Trying Out Q8 Tapes

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fredblue

Surroundophile Extraordinaire
QQ Supporter
Joined
Mar 30, 2009
Messages
28,743
Location
London, England
Glad to hear your Grundig is working , freddio :D

Also good to hear you glommed onto a better cartridge , shibata . For me I totally ignored my JVC shibata after acquiring the Shure M 24H !! What an IMPROVEMENT !!! And it's not a Shibata !!
Tracked pretty much everthing in CD-4 , no problem. And talk about coming to the game late--issued by Shure in 76 !!-when CD-4 was being dumped !(well by Warner U.S. first and foremost )



Going into Q8 ????? Oh my. You LOVE pain .

Well good luck with that. :rolleyes: :upthumb

thanks FW :)
just trying out the Q8 deck tonight.. so far, so good.. maybe I should pick up the Rick Wakeman Q8s.
 
thanks FW :)
just trying out the Q8 deck tonight.. so far, so good.. maybe I should pick up the Rick Wakeman Q8s.

Adam, which Q8 deck did you purchase? Was it new or used?

And as Fizzywiggs exclaimed: You ARE brave. Good luck with those almost 50 year old cartridges. Keep an ample supply of replacement 'pads' on hand and learn how to replace them. And don't be frustrated [as I WAS with my old Dolby~b 2 channel 8 track deck] when in the middle of a song or 'movement' the cartridge suddenly changes tracks and interrupts the flow.....accompanied by a 'clicking' sound.

Oh, the things we do for our beloved hobby. But I suppose, NO Pain.....NO gain!

Good luck, as always, my 'dedicated' Amigo across the pond! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvPfDC8i5o
 
Adam, which Q8 deck did you purchase? Was it new or used?

And as Fizzywiggs exclaimed: You ARE brave. Good luck with those almost 50 year old cartridges. Keep an ample supply of replacement 'pads' on hand and learn how to replace them. And don't be frustrated [as I WAS with my old Dolby~b 2 channel 8 track deck] when in the middle of a song or 'movement' the cartridge suddenly changes tracks and interrupts the flow.....accompanied by a 'clicking' sound.

Oh, the things we do for our beloved hobby. But I suppose, NO Pain.....NO gain!

Good luck, as always, my 'dedicated' Amigo across the pond! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvPfDC8i5o

hey Ralph, its the ubiquitous (hernia inducing) CR-80-SS.
it just needed a couple of things doing to get it started (mostly from being in transit, 3-pin plug had got smashed in the box, wires internally had shifted about and were brushing against the rubber belt.. plus a couple of the buttons were sticky.. but all easy to remedy, the layout of the deck inside is not dissimilar to my old stereo Akai deck, just dimensionally a "longer" unit.. i'll give it a more thorough clean up in time i just want to get it going with a few cheap tapes at this point). i used to collect 8-tracks when i was a kid so i'm fairly well acquainted with the format.. amazingly the pads on the carts i've picked up so far despite being the originals are useable.. one tape has got tight on the hub and another the sensing foil has gone after a few plays.. but it all sounded pretty good, dare i say it better than i remember my old stereo deck.. and no crosstalk it all must be aligned great already.. and after all this time the last couple of years of matrix shortcomings and CD-4 shit, just experiencing the separation and sensation of surround is just wonderful.. but when i flicked back and forth between the decoded SQ and the Q8 of Babs' Funny Girl it hit me 1.) just how well the SQ had decoded (Omar Sharif loud and clear across the back channels just like the Q8, for example) & 2.) how amazing the SQ LPs sound by comparison. i remember Linda had said here at QQ she preferred SQ as she would rather sacrifice some separation and have better fidelity.. and i feel i'll end up feeling the same as her after this little experiment.. but it will be fun having a fiddle around with the format again after all these years.. i'll try to track down decent condition tapes of some of my favourite Quads from the last couple of years of SQ/QS/CD-4 dabbling while discovering some Q8 exclusive titles along the way. here come da pain..! :D
 
hey Ralph, its the ubiquitous (hernia inducing) CR-80-SS.
it just needed a couple of things doing to get it started (mostly from being in transit, 3-pin plug had got smashed in the box, wires internally had shifted about and were brushing against the rubber belt.. plus a couple of the buttons were sticky.. but all easy to remedy, the layout of the deck inside is not dissimilar to my old stereo Akai deck, just dimensionally a "longer" unit.. i'll give it a more thorough clean up in time i just want to get it going with a few cheap tapes at this point). i used to collect 8-tracks when i was a kid so i'm fairly well acquainted with the format.. amazingly the pads on the carts i've picked up so far despite being the originals are useable.. one tape has got tight on the hub and another the sensing foil has gone after a few plays.. but it all sounded pretty good, dare i say it better than i remember my old stereo deck.. and no crosstalk it all must be aligned great already.. and after all this time the last couple of years of matrix shortcomings and CD-4 shit, just experiencing the separation and sensation of surround is just wonderful.. but when i flicked back and forth between the decoded SQ and the Q8 of Babs' Funny Girl it hit me 1.) just how well the SQ had decoded (Omar Sharif loud and clear across the back channels just like the Q8, for example) & 2.) how amazing the SQ LPs sound by comparison. i remember Linda had said here at QQ she preferred SQ as she would rather sacrifice some separation and have better fidelity.. and i feel i'll end up feeling the same as her after this little experiment.. but it will be fun having a fiddle around with the format again after all these years.. i'll try to track down decent condition tapes of some of my favourite Quads from the last couple of years of SQ/QS/CD-4 dabbling while discovering some Q8 exclusive titles along the way. here come da pain..! :D

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...ack-What-is-it&p=338714&viewfull=1#post338714
 
thanks FW :)
just trying out the Q8 deck tonight.. so far, so good.. maybe I should pick up the Rick Wakeman Q8s.

Well if I had your investiture , your investment portfolio , I probably would have skipped the Q8 deck altogether and jumped into Quad Reel to Reel .

Much better sounding and quality tapes . You need two though . One good deck for QR tapes and one retro-fitted with a Q8 player tape head as some on QQ have done.------THE ONLY WAY TO HEAR Q8 EFFECTIVELY !! :mad:@:smokin
 
hey Ralph, its the ubiquitous (hernia inducing) CR-80-SS.
it just needed a couple of things doing to get it started (mostly from being in transit, 3-pin plug had got smashed in the box, wires internally had shifted about and were brushing against the rubber belt.. plus a couple of the buttons were sticky.. but all easy to remedy, the layout of the deck inside is not dissimilar to my old stereo Akai deck, just dimensionally a "longer" unit.. i'll give it a more thorough clean up in time i just want to get it going with a few cheap tapes at this point). i used to collect 8-tracks when i was a kid so i'm fairly well acquainted with the format.. amazingly the pads on the carts i've picked up so far despite being the originals are useable.. one tape has got tight on the hub and another the sensing foil has gone after a few plays.. but it all sounded pretty good, dare i say it better than i remember my old stereo deck.. and no crosstalk it all must be aligned great already.. and after all this time the last couple of years of matrix shortcomings and CD-4 shit, just experiencing the separation and sensation of surround is just wonderful.. but when i flicked back and forth between the decoded SQ and the Q8 of Babs' Funny Girl it hit me 1.) just how well the SQ had decoded (Omar Sharif loud and clear across the back channels just like the Q8, for example) & 2.) how amazing the SQ LPs sound by comparison. i remember Linda had said here at QQ she preferred SQ as she would rather sacrifice some separation and have better fidelity.. and i feel i'll end up feeling the same as her after this little experiment.. but it will be fun having a fiddle around with the format again after all these years.. i'll try to track down decent condition tapes of some of my favourite Quads from the last couple of years of SQ/QS/CD-4 dabbling while discovering some Q8 exclusive titles along the way. here come da pain..! :D
There are hundreds of quad mixes exclusive to the Q8 format. Time to get busy.
 
Well if I had your investiture , your investment portfolio , I probably would have skipped the Q8 deck altogether and jumped into Quad Reel to Reel .

Much better sounding and quality tapes . You need two though . One good deck for QR tapes and one retro-fitted with a Q8 player tape head as some on QQ have done.------THE ONLY WAY TO HEAR Q8 EFFECTIVELY !! :mad:@:smokin

Buying Quad reel to reels today is from what I've seen on eBay extremely expensive. Back in the day they were $15~20 each. I've seen some for $1K and UP....a bit extreme, don't you think?

As far as retrofitting a 4 channel OR deck for Q8 playback.......quite intriguing. Wasn't even aware of that option but it makes perfect sense.

Still, 3 3/4 ips can be quite disconcerting when ALL QR Reels were duplicated at 7 1/2 ips. A lot of reel collectors back in the day [including myself] were mightily chagrined when stereo reels started to be duplicated at the slower speed.

BTW, were ANY Q8 tapes dolby b encoded?
 
Buying Quad reel to reels today is from what I've seen on eBay extremely expensive. Back in the day they were $15~20 each. I've seen some for $1K and UP....a bit extreme, don't you think?

As far as retrofitting a 4 channel OR deck for Q8 playback.......quite intriguing. Wasn't even aware of that option but it makes perfect sense.

Still, 3 3/4 ips can be quite disconcerting when ALL QR Reels were duplicated at 7 1/2 ips. A lot of reel collectors back in the day [including myself] were mightily chagrined when stereo reels started to be duplicated at the slower speed.

BTW, were ANY Q8 tapes dolby b encoded?
Many Columbia Q8 tapes were dolby encoded. Also some of the United Artist Canadian gold carts. I think even one Bachman Turner Overdrive on Mercury.
 
Buying Quad reel to reels today is from what I've seen on eBay extremely expensive. Back in the day they were $15~20 each. I've seen some for $1K and UP....a bit extreme, don't you think?

As far as retrofitting a 4 channel OR deck for Q8 playback.......quite intriguing. Wasn't even aware of that option but it makes perfect sense.

Still, 3 3/4 ips can be quite disconcerting when ALL QR Reels were duplicated at 7 1/2 ips. A lot of reel collectors back in the day [including myself] were mightily chagrined when stereo reels started to be duplicated at the slower speed.

BTW, were ANY Q8 tapes dolby b encoded?

Expensive ? Yes , but were talking Fredio here . One of the few QQ'ers who wants to or has a burnin desire to-- obtain all OLDE QUAD in original playback formats . :yikes. (Owns a Merchant Bank, no doubt.....or the Bank hasn't discovered his tunnel, yet :D )


That 3 3/4 ips is a pain but some (well a couple maybe ) have discovered how to do it, and that's the best way to hear Q8 tape , bugger those carts . Just were not made for such lengths of quad tape-double that of stereo.

and as Phil Skinner states , Columbia had many dolbyized Q8'S , in Canada for sure and I think the same Canadian duplicator dolbyized Q8'S for others , and RCA, UA , ABC ,and maybe some other Canuck types.
(Quad 8, or Q eight members would no more-----as per me... well I sold all mine 15-16 yrs back.)
 
Expensive ? Yes , but were talking Fredio here . One of the few QQ'ers who wants to or has a burnin desire to-- obtain all OLDE QUAD in original playback formats . :yikes. (Owns a Merchant Bank, no doubt.....or the Bank hasn't discovered his tunnel, yet :D )


That 3 3/4 ips is a pain but some (well a couple maybe ) have discovered how to do it, and that's the best way to hear Q8 tape , bugger those carts . Just were not made for such lengths of quad tape-double that of stereo.

and as Phil Skinner states , Columbia had many dolbyized Q8'S , in Canada for sure and I think the same Canadian duplicator dolbyized Q8'S for others , and RCA, UA , ABC ,and maybe some other Canuck types.
(Quad 8, or Q eight members would no more-----as per me... well I sold all mine 15-16 yrs back.)

What Adam REALLY needs is to add an Edison cylinder thingamajig to his retro collection with music cylinders from the fantabulous Florence Forster Jenkins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMu9PKWthLE :banana::banana:
 
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