Re: [tlug] [C&C] AAC is lossy, FLAC is lossless

["Lyle H Saxon" <llletters@example.com>]

On 7/25/07, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen@example.com> wrote:
> burlingk@example.com writes:
>
>  > They were designed to withstand wear better also.
>
> Could be,

No, I don't think so!  For 8-tracks you had (gasp!) eight (count
'em!), eight tracks going across the tape (four channels x2 for
stereo) and the continuous loop worked by pulling the tape off the
center of the spool and rewinding it on the outside.  This design led
to stretching of the tape if it was played a lot.  Cassettes are
narrower than 8-track tapes, but they only have four tracks (one
channel in each direction x2 for stereo).  There were good and back
cassette players and good and bad cassette tapes!  But at least it's a
straightforward design of pulling the tape off of one spool and
winding it onto another.  With quality tape a good player, they would
last a long time.  I had some tapes that I used extensively and rarely
had the kind of problems I did with 8-track.  But quality tapes were
the key.  The bloody recording companies used the very worst
(cheapest, most short-term profits) kind of tape for the overpriced
prerecorded abominations they sold.  I had trouble with those!

> ..... but I lost an awful lot of 8-tracks that were eaten by the
> player.  You could get a cassette player to do that by pulling out a
> loop of tape before putting it in the player, but 8-tracks did it for
> free.  You could also rewind a cassette by hand if there was a loop
> hanging out, but IIRC that was untrue for 8-tracks---you had to hope
> the player would DTRT.

Ha-ha!  Spoken by one who lived with those suckers in real time!  Me
too, although mostly in friends' cars.

Lyle