Information about vintage technology

Many of our products use technology which has come and gone over time. This page is dedicated to giving out basic information about these technologies.

8-Track

The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic-tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, which pre-dated the 8-track system, surpassed it in popularity for pre-recorded music.

The format was commonly used in cars and was most popular in North America and in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Japan. One advantage of the 8-track tape cartridge was that it could play continuously in an endless loop, and did not have to be ejected, turned around and reinserted to play the entire tape. After about 80 minutes of playing time, the tape would start again at the beginning. Because of the loop, there is no rewind. The only options the consumer has are play, fast forward, record, and program (track) change.

The Stereo 8 Cartridge was created in 1964 by a consortium led by Bill Lear, of Lear Jet Corporation, along with Ampex, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Motorola, and RCA Victor Records (RCA – Radio Corporation of America).

The 8-track tape format is now considered obsolete, although there are collectors who refurbish these tapes and players as well as some bands that issue these tapes as a novelty. Cheap Trick’s The Latest in 2009 was issued on 8-track, as was Dolly Parton’s A Holly Dolly Christmas in 2020, the latter with an exclusive bonus track. Little Lost Girl Media from Oregon is currently still making 8-tracks and runs a mostly 8-track punk rock n roll record label. There are about 5 small independent record labels that manufacture 8-track cartridges currently.

Compact Cassette

The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analogue magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens and his team at the Dutch company Philips, the Compact Cassette was released in August 1963.

Compact Cassettes come in two forms, either containing content as a prerecorded cassette (Musicassette), or as a fully recordable blank cassette. Both forms have two sides and are reversible by the user.

Although other tape cassette formats have also existed – for example the Microcassette (used mainly for voice recordings) – the generic term cassette tape is normally used to refer to the Compact Cassette because of its ubiquity.

Compact Cassettes contain two miniature spools, between which the magnetically coated, polyester-type plastic film (magnetic tape) is passed and wound – essentially miniaturising reel-to-reel audio tape and enclosing it, with its reels, in a small case (cartridge) – hence ‘cassette’. These spools and their attendant parts are held inside a protective plastic shell which is 4 by 2.5 by 0.5 inches (10.2 cm × 6.35 cm × 1.27 cm) at its largest dimensions. The tape itself is commonly referred to as ‘eighth-inch’ tape, supposedly 1⁄8 inch (0.125 in; 3.17 mm) wide, but actually slightly larger, at 0.15 inches (3.81 mm). Two stereo pairs of tracks (four total) or two monaural audio tracks are available on the tape; one stereo pair or one monophonic track is played or recorded when the tape is moving in one direction and the second (pair) when moving in the other direction. This reversal is achieved either by manually flipping the cassette when the tape comes to an end, or by the reversal of tape movement, known as ‘auto-reverse’, when the mechanism detects that the tape has ended.

LaserDisc (LD)

The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in the US in 1978. Its diameter typically spans 30 cm (12″). Unlike most optical-disc standards, LaserDisc is not fully digital, and instead requires the use of analog video signals.

Although the format was capable of offering higher-quality video and audio than its rivals, VHS and Betamax, LaserDisc never managed to gain widespread use. Its superior video and audio quality made it a popular choice among videophiles and film enthusiasts during its lifespan. The technologies and concepts behind LaserDisc were the foundation for later optical disc formats, including Compact Disc (CD), DVD, and Blu-ray (BD). LaserDisc players continued to be produced until July 2009, when Pioneer stopped making them.

MiniDisc (MD)

MiniDisc (MD) is an erasable magneto-optical disc-based data storage format offering a capacity of 60, 74, and later, 80 minutes of digitised audio.

Sony announced and released the MiniDisc in late1992 for sale initially in Japan and then in Europe, North America, and beyond. The music format was based on ATRAC audio data compression, Sony’s own proprietary compression code. Its successor, Hi-MD, would later introduce the option of linear PCM digital recording to meet audio quality comparable to that of a compact disc. MiniDiscs were very popular in Japan but only moderately successful in Europe. Although it was designed to succeed the cassette tape, it did not manage to supplant it globally.

By March 2011 Sony had sold 22 million MD players, but halted further development. Sony ceased manufacturing and sold the last of the players by March 2013.

Reel-to-Reel

Reel-to-reel audio tape recording is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the supply reel (or feed reel) containing the tape is placed on a spindle or hub.

Reel-to-reel tape recording is done with electro-magnetism, electronic audio circuitry, and electro-mechanical drive systems.

As techniques advanced in studio audio production, individual instruments and human voices could be separately recorded and mixed down to one, two, or more speaker channels. It meant that individual tracks could even be recorded at different locations at a later date.

Reel-to-reel recorders with eight, sixteen, twenty-four, and even thirty-two tracks were eventually built. As professional audio evolved from analogue magnetic tape to digital media, engineers adapted magnetic tape technology to digital recording, producing digital reel-to-reel magnetic tape machines.

Valve (vacuum tube)

A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve or tube is a device that controls electric current flow in a vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied.

Valves became a key component in electronic circuits for the first half of the 20th century and led to the development of radio, television and sound recording as well as radar, telephone networks, and early computers.

With the invention of semiconductor devices in the 1940s, solid-state devices were starting to take over from valves. They were smaller, safer, cooler, more efficient, reliable, durable, and economical than valves. From the mid-1960s, transistors were replacing valves.

Today, valves are still used in high end audio amplifiers due to their perceived warmer sound, and also in still used in guitar amplifiers to achive overdrive and certain tones only a tube amp can achieve.