I serviced many an 8-track machine in the early 70s working for Motorola. They really weren’t a reliable source in a car although the sound quality was pretty good being 1/4 tape running at 3 ips speed. The capstans were prone to losing their grip and the cartridge would spew out it’s tape. Fixing the tapes also became an art form! Even repaired Elton John’s quadraphonic version as I remember! Then cassette technology moved on and that was the end for 8-track except for studio use. Happy days
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I had an 8-track player in my very first car, an Austin A40. The garage I was working at then, sold them for about £20.00 if I recall, and they even sold the tapes. The great thing about that firm, was that they would just deduct the cost out of my wages each week.
At first I liked it, when I was playing mostly Motown Chartbusters albums, with an equal number of tracks in each quarter, there was no problem. But later, I discovered that on many albums, because the machine had to change over a quarter of the way through an album, quite often it meant breaking off midway through a song, which really bugged me.
When I changed cars, to a mark 2 Cortina, I decided to install a cassette player instead - it cost twice as much to buy though, but with two sides to a cassette, the same as an LP, it satisfied my sensibilities better.
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I do have a pair of Wharefedale E20’s still mounted and not connected to anything, one day…
Talking of Tannoy (and a good Scottish brand) Current sounds are delivered through this speaker set for TV/DVD/CD/Radio/Streaming - they’re pretty good.
Amplification/source comes through a Sony STR-DN1080
BluRay/DVD/CD is provided
All in all a pleasing sound/vision combination.
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Hi Ian! Nice combination there:+1: never owned any of the E series speakers but hankered after a pair of E70’s! You can buy the new drivers for this series of speakers and you do see them now and again fully refurbished. I have a STR-190 Sony amp, all analogue inputs, 100w per channel and it was very inexpensive bought new a year or so ago. Perfect for turntables as it has a pre amp phono stage built in. Great names in the mix there, Tannoy, Wharfedale, Sony etc 
Barrie
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Recently got hold of a nice small (50 records) collection of 78’s from the 1950’s. The Audio-Technica TT, has the capability of playing them but I needed either a specific stylus for the AT-VM95 cartridge supplied with the TT, or a complete headshell/cart/stylus to swap out if playing 78’s. There is a storage hole on the TT plinth for a second complete headshell combo so decided to go that route. This just arrived,
It’s the identical headshell to the one supplied with the TT, only this time in silver, the other is black. Same weight etc. I’m looking at the AT-VM95SP cartridge and 78 stylus to mount to this. In theory, identical weights, overhang etc so a quick swap over of complete headshell mounted cart/stylus shouldn’t affect anything like tone arm balance etc.
Anyway, until I get that, I’ve bought a non branded inexpensive cartridge fitted with a 0.3mil 78rpm stylus to try out the collection. Weights are showing as similar to the Audio-Technica cartridge so will see when it arrives!If the records play fine ( no reason to suggest they won’t that I can see) I’ll order the AT cartridge as a more permanent solution.
Barrie
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Right, I received the Audio-Technica headshell the other day and have been waiting for the budget cartridge to arrive. Well, it did, and I’ve mounted it to the headshell, installing it onto the tone arm. Straight away, the tone arm was massively out of balance, indicating that the new cartridge was a very light one compared to the AT VM95 I have. No biggy though, easy to rebalanced and reset the tracking force
And the original headshell/cartridge stored on the TT.
This is as far as I’ve got
between finishing off decorating, sorting out our new dog etc. On orders, I’ve removed the Wharfedales back upstairs, replacing them with 2 Echo Studios!
I seem to have caught the Alexa bug as I now have these plus 3 Echo dot gen 3’s, literally ‘dotted’ around the house now!
Smart lights in the kitchen and garden are the start of automation for me. Anyways, the Studios (I believe) can connect via Bluetooth to my transmitter from the hifi in the lounge,
However, not done that yet as work (Mrs B) is calling me back into the kitchen for more brilliant white glossing!
I’ve also got some new 10" card sleeves arriving for the 78’s so need to first off, clean the records and put them in new sleeves, before I start playing them.
Have to say, the Echo Studios do sound half decent listening to Spotify which I’ve set as the default music source.
Barrie
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Hi Barrie. Two questions:- 1) You mention a “new dog”, nothing has happened to Barnie has it? 2) The display in that last picture shows “Fidelio”, is that Beethoven?
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Hi Roger! No Barney is fine thank you he now has a partner in crime called Bear! We have ‘rehomed’ Bear from a Cavachon charity. We have had him since Friday last and he is settling in very nicely. Fidelio is the name of the Phillips 4.1 soundbar we have currently connected to the Phillips TV. The pic was one taken when I was experimenting with the Bluetooth transmitter connected to line level out from the Audio-Technica TT, it worked well so hoping I can connect these ECHO on steroids devices! I’ve got them paired as a stereo set up but still learning how they work (in between other jobs!)
Bear on the right of the pic. We have some effort to put in to get him in top form but he is doing very well.
Barrie
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They’re great Barrie! Barnie’s not jealous or sulking then and giving Bear the odd “nip” when you’re not looking.
PS: That’s not Bear’s left ear on the carpet behind Barnie is it? Only joking!
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almost Roger! No its the last bit of Barney’s first soft toy! All that remains! The dogs have had a few 'grumbles’but are getting along quite nicely overall 
Barrie
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Had a few spares minutes this morning so had another look at the Echo Studios and how I could connect with my venerable hifi. So, connected the bluetooth transmitter I have, direct from the Audio Technica TT, works fine but even at maximum volume on the Echo, its not exactly loud? No volume control on the TT obviously. I then connected the transmitter via one of the tape outputs, I thought that going through the amp would allow volume control, alas not as the speaker select switch is switched to OFF so I don’t accidentally have output with nothing connected. Remember me mentioning the Wharfedales had been removed to upstairs. Right, I then realised that when speaker selector switched to off, there is an output via the headphone jack! This is a 6mm jack, I do have various adapters but ended up using the cord from my headphones the cans have two sockets, both 6mm & 3.5mm, the cord is terminated at each end with one of each size so either combination works, from phone to older hifi. Result! So transmitter connected via headphone out jack, working with all the equipment, tapes/phono/tuner/aux Next issue was, only left channel working on the paired Echo’s. Turns out, that’s how it is. Fire stick or Fire cube, allows stereo/home theatre sound but not Bluetooth. Now, the thing is, Spotify direct does give stereo but not via Bluetooth only through Alexa which is fine. TBH, the Studio’s have a five speaker array in each one and are designed to be used individually as a speaker so doesn’t sound half bad So, to conclude, I now have my 40+ year old hifi outputting via Bluetooth tech, to a high tech Alexa hub studio speaker! Vintage meets modern (thats me not the equipment!)
Barrie
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Barrie, that sounds great (pun)!!! I only wish I knew what you’re talking about! 
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TBH Roger, I struggle myself!
It appears that I never have the ‘perfect’ solution, it’s always a compromise. Loving the Echo Studio’s though, they do give a nice sound. When I get round to sorting the 78’s,I think they all play in mono anyway? Perhaps you have more experience here? So the single speaker is fine. It has a downwards firing subwoofer, 3 mid range speakers (left, right and upwards firing) as well as a forward facing tweeter. It’s supposed to reflect sound off walls etc to create a better sound, and so far, I’m happy with it. The Studio calibrates to match its surroundings (allegedly). It certainly makes noises when setting up! I’m sort of familiar with that when I had the Pioneer AV set up. 7.1 speaker set up back then. I used to plug a microphone in and sit with it on my head, I know, sounds daft but it picked up and calibrated from my seating position at approximately ear height. The Echo doesn’t know where I’m sitting so I guess it’s more of an ‘optimised’ set up relating to distances from walls in the room? Who knows?
Barrie
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Hi Barrie. Yes, all the 78’s I’ve ever encountered were mono. One of my amps (Delta 75?) even had a “Mono” button so that any mono signal was played through both speaker channels. You’re obviously having fun experimenting. Keep up the good work! 
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Thanks Roger! I need to get the LEAK DELTA 75 to the repairers but with all the COVID-19 stuff, it’s not yet happened
All my AIWA amplifiers also have the mono - stereo buttons too. When I get the time to inspect, clean and put the 78’s into their new sleeves ( which haven’t yet arrived) I’ll set the amp to mono, this will be perfect for the ECHO Studio on its own.
Barrie
You’ve got some great recordings among those 78’s, if they’re not too badly worn they should sound good, the faster the speed the greater the amount of track for the signal, so in an ideal situation a good clean 78 will have much more “depth” of sound than the same recording on 45 or 33.3 reproductions. Good luck!
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Thanks again Roger, yes, I think I did well with that collection
What I really like about this old stuff is that someone, maybe 60-70 years ago in the case of these records, purchased them, listened to them, handled and catalogued them, possibly shared that listening experience with others and managed to preserve them for future generations! Amazing
Barrie
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We finally got electricity in the late mid '50’s (1957?) and a couple of years later Dad got to buy a s/h Marconi radiogram along with the owner’s record collection of about 95 x 78’s, 12 x 45’s and 6 x 33.3’s. I still have them all as part of my collection now (unfortunately not the radiogram which had a lovely tone to it!). I do have the 78 stylus for my Shure cartridge, in just slides into the same slot as the one for 45/33.33, easy peasy. I must get around to it!!!
PS: Before that we had a large s/h HMV 163 wind-up Gramophone, collector’s item now, if I still had it!!!
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On a tuner/amp the mono/stereo switch will mainly be for use on FM. A weak station will give quite a lot of hiss on stereo. All to do with the way the stereo signal is processed (there is a much longer explanation including terms like subcarrier, L+R and L-R but I’m not going in to that for fear of getting it wrong). Switching to mono will give a much cleaner sound.
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Barrie, I was wrong! Silly me! Yes, of course! The mono button on my Delta 75 Receiver (TUNER/amp) would have been for the FM radio signal, I forgot that. Thanks Paul for reminding me!!!
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