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Hey, I just pulled one of those Ford units out of a 1978 Lincoln Versailles (otherwise very trashed) Its seems like a very solid unit and should still play. I'll post a couple of pics of that and my old Sony quadradial car deck that i've had since i bought new in 74 or 75. or and my Pioneer garage mancave deck.
 
Sony Q deck1.jpgFord Q deck2.jpgFord Q deck1.jpgHere are the decks I mentioned.
 
great decks everyone 66grandeguy, what does the sony demo tape sound like? does it have a cool intro?., I have the same 8 track and the box as well (the tape is broken however and im not willing to risk opening it...splice is broken I suspect)

66grandeguy off topic- are you restoring a Versailles? are the wheels 14 inch?.....the "forged aluminum rims" are big with the mark v and town car crowds, the Versailles were always loaded and usually have those rims

colin
 
Howdy, actually we are parting out the Versailles although there wasn't really much left when we got it and even less now. It may be a 79 I'm not sure. I"ll take a look and see what wheels are left on it.

As for the Sony Demo tape, there is no instruction type intro just 3 instrumental selections on one track and two longer ones in the other. Very clean sound and very quaddy (in the sense that you can really hear the room) The only one that has vocals is the song You Don't have to Say You Love Me and they are in Japanese.

ken
 
"I think Cadillac had Q8 players in the late 1970s."

no they didnt, even on the TOTL 1974-76 talisman models (you think they would have added one considering the price tag of those vehicles)...sorry going off topic, I have some sort of weird fascination with the massive luxury cars of the 1970s

66Grandeguy- if the car has those wheels they should be worth the effort and storage, i.e you should make a profit

roll royce had a factory quad deck here is a new paper article about it from 1972
http://books.google.ca/books?id=gQkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA49&dq=rolls+royce+8+track&hl=en&ei=cVTbTMq2B5TknQfktMkW&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=rolls%20royce%208%20track&f=false

and here are some pics of a factory rolls Royce quad deck

aa_25.jpg


B7v4wEWkKGrHqQOKkIEzJYk9nuBM1G6Mdbw_3.jpg


B7o4SBwmkKGrHqMOKpEyjC058cBM0W7LIc_12.jpg
 
Those are really just Pioneer QP-424's. Believe it or not, HOLDEN in Australia offered the same deck in their Monaro's I believe it was. Dammit, I'm going to find time tonight to take pics of all my Q8 decks.
 
Ok, Here goes!

My Pioneers, the QP-444 and QP-424:
Pioneer444-424.jpg


Panasonic CQ-999:
PanasonicCQ-999.jpg


Motorola Quadraline Eight:
MotorolaQuadraline.jpg


The unusual Mecca Model 907:
Mecca907.jpg


An early Ford factory "Quadrasonic":
FordShaftStyle.jpg


Craig 3133 FM/Quad floor-mount:
CraigFloorMount.jpg


Craig 3140 Slide Mount:
Craig3140.jpg


Audiovox QD-500:
AudiovoxQD-500.jpg


Audiovox 77-QDXH GM-style clone:
Audiovox77-QDXH.jpg


and the Pioneer monster home unit (with Akai Q8):
100_0971.jpg


:yikes
 
wow....your stuff is amazing....we need people like you to keep documentations of your collection, without your pics I wouldn't have known all this stuff existed

so many questions for you, I will try keep them short

for the Craig 3133 what does the mono button do?- is it for AM radio?
what does the matrix button do? I thought all 8 tracks are discrete 4 channel recordings, even if dubbed from an SQ/QS record?

(love the Mecca Model- the quad symbol they use looks like a skull and crossbones)

what is unit underneath the sh-3433 and what does it do?

what is the little square unit in the middle of everything?

what reciever are you using?

what are the 2 equalizer units called? I didnt know you get something like that

what is the second 8 track player for?

thanks again for the awesome pics, do you have a pic of everything lit up at night?
 
so many questions for you, I will try keep them short

for the Craig 3133 what does the mono button do?- is it for AM radio?

-It's a switch for the FM radio. No AM on this one. It's basically an MPX switch that will allow stereo or mono FM reception.

what does the matrix button do? I thought all 8 tracks are discrete 4 channel recordings, even if dubbed from an SQ/QS record?

- It's for stereo 8-tracks. It's a pseudo-Quad circuit that when pushed, folds the stereo signal going to the rear in an out-of-phase mono. All you really get from the rears then is vocals, and a lot of echo. It sounds really cool on vocal heavy songs.

(love the Mecca Model- the quad symbol they use looks like a skull and crossbones)

what is unit underneath the sh-3433 and what does it do?

- Akai Dolby unit for the 8-track player

what is the little square unit in the middle of everything?

- Technics SH-400 CD-4 Demodulator

what reciever are you using?

- Pioneer QX-9900

what are the 2 equalizer units called? I didnt know you get something like that

- Pioneer SG-9500's

what is the second 8 track player for?

- Stereo 8-tracks
 
Hey q-eight. I noticed that the Dolby switches are in the on position on your AN 300 unit. Do you use them regularly. Some people do not like to use them but I use it all the time on my q 8's and reels. I would like to know what your experiences are when using Dolby NR.
Phil Spinner
 
re: Panasonic CQ-999

PanasonicCQ-999.jpg


That's the one I had. Once I sold the car and pulled it out, I set it up on the bench with a 12vdc power supply. Worked for a lot of years. Can't remember what I did with it.

Thanks for that!
 
Did anybody have the Panasonic quad 8 that was convertable from living room unit to car bracket?

EDIT: My Lear Jet Q8 deck is visible in my blog photos. (F+R heasdphone jacks on the side)
 
Philip: The Dolby unit gets used on occasion. I really bought it only because I've got a number of Columbia Q8's that are Dolby encoded and I wanted to see if it made any difference and I can report that yes, on some tapes it makes a BIG difference in the amount of tape hiss while not eating away too harshly at the high-end audio spectrum. Other times I use it to just try and dull the effects of a poorly reproduced RCA cartridge. I've noticed they are some of the worst for tape hiss - worse than GRT Corp. tapes in some instances. Then again, this could be directly related to the amount of mileage on the tape.

Jon: I had actually earmarked the 999 to be installed in my blue 6-cylinder AMC Hornet hatchback, unfortunately while the tape face fits the radio bezel almost too perfectly, the chassis of the player is about a half inch too tall! It's got to squeeze into an area that has a metal bracket above and below the radio opening and there's nothing I can remove to make any room :( I had even customized mine (notice the yellow wire on top of the unit) to include a green LED that illuminates the radio dial. Green also being the light of choice for AMC gauges. It would have matched perfectly!! I still can't understand why Panasonic would choose not to have ANY dial illumination. It struck me as really odd. This player probably retailed for $200+ when new. No dial light? I'd have been pissed!
 
Philip: The Dolby unit gets used on occasion. I really bought it only because I've got a number of Columbia Q8's that are Dolby encoded and I wanted to see if it made any difference and I can report that yes, on some tapes it makes a BIG difference in the amount of tape hiss while not eating away too harshly at the high-end audio spectrum. Other times I use it to just try and dull the effects of a poorly reproduced RCA cartridge. I've noticed they are some of the worst for tape hiss - worse than GRT Corp. tapes in some instances. Then again, this could be directly related to the amount of mileage on the tape.

Jon: I had actually earmarked the 999 to be installed in my blue 6-cylinder AMC Hornet hatchback, unfortunately while the tape face fits the radio bezel almost too perfectly, the chassis of the player is about a half inch too tall! It's got to squeeze into an area that has a metal bracket above and below the radio opening and there's nothing I can remove to make any room :( I had even customized mine (notice the yellow wire on top of the unit) to include a green LED that illuminates the radio dial. Green also being the light of choice for AMC gauges. It would have matched perfectly!! I still can't understand why Panasonic would choose not to have ANY dial illumination. It struck me as really odd. This player probably retailed for $200+ when new. No dial light? I'd have been pissed!

Yes I agree. Not all q 8track tapes are created equal. Some sound great through the AN 300 and others not so much. But I found that all quad reels with Dolby encoding sound better through this unit.
 
yes, i think i decided on the US with the Blue VU Meters and noise reduction. i saw the base 858 and the US with the green VUs. there was also one with the Green VUs Buy It Now for 175 but someone got that one. i almost went for it.


Now i just gotta play the waiting game.
 
I can't believe I got $350.00 us$ for my Technics 858 about a year ago. Then I scored my Akai for $75. I thought something was odd when the auction mentioned "The rubber drive wheel has melted away".

Wait a tick, 8-track players don't have rubber drive wheels! I bid, got it and as I suspected, somebody had at one point in time shoved in a tape that self destructed. Cleaned out a TON of gunk, a lot of old tape, threw on a new belt and it's been golden ever since. Records GREAT too.
 
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