/641 formulation dating
back to the '50s.

So, I did some figuring and comparing. To get the same HJ cuts as I
got on these two carts for a buck would've cost me around $48. The
REAL advantage of 8 track isn't anything technical; I've pretty much
proven they suck in any technical area compared to other formats. But
$48 worth of music for a buck? Sure, why not? I just wish Capitol's
Audiotape division would've done a better job on my Sinatra fill-in
carts. Those soft polyethylene reels are the ****s once they get
warped.

dB