Today's achievement: installing a 'new' stereo

Hey everyone

I've not posted for a while, so I thought it was about time I did, if only to keep the thread number up over the winter months.

Anyway, here's a photo of what I've been up to today! Basically, my old Sony stereo cassette died a few months back (leaking oil from oil pressure gauge killed it...) and I decided to go retro and put something more period in. I found this old Radiomobile quadraphonic 8 Track on ebay and installed it this afternoon. I'd never even heard of 8 track player until I started searching for retro stereos online (alas, the disadvantages of youth!). But the ones I saw on ebay/youtube looked neat, so I thought I'd give one a go! I have to say, the sound quality is great. And you get that distinct 'non-cd quality' tone. Now I just need to set about adding to my 8 track collection. Steve Miller Band 'Book of Dreams' is in the post. Any other suggestions???

Hope everyone is well!

Brgds,

T

Very cool. Wish I still had the Blaupunkt 8-track that I had installed in my '73 beetle, not to mention all of the tapes that I trashed. I see your Eagles tape - I recall having their Greatest hits one...

In my '71 Camaro I had a Pioneer Super Tuner AM/FM 8 Track player matched with Mind Blower speakers. May have been the loudest system you could find off the shelf back then.

Kevin

IMHO you should be buying 8-tracks that center around the year of your car.
Bonnie & Delaney,
later Beatles offerings particularly Rubber Soul,
Early Led Zeppelin,
early Steely Dan,
Crosby Stills Nash and Young,
Moby Grape,
Velvet Underground
Cream
Deep Purple, specifically Machine Head
Pink Floyd,
T-Rex,
Vanilla Fudge,
possibly some stuff like Mac Davis
Melanie

not necessarily my personal favorites though some are awesome, it just seems "right" to have the "right" music coming from a '71

BTW Kevin, Those SuperTuners were great when they came out and high power too lots of them were 40 genuine watts per channel into 4 speakers, very advanced stuff for the time. The MindBlower speakers had a sensitivity rating of 95db/1 watt which meant that a 40watt Supertuner was easily capable of pushing the sound pressure level to 110 decibels one foot from each speaker. VERY RESPECTABLE VOLUME when you consider road noise in a 71 Camaro was around 74 db at 65 with the windows up.

Thanks Michael. Some of those on the list are familiar, others less so, but I agree that it's a good idea to try and find cassettes to match the car's year.

Btw, I can also say that, with 4 speakers, the player can be pretty loud too if you turn it up. The sound quality remains very crisp and clear too, even when it's turned up. But that might also have something to do with the speakers. I made my own by re-cycling some speakers from an old philips stereo I had lying around. It had 4x 6ohm speakers in it that looked pretty decent, so I made new speaker housings for them and used them in place of the old ones that were (poorly) installed by the PO. Seems to have worked, as the sound is great :)

T

If you can find an 8-track RECORDER that works and some blank tapes you may have a side business coming your way.

Pink Floyd, yesss.
Now all you need are the purple flares with the wide white plastic belt. And of course the silk kerchief and the pointy collars. What a sight I was.
Retro is very up to to the minute right now, I'm ashamed of my IPOD.

Ah yes. I remember recording 8-track tapes . . . always an interesting project!
Suggestions? Shades of Rock by the Shadows . . . and those Marvin, Welch and Farrar albums.

I always hated the way the sound faded out and back in when it switched tracks. Cassettes were much better (until they got dirt in them and started squealing).