More 8 track disappointments

Today I had to sally forth to the big city for a doctor's visit, and
so took along some previously unheard "plastic sandwiches." The
Byrd...sounding like they were recorded through a garden hose...and
Sinatra with more crinkles than the back of his hands when he croaked.
I swear, every time I get another cart, something's ALWAYS wrong that
impedes listenability. Not so with LP or CD. I compared the Byrd's
cart with a "greatest hits" LP from Columbia...NO comparison; the LP
sounded worlds better. Sinatra didn't sound too bad (nor too good)
but the cartridges had evidently been through hell and back, as
there'd been a couple of nasty jams. I'll try to iron them out and
see what happens, but my success with this to date has been mixed.
Seems that what I get when it isn't completely successful is that the
dropouts in the highs are not quite as bad, but are still annoying.
But that Byrds cart...sounded like it was produced by Amar Bose!

"Got no highs? Got no lows! Sound sure blows...MUST BE BOSE!"

dB

To get good sound from an 8-track and reliability, you have to fully
service/repair the cart first.

Open it up- lube the reel and pinchroller posts- replace and reinforce
the channel sensing foil splice- iron any wrinkles out with an iron-
replace the pads.

Do that with every cart religiously, before making your comparisons
with other formats, and for God's sake man, don't do comparisons while
using a Wollensak 8-track deck to play the carts- Wollies have more
wow/flutter than Carter had pills- many people returned those Wollensak
decks when new due to the terrible wow/flutter problems they had.

If you are playing the carts in your car, how do we know your car deck
is even a good unit with a good belt ?? The deck also needs to be
cleaned, new belt, and tape head aligned via azimuth/head height
adjustments.

Finally, you are 65 years old, and much of your high range hearing is
GONE at that age- as people age past 60 years old their hearing goes
away until by age 90 or so they are practically deaf- are you wearing
hearing aids yet ?? Otherwise it's akin to sending Stevie Wonder to
give a review on a painting...what good is the review ??

ps- this is an 8-track collecting group for enthusiasts, not
detractors. Why do you come in here telling us how you are
"disappointed" with 8-track sound ?? If you think CD and vinyl are so
much better, then use those and join the CD and vinyl groups on Usenet.
To be perfectly honest, after the proper maintenance and cleaning, my
8-tracks sound BETTER than my modern CD's and DVD's, through a high end
AKAI or TELEX tape deck. Vinyl is nice but 8-tracks don't have
annoying dust and scratch popping noises, and 8-track has a warmer
sound.