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Hello and welcome to No Effort November,

2
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a series of videos for the month of 
November where no effort is made.

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Have you heard of these newfangled compact cassettes?

4
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Everybody's got them these days and tons of new music is being released on these little things all the time!

5
00:00:19,765 --> 00:00:24,419
But what if all you've got is an 8-track player?

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Well, have no fear of being left behind because Kraco's got you covered with this.

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Just pop the tape you'd like to play into this thing,

8
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then shove it into your 8-track player and blammo!

9
00:00:36,438 --> 00:00:39,867
You're listening to the latest hits like one of the cool kids.

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I love a good adapter and this may be 
my very favorite one because it's delightfully clever.

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It uses one of the weirdest and arguably worst 
features of the 8-track cartridge format

12
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to create a surprisingly competent cassette player 
which passes the signals on the cassette tape

13
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directly into the playback heads of an 8-track player so you can listen to the cassette.

14
00:01:04,016 --> 00:01:06,803
I don't remember when I first learned about these things,

15
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but back in the day I was given an old Zenith console radio set with a record changer, AM/FM tuner,

16
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and of course an 8-track player.

17
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And probably while perusing eBay for 8-track-related nonsense to play in that thing, I found one of these for sale.

18
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This is not the one I had back then - it broke and I threw it away.

19
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But I've tracked down another one for this video.

20
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And this is that!

21
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To explain what's so clever about this, first 
we need to look at the 8-track cartridge and its design.

22
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The 8-track was the first 
majorly successful consumer tape cartridge.

23
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It was based on an endless loop cartridge format developed for radio,

24
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but for success in the consumer market, it was cost cut to oblivion.

25
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A design of Richard Krauss,

26
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the Stereo 8 cartridge hit the scene in 1964
and it used conventional 1/4 inch magnetic tape.

27
00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:03,809
But it split the fundamental elements 
of a magnetic tape transport

28
00:02:03,809 --> 00:02:08,109
between the playback device and the cartridge itself.

29
00:02:08,109 --> 00:02:13,671
See, magnetic tape is really just 
a thin plastic film covered in powdered rust.

30
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When you drag that rusty tape 
past a tiny electromagnet called a tape head,

31
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you can store information 
on that tape by magnetizing the rust particles.

32
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A sound signal which is fed to the head modulates the strength of the magnetic field it produces.

33
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And since the tape is moving past as this happens, the powdered rust becomes magnetized in the same pattern as the original signal.

34
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In other words, a recording 
of that signal is now present on the tape.

35
00:02:44,044 --> 00:02:48,380
And when you move this newly magnetized tape past the head again,

36
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but this time without sending signals into the head,

37
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the varying magnetization on the tape will create an electrical signal inside the tape head

38
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which can be sent to an amplifier to recover the 
original signal and thus the sound.

39
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That's the basics of recording audio onto magnetic tape.

40
00:03:05,975 --> 00:03:13,206
But to do it well, you need a mechanism which can smoothly pull the tape past the head at a very steady speed.

41
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That's accomplished with a capstan and pinch roller.

42
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The metal capstan is spun by a motor at a constant and precise RPM,

43
00:03:21,823 --> 00:03:26,723
and the rubber pinch roller jams itself up against the spinning capstan.

44
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Stick some tape between the two spinny bits, 
and it's going to be pulled along at a steady speed.

45
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If you give the capstan a bit of heft with the help of a flywheel, you can make this happen incredibly smoothly,

46
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which is good for keeping the audio 
signals from sounding warbly and weird.

47
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In a reel-to-reel tape recorder, you have a supply reel of tape,

48
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the tape transport with the tape heads, capstan, and pinch roller,

49
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and then you have a take-up reel, which uh takes up the tape after it's gone through the transport.

50
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But this whole contraption is pretty bulky and inconvenient.

51
00:04:01,052 --> 00:04:09,807
Now, you could put the two reels into some sort of box and then create a tape transport which interacts with that box...

52
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which is what a cassette is.

53
00:04:11,844 --> 00:04:18,354
But those tape transports are somewhat mechanically intricate, which makes them fairly expensive to produce.

54
00:04:18,354 --> 00:04:22,329
I mean, you gotta have parts that move the pinch roller into the capstan,

55
00:04:22,329 --> 00:04:26,434
you gotta have some way to move the tape in both directions so you can rewind it...

56
00:04:26,434 --> 00:04:28,595
I mean, it's just a whole ordeal.

57
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The 8-track format, on the other hand,

58
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took everything out of the tape transport except for the spinning capstan and the playback heads.

59
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The pinch roller became part of the cartridge itself with the tape riding along its outer circumference.

60
00:04:44,474 --> 00:04:48,429
And with the help of this notch here and a little spring tension,

61
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the 8-track player simply jams the cartridge and thus the pinch roller right into the capstan inside the machine.

62
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Since the tape is now sandwiched between 
the capstan and the pinch roller inside the cartridge,

63
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this simple arrangement was all that 
was needed for nice and smooth tape movement.

64
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And to make it even simpler, 8-tracks contain 
a tape loop rather than two separate reels of tape.

65
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Tape is pulled from the center of that loop,
travels up and over the top of the cartridge,

66
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then back down the pinch roller 
before finally ending up at the edge of the loop.

67
00:05:23,929 --> 00:05:29,213
This somewhat odd arrangement forces the tape to sort of slide past 
itself,

68
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but since the tape is pulled out from the center of the loop where the diameter is smallest,

69
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the tape is naturally kept in tension.

70
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The... rather large catch is that this form of loop 
prevents the tape from being moved backwards.

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No rewinding is possible with an 8-track:

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you just have to keep going forward 
until you're back at the start of the loop.

73
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No rewinding is possible with an 
8-track:

74
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you just have to keep going forward until you're back at the start of the loop.

75
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That's not the end of the world, 
though, thanks to the format's party trick

76
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(which also explains why it's called the 8-track).

77
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The tape holds eight parallel 
audio tracks recorded across its width.

78
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They're interleaved as four programs of stereo sound,

79
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and the 8-track player used a mechanism 
which would physically move the playback heads

80
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to realign them with each of the four programs.

81
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This extra complexity belied some of the cost savings,

82
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but it meant that a hypothetical album with 12 songs on it would be recorded onto an 8-track as four loops with three songs each.

83
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And with a button on the 8-track player which lets you step through the four programs,

84
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you could kind of skip around and get to a specific song.

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[Music plays]

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[song playing abruptly changes]

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[another change - each change occurred mid-song]

88
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And while it was physically impossible for the tape to move backwards without the loop getting very badly undone,

89
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many players such as this offered a fast forward option to make queuing up a specific song at least a little bit easier.

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[very high-pitched squeaky fast music plays]

91
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And of course, 8-track players could 
also step to the next program automatically.

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This was accomplished with a piece of foil on the splice point of the tape loop.

93
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Electrical contacts inside the 8-track player were pressed against the tape and they had a modest voltage placed across them.

94
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When the foil splice bridged those two contacts,

95
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that voltage was fed to a small solenoid that pulls down on this lever which steps the heads to the next program

96
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with the help of this spinning cam thing.

97
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This was a pretty clever trick,

98
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but splitting up a loop of tape into four programs 
with the exact same length made programming rather difficult.

99
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So albums released on 8-track would tend to have 
the songs in a different order than the LP release

100
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or they might have weirdly long gaps between certain songs.

101
00:08:10,342 --> 00:08:16,508
Or - much worse - they might 
actually split a track across two programs

102
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which leads to a small gap in the sound in the middle of a song in addition to some audible clicks and pops.

103
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Not ideal.

104
00:08:25,588 --> 00:08:28,466
However, the format was stupid simple.

105
00:08:28,466 --> 00:08:32,534
Just shove the thing in and it starts playing without a fuss.

106
00:08:32,534 --> 00:08:35,703
And for its time, they were quite robust.

107
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Tape doesn't care about vibrations like conventional records do.

108
00:08:39,854 --> 00:08:43,527
And that made tape formats a great choice for cars.

109
00:08:43,527 --> 00:08:47,275
In fact, that's where 8-tracks first became popular.

110
00:08:47,275 --> 00:08:51,949
These days, 8-tracks are generally not well appreciated.

111
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For one, many of them now have issues with 
degradation of the pinch roller or the foam pads

112
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which keep the tape pressed up against the heads.

113
00:08:59,626 --> 00:09:04,094
And so they often need repair - just ask Techmoan.

114
00:09:04,094 --> 00:09:06,931
And they were never made all that well.

115
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I tried to demonstrate how they handled albums which split tracks across the program change with this cartridge,

116
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but the moment the splice made its way 
through the pinch roller and capstan...

117
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the tape broke.

118
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It broke! Right on camera.

119
00:09:22,382 --> 00:09:28,684
Even if they weren't prone to these issues with their rather restrictive playback limitations,

120
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they're a little annoying to use.

121
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However, 8-tracks sound better than you might realize

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in large part because the tape 
travels at 3 and 3/4 inches per second,

123
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twice the linear speed of a compact cassette.

124
00:09:42,774 --> 00:09:47,680
And that allows it to record higher 
frequency sound signals, which increases fidelity.

125
00:09:48,320 --> 00:09:54,267
It's definitely not great by today's standards, 
but it's not really all that bad.

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Here are a few examples - and I'll note that 
this is by no means a good 8-track player.

127
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It's pretty basic and it has that delightfully 1970s

128
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"we are really trying to make this look like a digital device with seven segment displays,

129
00:10:07,730 --> 00:10:11,754
but this is really a piece of plastic in front of 
four incandescent light bulbs" aesthetic.

130
00:10:11,754 --> 00:10:15,203
But hopefully it gives 
you a sense of what the format was capable of.

131
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[STAR WARS]

132
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[a much quieter and more obscure part of the soundtrack]

133
00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:29,712
[Get Together by The Youngbloods]

134
00:10:29,712 --> 00:10:33,013
[ope, now it's some instrumental thing]

135
00:10:34,092 --> 00:10:37,726
[The chorus of Aretha Franklin's I Say A Little Prayer]

136
00:10:37,726 --> 00:10:41,824
[You Don't Have To Say You Love Me]

137
00:10:41,824 --> 00:10:44,618
[instrumental section of Get Together]

138
00:10:46,065 --> 00:10:51,436
[and now it's the Mills Brothers]

139
00:10:54,039 --> 00:11:02,020
[and now some quieter classical music 
which reveals quite a lot of tape hiss]

140
00:11:02,020 --> 00:11:08,670
Now, if you're wondering why there's so much noise, 
part of that is this 8- track player's kind of terrible preamp,

141
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but also the track width is identical to a compact cassette.

142
00:11:13,146 --> 00:11:20,268
And since eight tracks peaked before tape formulations got very good and noise reduction technologies like Dolby B took hold,

143
00:11:20,268 --> 00:11:23,474
they tend to have more tape noise than you'd want.

144
00:11:23,474 --> 00:11:27,648
Not exactly high fidelity, but far from terrible.

145
00:11:27,648 --> 00:11:32,399
Still, by the late 1970s, 
the format was starting to fall out of fashion.

146
00:11:32,399 --> 00:11:38,001
For one, the cartridges were quite 
chonky and took up a good deal of space.

147
00:11:38,001 --> 00:11:42,557
The compact cassette was quite a lot smaller and thinner.

148
00:11:42,557 --> 00:11:47,546
And here's a fun twist: 
this is actually an older format than the 8-track.

149
00:11:47,546 --> 00:11:49,505
This came out in 1963

150
00:11:49,505 --> 00:11:52,066
and this came out in 1964.

151
00:11:52,066 --> 00:11:55,245
You might think it odd that the 8-track even happened then,

152
00:11:55,245 --> 00:12:02,765
but the compact cassette's very slow 1 and 7/8 inches per
second tape speed initially gave it quite poor fidelity

153
00:12:02,765 --> 00:12:05,333
which made it awful for music.

154
00:12:05,333 --> 00:12:10,475
At first, this was mainly sold as a format for dictation 
machines and similar applications.

155
00:12:10,475 --> 00:12:16,417
But before long, with the benefit of innovations in tape 
formulations and improved recording and playback heads,

156
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cassettes could sound just as good as an 8-track

157
00:12:19,614 --> 00:12:24,170
and indeed much better once features like 
Dolby noise reduction became standard.

158
00:12:24,170 --> 00:12:27,858
And all without any of the 8-track's weirdness.

159
00:12:27,858 --> 00:12:35,793
But there were plenty of people out there who had, 
say, a car with a perfectly good 8-track player in there.

160
00:12:35,793 --> 00:12:43,868
As new music releases on 8-tracks started to dwindle, those folks would be left behind unless they upgraded their radios.

161
00:12:43,868 --> 00:12:51,185
That was annoying, especially since the radio part still worked fine for traffic reports and Casey Kasem's Top 40.

162
00:12:51,185 --> 00:12:58,328
Rudolf Van Kreuningen simply would not stand for 
this reality and so he designed this thing.

163
00:12:58,328 --> 00:13:02,735
Now, I will note that this is not the first product which worked like this.

164
00:13:02,735 --> 00:13:09,430
Tom T. Tsuji patented a similar device in 1969, 
and there were several designs over the years.

165
00:13:09,430 --> 00:13:12,741
However, this one features plenty of refinements

166
00:13:12,741 --> 00:13:18,971
and its clever arrangement of parts makes it much less bulky than those other designs.

167
00:13:18,971 --> 00:13:21,566
Here's what's so clever about these things:

168
00:13:21,566 --> 00:13:25,456
Since 8-track players all have that spinning capstan,

169
00:13:25,456 --> 00:13:30,140
if you can transfer that rotational movement 
into a drivetrain of some kind,

170
00:13:30,140 --> 00:13:36,039
you could use the motor of an 8-track player 
to actually drive a cassette transport.

171
00:13:36,039 --> 00:13:38,452
And that's exactly what this does.

172
00:13:38,452 --> 00:13:44,553
What was a pinch roller in an actual 8-track 
became a drive wheel in this adapter.

173
00:13:44,553 --> 00:13:47,775
And with the help of some belts 
and simple mechanical linkages,

174
00:13:47,775 --> 00:13:53,646
it can use the motor inside an 
8-track player to run a simple cassette player.

175
00:13:53,646 --> 00:13:59,737
As luck would have it, the compact cassette and 
the 8-track cartridge have nearly identical widths.

176
00:13:59,737 --> 00:14:07,665
And with the cassette slotted in like this, the adapter is just a tiny bit longer than a standard 8-track cartridge.

177
00:14:07,665 --> 00:14:15,336
When this control lever is slid over to the play position, 
this idler wheel is jammed against the drive wheel.

178
00:14:15,336 --> 00:14:19,897
A flat belt made of some kind of 
cloth or paper to give it a grippy texture

179
00:14:19,897 --> 00:14:24,970
transfers that movement over to the 
pinch roller of the cassette transport.

180
00:14:24,970 --> 00:14:28,481
That is a little strange.

181
00:14:28,481 --> 00:14:34,239
Ideally, it should be driving the capstan 
and the pinch roller should simply spin freely.

182
00:14:34,239 --> 00:14:37,129
This design is exactly backwards,

183
00:14:37,200 --> 00:14:42,960
probably because it wouldn't be possible to 
spin the capstan fast enough if directly driven,  

184
00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:47,840
but the capstan does at least have a substantial 
flywheel to dampen vibrations and speed,  

185
00:14:47,840 --> 00:14:50,175
so it works well enough.

186
00:14:50,175 --> 00:14:52,540
At least... when these were new.

187
00:14:52,540 --> 00:14:55,373
This one's playing pretty warbly these days,

188
00:14:55,373 --> 00:15:00,997
though it's clear it got lots of use 
based on the wear shown on the pinch roller and heads.

189
00:15:00,997 --> 00:15:03,777
Now, I was a little worried this would be the case.

190
00:15:03,777 --> 00:15:09,972
The original one I had had the same weird belt in it, 
and before long, it tore itself to shreds.

191
00:15:09,972 --> 00:15:14,638
I could never get it to work properly again, 
which is why I got rid of it.

192
00:15:14,638 --> 00:15:19,735
But through the magic of buying two of them, 
I was prepared for this eventuality.

193
00:15:19,735 --> 00:15:21,833
And this one's new in box!

194
00:15:21,833 --> 00:15:24,814
Look, it's perfect for use in home 8-track players,

195
00:15:24,814 --> 00:15:26,394
car 8-track players,

196
00:15:26,394 --> 00:15:28,405
and patent pending!

197
00:15:28,405 --> 00:15:33,627
This one is a later revision 
and production was moved from Japan to Korea.

198
00:15:33,627 --> 00:15:39,533
When I tried it out, it played fine for approximately two seconds and then started slowing down.

199
00:15:39,533 --> 00:15:41,681
And then came to a stop.

200
00:15:41,681 --> 00:15:45,020
[sigh]
Guess I gotta crack this one open, too, then.

201
00:15:45,020 --> 00:15:47,731
And inside here, I found a surprise.

202
00:15:47,731 --> 00:15:53,265
This revision uses a standard 
rubber belt rather than... whatever that is.

203
00:15:53,265 --> 00:15:59,797
The original belt had simply stretched 
just a little too much over the last 40 years or so and gave up.

204
00:15:59,797 --> 00:16:05,643
But after a quick run through my 
bag o' belts, I found one that mostly works.

205
00:16:05,643 --> 00:16:08,758
It's not right, but it'll do well enough for this video.

206
00:16:08,758 --> 00:16:12,095
And after buttoning it back together, I gave it a test run.

207
00:16:12,095 --> 00:16:15,758
Great news, this one isn't warbly at all!

208
00:16:15,758 --> 00:16:18,509
Some less great news,

209
00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:23,845
it's running a little too slow and it's really 
not able to keep a steady speed.

210
00:16:23,845 --> 00:16:43,440
I can't quite figure out why as everything in here seems to 
spin freely, but well, let's give it a listen.

211
00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:51,064
[various music samples, with surprisingly good quality!]

212
00:16:55,190 --> 00:16:59,288
[doin' some testing here]

213
00:17:06,874 --> 00:17:15,117
[a slow, poppy/jazzy theme reveals how the speed isn't quite steady, especially in the horns]

214
00:17:29,600 --> 00:17:36,758
[8-bit/electronic music again belies how the speed is drifting, but it sounds decent otherwise]

215
00:17:38,758 --> 00:17:45,801
[ooh it's particularly bad here]

216
00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:52,023
Aside from its issues with speed, 
I find it remarkable how well this works.

217
00:17:52,023 --> 00:17:54,510
It doesn't sound bad at all!

218
00:17:54,510 --> 00:18:01,481
Other than the high noise floor of this particular 8-track player, it sounds just as you would expect a cassette to.

219
00:18:01,481 --> 00:18:04,006
So, there's really nothing to complain about here!

220
00:18:04,006 --> 00:18:06,752
This is a very basic tape transport -

221
00:18:06,752 --> 00:18:11,722
it can only move the tape forward, which was common in some of the cheapest cassette players out there,

222
00:18:11,722 --> 00:18:15,458
but it does at least offer a fast forward option.

223
00:18:15,458 --> 00:18:23,237
Interestingly, the patent suggests a rewind option was in the cards, but that was apparently dropped before production.

224
00:18:23,237 --> 00:18:28,249
You could, of course, 
flip the tape over and select fast forward to rewind,

225
00:18:28,249 --> 00:18:32,481
which is what you'd have to do 
with a cheap car stereo anyway so, honestly,

226
00:18:32,481 --> 00:18:35,236
this is amazing for what it is.

227
00:18:35,236 --> 00:18:37,930
But here's the even amazinger part.

228
00:18:37,930 --> 00:18:44,093
You might have wondered how the heck it's getting the signals from the cassette tape into the 8-track player.

229
00:18:44,093 --> 00:18:46,464
If you've seen those cassette adapters before,

230
00:18:46,464 --> 00:18:52,643
you'll know that you can actually just run a sound signal through a second tape head acting as a transducer

231
00:18:52,643 --> 00:18:58,970
and then shove it into a cassette shell such that it'll point at the playback heads of a cassette player.

232
00:18:58,970 --> 00:19:05,167
The magnetic field produced by the transducer 
in the adapter will be coupled into the playback heads.

233
00:19:05,167 --> 00:19:10,232
That's essentially what's going on here, 
though the transducer is a little different.

234
00:19:10,232 --> 00:19:12,036
You'll see why shortly.

235
00:19:12,036 --> 00:19:13,778
But hold on.

236
00:19:13,778 --> 00:19:19,059
Those cassette adapters rely on 
the amplifier in your CD Walkman or whatever

237
00:19:19,059 --> 00:19:24,399
to produce the power required for coupling the signal 
into the cassette player's heads.

238
00:19:24,399 --> 00:19:30,720
There's no way an actual tape head detecting 
the tiny variations in flux on an actual tape

239
00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:34,340
can produce enough power for that coupling to work.

240
00:19:34,340 --> 00:19:36,166
And indeed,

241
00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:37,593
that wouldn't work.

242
00:19:37,593 --> 00:19:46,709
So, the adapter contains an amplifier which boosts the strength of the signal coming from the play head before sending it to the 
transducer.

243
00:19:46,709 --> 00:19:50,717
While that amplifier could be powered by some sort of battery,

244
00:19:50,717 --> 00:19:55,604
you could instead get a little power 
from the circuit inside the 8-track player

245
00:19:55,604 --> 00:20:00,092
which detects the foil strip to advance it to the next program.

246
00:20:00,092 --> 00:20:03,948
That's why the adapter has these spring-loaded metal fingers.

247
00:20:03,948 --> 00:20:11,381
These will come into contact with the contacts inside the 8-track player and scavenge a tiny bit of current from them

248
00:20:11,381 --> 00:20:14,634
which is delivered to a small amplifier board.

249
00:20:14,634 --> 00:20:18,406
And that meant this thing could work without any batteries.

250
00:20:18,406 --> 00:20:20,600
I love this solution!

251
00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:28,405
Why bother with a battery when every 8-track player out there has a couple of electrical contacts that are always powered?

252
00:20:28,405 --> 00:20:32,151
So long as the amplifier circuit consumes a small enough amount of current

253
00:20:32,151 --> 00:20:38,652
that there's no risk of the step solenoid engaging 
the advance mechanism, you can just use that.

254
00:20:38,652 --> 00:20:42,235
And it's not like this introduced 
any risk to the 8-track mechanism:

255
00:20:42,235 --> 00:20:47,983
If somehow one of these feelers managed to short the contacts together when inserting the adapter,

256
00:20:47,983 --> 00:20:51,399
all that would happen is the advanced solenoid would fire.

257
00:20:51,399 --> 00:20:55,311
I suppose it's possible that if alignment went very wrong,

258
00:20:55,311 --> 00:21:00,540
these could keep those contacts bridged together and thus the solenoid would become locked on.

259
00:21:00,540 --> 00:21:05,448
But the way that these pivot away 
from each other makes that seem really unlikely.

260
00:21:05,448 --> 00:21:09,715
Now, something that I was hoping 
the patent would answer, but sadly it didn't,

261
00:21:09,715 --> 00:21:14,338
was the range of voltages 
this thing's amplifier board can work with.

262
00:21:14,338 --> 00:21:21,269
I can't imagine every 8-track player design out there used the same voltage for the step solenoid circuit.

263
00:21:21,269 --> 00:21:26,687
For one thing, those in cars are definitely going to 
have a DC voltage placed across them,

264
00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:32,880
but those in the home, as far as I know, might 
have an AC voltage across those contacts.  

265
00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:39,280
As it turns out, this one does put DC voltage 
across those contacts, 14 volts to be precise,  

266
00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:42,738
but I can't imagine that was certain to be the case.

267
00:21:42,738 --> 00:21:45,723
The amplifier board does have a few zener diodes on there

268
00:21:45,723 --> 00:21:51,334
which are probably clamping the voltage down for the little amp chip in there in addition to providing rectification.

269
00:21:51,334 --> 00:21:54,346
And with so many capacitors on that board,

270
00:21:54,346 --> 00:21:59,814
I think it's likely some of them are smoothing out an AC input 
to prevent audible buzzing.

271
00:21:59,814 --> 00:22:05,668
So, I suspect this was designed to work 
with pretty much any power supply it found.

272
00:22:05,668 --> 00:22:11,756
And though I only have a sample size of two, so far it's worked in every 8-track player I've tried it with!

273
00:22:11,756 --> 00:22:19,911
Regardless, while there might be some 8-track players out there which won't be able to use this thing, I still love the idea.

274
00:22:19,911 --> 00:22:23,246
It's taking the weird decisions of the 8-track

275
00:22:23,246 --> 00:22:28,864
(placing the pinch roller inside the cartridge 
and using that foil strip to advance the program)

276
00:22:28,864 --> 00:22:31,580
and putting them to an entirely new use.

277
00:22:31,580 --> 00:22:38,333
A use which just so happens to make 
an 8-track player capable of playing an entirely different format!

278
00:22:38,333 --> 00:22:44,592
And in doing so making them useful 
even when 8-track tapes stopped getting made.

279
00:22:44,592 --> 00:22:48,424
Oh, and remember that thing I mentioned about the transducer?

280
00:22:48,424 --> 00:22:53,698
So this is in fact a stereo coupler 
and the cassette player has stereo heads.

281
00:22:53,698 --> 00:22:57,792
So it reproduces stereo sound from a cassette just fine.

282
00:22:57,792 --> 00:23:03,254
But because on an 8-track the two channels 
of a stereo program are interleaved on the tape

283
00:23:03,254 --> 00:23:06,420
and the play head physically moves up and down,

284
00:23:06,420 --> 00:23:12,014
the coupler needs to produce 
a detectable signal over a pretty wide range.

285
00:23:12,014 --> 00:23:18,984
I suppose it didn't strictly need to - they could have simply told users to set the 8-track player to a specific program,

286
00:23:18,984 --> 00:23:23,412
but this adapter works 
pretty well regardless of which one is selected.

287
00:23:23,412 --> 00:23:30,238
Actually, I was surprised to discover 
stereo separation is perfect no matter which program you're on.

288
00:23:30,238 --> 00:23:35,012
I fully expected programs 
one and four to exhibit a little bleed through

289
00:23:35,012 --> 00:23:40,798
since either the left or right channel head is close to the border between the two channels on the transducer.

290
00:23:40,798 --> 00:23:41,912
But nope!

291
00:23:41,912 --> 00:23:47,399
The middle programs do seem to sound a little better, 
but as far as getting good stereo separation

292
00:23:47,399 --> 00:23:50,282
it doesn't seem to matter which one you pick.

293
00:23:50,282 --> 00:23:52,486
Lastly - you know I had to -

294
00:23:52,486 --> 00:23:59,484
I wanted to see what would happen if I put my 
Bluetooth cassette adapter into this 8-track adapter.

295
00:23:59,484 --> 00:24:04,925
I had to fight with it a little bit as this roller thing 
was triggering the adapter's auto stop mechanism,

296
00:24:04,925 --> 00:24:06,656
but once I got it to cooperate...

297
00:24:06,656 --> 00:24:08,822
[music plays] heck yes.

298
00:24:08,822 --> 00:24:11,244
This is a ridiculous signal chain:

299
00:24:11,244 --> 00:24:13,904
Bluetooth audio to a DAC in this thing,

300
00:24:13,904 --> 00:24:16,488
amplified and output to a cassette tape head

301
00:24:16,488 --> 00:24:19,076
and then coupled into a second cassette tape head

302
00:24:19,076 --> 00:24:21,986
after which it is amplified again in the adapter

303
00:24:21,986 --> 00:24:24,658
and sent through the 8-track adapter's transducer

304
00:24:24,658 --> 00:24:30,609
before finally getting into the 8-track player's heads 
where it's amplified again and sent out the line jacks.

305
00:24:30,609 --> 00:24:33,034
But hey, it works!

306
00:24:33,120 --> 00:24:38,400
And if you've got a classic car with an 8-track player 
which you want to keep completely stock,  

307
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:44,737
this is a viable, if quite weird, 
way to give it Bluetooth audio.

308
00:24:44,737 --> 00:24:52,559
I did discover though that for whatever reason, the signal is attenuated quite a lot when the control lever is fully engaged.

309
00:24:52,559 --> 00:24:55,049
This happens with both of these adapters.

310
00:24:55,049 --> 00:25:01,341
I'm not sure if it's an alignment issue or what, 
but between that and the fiddliness of the auto stop,

311
00:25:01,341 --> 00:25:05,794
if I were to actually use this as a convoluted Bluetooth adapter,

312
00:25:05,794 --> 00:25:09,240
I would probably find or make something of just the right size

313
00:25:09,240 --> 00:25:14,073
which could be jammed in there to 
force the lever to stay in the middle position.

314
00:25:14,073 --> 00:25:21,995
And hey, using this cassette adapter it won't matter how warbly the belts in the cassette mechanism of the 8-track adapter are,

315
00:25:21,995 --> 00:25:23,803
so that's a plus.

316
00:25:23,803 --> 00:25:27,001
Heck, the belts could be broken and it would still work.

317
00:25:27,001 --> 00:25:32,375
Though, of course, uh there are more conventional 8-track adapter solutions out there,

318
00:25:32,375 --> 00:25:36,444
and realistically, you should just use one of those.

319
00:25:36,444 --> 00:25:41,700
But man, there's just something 
about this that tickles my brain like nothing else.

320
00:25:41,700 --> 00:25:44,446
It's just so clever!

321
00:25:44,446 --> 00:25:50,075
And even though there's really not much to it, 
it manages to work quite well.

322
00:25:50,075 --> 00:25:53,764
For your sake, I truly wish 
these were working as they were new.

323
00:25:53,764 --> 00:25:56,179
It's a bummer that neither one of these is playing quite right,

324
00:25:56,179 --> 00:26:00,969
but I know they would have back 
in 1982 based on the one I had before.

325
00:26:00,969 --> 00:26:07,538
Oh, and I should note, specifically for cars, 
there were also 8-track adapters with an FM tuner.

326
00:26:07,538 --> 00:26:11,073
Plenty of cars with eight track players only had AM radios,

327
00:26:11,073 --> 00:26:14,816
but with one of those, you could bring your car into the future!

328
00:26:14,816 --> 00:26:17,447
At least... a bit.

329
00:26:18,272 --> 00:26:19,619
Oh, oops. Sorry.

330
00:26:20,825 --> 00:26:23,516
♫ inconsistently smooth jazz ♫

331
00:26:24,800 --> 00:26:27,604
Have no fear because Kraco's got you....

332
00:26:27,604 --> 00:26:28,464
Oh.

333
00:26:29,067 --> 00:26:30,032
farts!

334
00:26:30,032 --> 00:26:33,349
...with the tape riding along its outer circumference.

335
00:26:33,349 --> 00:26:34,866
I keep screwing this line up.

336
00:26:34,866 --> 00:26:38,499
...travels up and over the pinch roller and then across the top of -

337
00:26:39,578 --> 00:26:42,556
Oh, I didn't fact check that.

338
00:26:42,556 --> 00:26:43,766
Hold on.

339
00:26:43,766 --> 00:26:45,656
Yep, that's backwaaards.

340
00:26:45,656 --> 00:26:48,342
What was a pinch roller ind an actual 8-track....

341
00:26:50,278 --> 00:26:52,313
Did I say "ind an?"

342
00:26:52,313 --> 00:26:54,052
We'll restart. That'll fix it.

343
00:26:54,052 --> 00:26:56,681
...and then shove it into a cashette sell.

344
00:26:56,966 --> 00:26:59,223
[dissapointed, but humorously]

345
00:26:59,763 --> 00:27:02,458
Well, sometimes roonerspisms happen.

346
00:27:02,458 --> 00:27:07,579
...and if I put my Bluetooth 
cassette adapter into the 8-track adapter

347
00:27:07,579 --> 00:27:09,232
[plasticky struggling]

348
00:27:09,232 --> 00:27:09,959
it's not workin'

349
00:27:11,229 --> 00:27:16,180
ooh boy the end music is really making a rubber-band-like push and pull with the speed change.

350
00:27:16,180 --> 00:27:21,030
It's interesting how it's way more noticeable in some instruments than others.

351
00:27:21,030 --> 00:27:24,412
I guess you'd call that...

352
00:27:24,412 --> 00:27:27,379
wow factor.