I've got an old Realistic 8-track player/recorder. They're kind of fun, and there's something just plain right about listening to Kiss's Destroyer album on 8-track. The 8-track of Lou Reed's Berlin includes a snippet of music that never made it onto any other medium, apparently used to fill out a track. And while the 8-track of Metal Machine Music lacks the LP's endless runout groove, perpetually playing that last chimey note, it has the advantage of running continuously until your cranial cavity is scrubbed shiny clean. And what are you going to do, turn up your nose at The Crazy World of Arthur Brown if you see the 8-track at a yard sale?
No, the sound quality is inconsistent, but they're fun.I kind of miss the shining ribbons of tape strewn along the highway from 8-tracks that bound up in the players, got yanked, and then unceremoniously tossed out the window.
