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I just hod-rodded one of those Fostex 8 track things - surprisingly good! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard L. Hess" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 5:12 AM Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] 8-track cartridge degradation problems > At 10:49 PM 2010-03-11, Corey Bailey wrote: > >>I transferred some home recordings last year from six 8 track tapes and >>every >>one suffered from the problems that Tom mentions below. What a PITA! I >>started >>to sketch out some ideas for mounting an 8 Track head on a reel-to-reel >>deck >>but decided there isn't the demand for the format. > > Hi, Corey, and all, > > Pre-recorded tapes in this format can be surprisingly good, but > home-recorded tapes in this format are mostly ugly. I determined that > there MIGHT be a demand for good recovery of this format and while I have > paid off the head assembly, I don't know if there is a need for more than > one or two people to be able to seriously recover this format. At this > point, I believe I am the only one who is well-equipped to do this. > > I have the head mounted on a Sony APR-5000 head assembly and it sounds far > superior to a top-of-the-line glass-headed Akai 8-track player. It is a > premium Nortronics quad 8-track head and it is mounted on a special > elevator assembly so that height can be adjusted while maintaining > azimuth. John French did a beautiful job with this. I also use this head > for playing two-track recordings which have been over-written by > quarter-track recordings. With it, I can read any 21-mil swath of a > 1/4-inch tape. > > I do not attempt to re-load the 8-tracks but send the tapes back on 5" > reels. > > Cheers, > > Richard > > > Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask] > Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX > Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm > Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.