8 tracks are heavily stereotyped, as if they were manufactured by clowns and social rejects so they could have something to listen to that sympathized with their plight. on the contrary, they were invented by highly educated engineers trying to make the cutting edge portable while maintaining high quality. it was record companies and manufacturers who marred this original intent. there's no lack of anecdote about how 8 tracks are garbage...and they're right....relatively. record companies and manufacturers half-assed 8 tracks, so they could bang them out, make their money and move on to the next thing. more could've been put into the research and development of the 8 track. the dead media is doing that now and applying it today. here are some problems that established 8 tracks' reputation -
friction
manufacturers used some form of lubricant on the reel and pinchroller posts that began to evaporate within a couple of years, becoming sticky, while collecting dust, ect. this build-up prevented both the reel of tape and rubber wheel (pinch roller) from moving freely. the result was an increased likelyhood that the tape would jam in the player.
pressure
in the beginning, manufacturers used metal wing-clips with felt tabs glued to them as a means of applying back-pressure to the tape as it moved across the tape-head of an 8 track player. a good system, but perhaps a penny more than they wanted to spend. so manufacturers began using foam pads instead. they weren't concerned that, a few years down the road, the foam would turn into a crumbly, dusty, flattened mess. with the foam collapsed, there was no back-pressure to push the tape against the head. this caused the 8 track to sound muddy, and is partially where the "bad sound quality" stereotype came from.
torque
8 tracks were assembled by high speed machines in the 70s/80s. this caused excess tension to be applied to the reel of tape inside an 8 track. some say that an 8 track had only 20 plays in it before it jammed due to tape tightening. upon seizing, the tape would snap, mangle, flip backward, or freeze while the 8 track player's spinning metal capstan rod wiped the magnetic oxide off the tape. 60s tapes were actually recorded in real-time, and have less tape tension issues.
splice
the 8 track is a continuous loop of tape that reels back onto itself. the splice point is where the two ends join to form the loop. placed there is a half inch piece of foil tape that moves past a sensing device signaling the player to move to the next program track. manufacturers seemed not to consider that if the foil-tape came off, the listener would have either a mess of spaghetti-like tape spilled inside their 8 track player, or have both ends of the tape lost inside the cartridge. either one was useless to the average consumer who had no idea how to fix it. this was a popular problem that could have been solved by simply adding a second piece of reinforcement tape to the back side of the splice point, opposite the foil.
pinch roller
the pinch roller is the rubber or plastic spinning wheel in an 8 track. in conjunction with the capstan motor (motorized, spinning metal rod inside an 8 track player), it drives the tape forward. manufacturers got a batch of bad rubber one year, that wasn't heat tempered. they used it to make rubber belts for 8 track players and pinch rollers for tapes. within a short time it broke down into a tarry mess that not only seemed to ruin the tape, but also the player that the tape was used in...and your clothes if you weren't careful. the company quickly replaced the bad rubber, but some manufacturers decided to go the cheaper route by using a hard plastic wheel instead. this was a mistake. the wheel was slick and hard, which meant that it had no give were it to run into a bump or particle. when it did hit something, it would stop tape movement, spinning freely as it gnawed away....or backed the tape up into the 8 track player casing. think of walking on ice. you can do it, but it has the potential to easily put you on your rear.
inconvenience
8 tracks are viewed as "inconvenient". due to their continuously-looping nature, they can't be rewound. also, there is only one button on most players. it switches between programs, forcing you to listen to several songs before your favorite comes back around. 8 tracks are not the most portable media. due to time constraints, songs were often chopped in half continuing on the next program track. additionally, there is a variably loud mechanical clunk sound heard when the tape-head physically moves down or up to the next program. finally, each 8 track must be fixed for it to play and work properly.
tape
finally, something positive! despite all the small-part blunders, the audio tape inside 8 tracks actually sounds awesome. for the most part, the record companies wanted it to sound that way. think about it, they could cut corners on cheap parts that would break down in the near future, but if it didn't sound at least decent right out of the package, the word would get around and they'd have one less thing to sell. so they used high quality reel-to-reel machines to play the masters while duplicating machines made 8 tracks, and had technicians constantly running tests, keeping things in alignment. the 1/4 inch audio tape inside an 8 track is rugged, standing the test of time. i have 40 year old tapes that look like they've been through the wash, outdoors for a few years, and used as a doorstopper. yet, they sound crystal clear, punchy, and better than their cd/vinyl counterparts. my 10-15 year old cds are either starting to digitally corrupt, though they look to be in mint condition. or, they are scratched to hell because i breathed on them wrong a couple times.
bright side
the bright side is that there are high quality audio recordings contained in these rugged 8 track shells, among the deteriorated small parts. fortunately, these can be fixed. the tension can be reset by hand; the dried up lube can be cleaned off and replaced with a non-deteriorating post-polish keeping the wheel hubs turning freely for a lifetime; the hard, slick plastic wheels can be modified to have traction; the splice point can be replaced and reinforced....but there's nothing you can do about the excellent recording 8 tracks possess, having more depth and presence than cd, sounding punchier than vinyl, and hotter than cassette...except enjoy it!
regarding inconvenience
it can be viewed as virtue. the mechanical clunking noise is kind of funny sounding, so giggle when it kills "the mood". it can also become quite charming, like a freckle; song slashing - songs don't have to be chopped in half. that was done by manufacturers to "keep the music going". a few seconds of silence at the end of a program isn't too painful, and keeps the songs intact; portability - maybe we don't need to fill every sound gap in our daily life with music in our ears. 8 tracks are relatively portable, though. you could get a player installed in your car, or an 8 track boombox. but, like records, they encourage you to miss listening to music so that you go home and enjoy them on your hi-fi stereo system; finally, maybe it makes us better people to have patience when listening to music. we wouldn't go to a concert and expect the musicians to play only the songs we want to hear in the order that we want to hear them, scanning quickly through the parts we don't care for, skipping around and repeating. this kind of makes the 8 track more of a forced concert experience than any other media. perhaps our need for ease, speed, and convenience has bred a worse listener, music, and too many musicians in the world that would be doing something else more useful to the human race, if not for the excessive convenience of modern technology.