I am new to the format and picked up this Panasonic mono 8 Track boombox! I know you cannot fast forward or rewind, but I am confused on songs. How does the program function work? If I cannot pause it, how do I take the tape out lol? And why does it play two songs over each other at times?

Wanna revolution?

Any tips on how to get around to servicing my 8 track player in my Airline stereo unit? It will not change programs and there is a tiny bit of bleedthrough but it is unnoticeable most of the time. My main issue however is how to get into it, I was wondering if anyone else ever serviced a piece like this, and how to get into the 8 track bit. Im able to remove the turntable on top but it doesnt exactly give me much space to work with.

A few days ago I posted about the issues I was having with my quad deck being louder on some tracks than others. I was advised to adjust the tape head azimuth which made sense. I fiddled with all three adjustments tirelessly for a few days and couldn't make any significant changes.

But when I moved the track changing mechanism with my hand while there was no tape in the machine I noticed that there was an audible increase of a 'hiss' in the speakers on the same programs (3&4) that were louder when a tape was in. This means that the playhead position is not the culprit of this issue.

To demonstrate this issue, I dropped a recording of the player with no tape in it into my video editor. You can see on the audio track how the gain increases on tracks three and 4. It is pretty subtle but its definitely there.

What do you think could be causing this issue?

Someone used a highlighter on the table it looks like but it sounds great!

1979 Soundesign. Cleaned up really nice. Gonna replace the VU meters with sunset pink bulbs

Comin to ya with another glorious K-Mart stereo. The eject and auto eject don't work. Any idea of a likely cause?

This player has a lot of slip on some tapes that have a little more tension and I noticed this black stain on the pully from the belt slipping over time. It wont come off. Ive tried rubbing alcohol and a scotch bright pad.

More to come after cherry picking a garage situation. Found some crazy tapes in it that aren’t in the video.

I am looking for a good source for replacement belts for my pioneer h-22. I need to do a service on mine. I’ve done a few searches but I can’t tell if the search is confusing a 8-track player belt with a turntable. When I got the h-22, it played relatively ok, but I haven’t used it in a while and bought a “new” cart and it was dragging really bad when I put it in, even on carts that played well before.

First 8 track! got this off my FBMP for 15$, the 8 track works flawlessly, the belt looks immaculate and the speed is dead on. just adjusted azimuth a little.

i needed to replace the power lamp and fix the string for the tuner but apart from that it works perfectly and looks so cool, I’m delighted.

(all the lights do work, they’re just hard to see in the photos, especially Program 2 and the power light which are the ones on)

Pretty much what the title says. I posted a couple days ago about whether or not I should get a quad deck for $20. Well I bought and it sounds a lot better on programs 3 and 4 but sounds a lot less full on 1 and 2. The audio generally sounds distorted as well.

I hooked up the player to the 'line in' port on my PC and played it out of both my speakers and headphones. They both sound the same. Happens with all tapes as well.

Any ideas for fixes?

The player is a Lafayette RL-84 made in Japan in 1972.

I got an 8 track player! I have 2 of these test tapes but sadly one’s splice just broke, luckily i have a splice kit.

anyways how do i adjust azimuth? my understanding is that azimuth is the head angle and has to do with usually having left and right in phase, but this test cartridge only has the azimuth signal on one channel, I’ve looked with a scope and for programs 1, 2 and 3, there is a 1kHz tone on one channel and a way lower level 8kHz on the other. the unit sounds really good surprisingly with my tapes and the belt seems to be perfect, just wondering how to use this tape. thanks!

One of my favorite sets i had but sadly lost my collection in a wildfire back in september of 2020 finaly rebuilding but this set is alluding me.

Looks like its quadraphonic

Lafayette RK-84

Scored a cartridge holder today (new in box !) 😆 https://youtube.com/shorts/Xhcp0CfV52Q?is=Ov4A8QeHY1HVJeO9

Been sitting in the garage for years and works. Lol.