Monday, January 05, 2004

Triphony and Cacaphony
Well I played Enoch Light Brigade - Spaced Out first. It was not Space-y enough to be that interesting. Mostly Beatles covers in the usual 60s Musak Style. Cool, but I was expecting something different. Only three speakers seemed to be working for most of it and I thought the player had a loose wire. Then I played War - The World is a Ghetto. That worked fine in all 4 channels. Great album. Who knows why one works when the other doesn't? One of the mysteries of 8-track 'technology'.

Then I played a stereo tape and I got a lot of crosstalk. So I fiddled with the head adjustment screw. I doubt I'll ever hear good sound on this thing again, unless I take it somewhere to be fixed. It is babble on all channels now. I haven't tried a quad since I destroyed the stereo sound, but my feeling is: it can't be good.

Another drag is these quads haven't been played in years. So they tend to break, and it's depressing. I have a very hard time keeping up with my broken tapes. They pile up fast, if you don't fix them right away. And to lose a quad, when they're so hard to find and expensive, is a real heartbreaker to me. I may go experiment more later if I have the heart, so stay tuned for the next installment: Quad: to play or not to play?