For years I have been searching for a device that would allow me to carry my extensive 8 track collection with me for quick playback via a low wattage, all range, monophonic speaker! As soon as I saw the Portable 8 Track Machine, I rushed to the thrift store, quadraphonic record player under my arm, and received the cash I needed to buy this fantastic piece of cutting edge electronic equipment. The first tape I tried was an old classic: Bill Donaldson and the Heywood ..it brought me right back to my youth in East Germany where we would bribe the Staci with bootlegged rum for a chance to listen to Western radio. I have found that I can carry 46 full length albums in a standard Jan sport backpack, making an iPod seem useless. The included ear bud was a nice touch and the shoulder strap is both practical and minimalist. The sleek styling and exceptional controls of this unit make it a steal for the price.All in all I have to say the portable 8 track player is something the market sorely needs. I predict a big future for it.
The original format for magnetic tape sound reproduction was the reel-to-reel tape recorder, first available in the U.S. in the late 1940s but too expensive and bulky to be practical for amateur home use until well into the 1950s. Loading a reel of tape onto the machine and threading it through the various guides and rollers proved daunting to some casual users—certainly, it was more difficult than putting a vinyl record on a record player and flicking a switch—and because in early years each tape had to be dubbed from the master tape in real-time to maintain good sound quality, prerecorded tapes were more expensive to manufacture, and costlier to buy, than vinyl records.
