Over the years of digging through random boxes of tapes I have come across a number of tapes that are odd or more interesting for the story around them than the actual listenable contents. Also included here are some quadraphonic cartridges I have come across
Cartridge repair | Classic rock tapes | Other good tapes | Blank cartridges | Odd and quad tapes |
Ford began offering eight track players in their 1966 models, boosting the early popularity and adoption of the format, with Ford offering factory players and even "Quadrasonic" four-channel machines
Being a multi-track tape format with a wealth of available programs, a discrete quadraphonic standard was developed that ties the tracks together into two four-channel programs while remaining compatible with stereo cartridges and players, although playing the quad tapes in stereo players will only yield two of the four quadraphonic tracks of one program at any given time.
I don't come across quadraphonic tapes very often (most commonly they appear as lone Ford Demo tapes in stacks of otherwise stereo tapes, a remnant of someone's Ford player that was never used to its full potential), but when they are cheap I usually buy them just to see what they sound like in quad sound. I've even come across a few that are worth listening to!
A variety of different eight track head, capstan, and related cleaners were sold for the stereo eight and related formats