The evolution of portable music players toward greater storage in
physically smaller dimensions is well known. Cassette tapes are now seen as a
quaint anachronism from an era gone by, but what about the history that didn't happen? What about, specifically, the 8-track-playing Sony Walkman? Such are the questions that plagued the mind of one XenonJohn, who has spliced together the chunky beast you see above. Looking like something Maggie Thatcher might have used in her private moments, the portable (compared to, say, a fridge) device is composed of an audio amplifier from an old cassette tape Walkman and a dismantled car 8-track player. Another snap of the exposed components after the break, but if you must know how to recreate this great feat, or are just curious about the lengths people will go to in the pursuit of retro-glorious ideas, hit up the read link.
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posted July 24th 2009 8:18AM
I never understood the point of 8-tracks. They were large, bulky things and
and??
Who cares everyone loved Sony walkmans with a passion. Nobody will ever do stuff like this for something like a iPod in the future.
Well they automatically rewind when you take them out so they were better than cassettes in that respect.
Before the dawn of MP3s when everyone used CDs and mini-discs were cutting edge I visited a local radio station who still used them for that very reason.
and doesn't afraid of anything?
Bulkier than a turntable or reel to reel? At the time, those were your other choices, and neither worked too well in a car. Cassette sound quality was so bad back then it was considered only suitable for voice recordings.
@ Carpet
8-Tracks did *NOT* automatically rewind when you took them out. They were a continuous loop of tape that would play forever if you let it. Once tracks 1 & 2 (L & R) were done, you'd hear a CLUNK as the playback head moved to the next set of tracks (3 & 4), and so on until you played the entire tape (which actually looped 4 times in a row).
8-Tracks did not have Rewind available......only Fast Forward. If you wanted to hear a song again, you'd have to fast forward the rest of the songs to get back to it.
songs got broken into little segements.
Problem is that despite the 20 somethings lack of memories and pleasure at patting themselves on the back.. portable 8 track players existed and where sold en masse when the format was at the peak of its popularity..
http://www.8trackheaven.com/portable.html are just a few of the examples.. This page took exactly 1 google search to find..
WTB more fact checking before blind publishing items
engadget owned?
You so rarely see "fact checking" and "Engagdet" on the same page.
SO owned.
I was reading this going... hrmmm we had a few of these in the house as a kid. This guys P8Tp looks like shit warmed over.
Hey, maybe you guys can do an article on a portable dvd player. I heard some asshat hodgepodged one together.
You should remember we are talking about personal 8-track players in the style of a Walkman, rather than portable radios or old school ghetto blasters.
I owned a portable 8 track player (the Panasonic Dynamite 8) back in the late '70s that was far more elegant than that contraption. This article is full of fail.
Oh man! I had a yellow Dynamite 8 just like the one in that link. I thought it was pretty cool at the time. It went through batteries pretty quickly, but it played my Sweet and Deep Purple tapes just fine. Am I showing my age here?
Portable 8-track players existed, much as portable cassette players did, but not the 8-track walkman.
The first Walkman-style players appeared right at about the time of the 8 Track's swan song. At the time, I was working in the Radio/TV department of a local department store. We used to get in a lot of cheap WM clones and it alway surprised me that no one ever tried to produce a commercial version of what we have here (8man, anyone?).
I like it... it's an example of an evolutionary dead-end that never occurred, kind of like the digital camera with a built-in Zip drive.
This is hardly innovative. The guy just took a car stereo and gave it power...
Hey Engadget, I once used a CD Rom drive and a 12 volt adapter and some speakers to make a CD player on my tech bench when I used to do tech support... would you like to waste your time writing up an article on that?
Wait
Did I ever tell you about when I got my Atari to run on a 9 volt battery?
Reminded me of 'That '70s Show'!
I hope he has a quadrophonic headphone output on that thing!
...for his four ears?
@ Vladislav
So are we. There are SEVERAL models with just an audio output for headphones.
Hell, even if you use the above link and read a little bit you would see that the GE (at the top) has an earphone jack.
Don't be a hater. K?
Was this a waste of time? probably, but he still did it so that's a job well done IMO!
Stop hatting on a guy's mod cause it got reported posted on here Engadget or it's something YOU could do; give him his kudos and let him enjoy his moment in the spotlight.
Is that Freedom Rock, man?
Well turn it up!!
I remember working in the family's garage, and there was an intact 8-track stereo. Found Pink Floyd's "Dark side of the moon" and was delighted to be able to play it while working on the car. Fired it up, and the cassette promptly fell apart when I tried it.
I have said in the past that Apple should put out an "8-track" feature on the iPods, like a shuffle feature. That switches tracks/songs mid-stream. No real reason, just to be nostalgic. It would be nothing for them to program that feature.
"Nothing" also describes what benefit that feature would bring to either Apple or the users. Its close cousins "nobody" and "never" describe who would use that feature, and how often it would be used, respectively.
The point of 8-tracks "back in the day" was that they were a portable music medium. This was the first viable way to listen to music of your choice in your car.
Some attempted to make record players for cars, but did not work out very well.
Finally, sony's iPod Killer!
Sweet! I have The Knack's "Get the Knack" on 8-track (you know, My Sharona) and it's actually an interesting album, kind of like Green Day or Weezer but 30 years ago. You especially discovered this by having to listen to at least 1/4 of it twice to hear a song again.
I also had this converter into which you'd put a standard cassette tape, then plug that into an 8-track. Amusing!
Memories! My first car came with an 8-track player. Good times.
I heard a rumor they are coming out with portable computers soon? prolly just a hoax :(
Oh this would look soo great on my hip this weekend at a disco party I will be attending.... damn.
Wow. I remember we had an 8 track player in our Ford "Zephyr" family car back in Hawaii. My older sister had Grease and Saturday Night Fever and a few compilation "cassettes" from K-Tel records. I can still hear that loud "THUNK" of the player switching to the next track of songs, and everyone smoked in the car.
@ProfessorDex> Not having to rewind 8-Tracks sounds pretty good. Especially when you consider this... http://mediahora.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/dvd-rewinder/
love it!
Bitchin' Camaro
huh?
ok cool because its rechargeable, portable, and in stereo!