8-track & cassette in the same player? - 1976 Soundesign 4645B

A failed truce in the 1970s battle between cassette tapes and 8-track cartridges: a player which can accept both formats in the same slot. Impossible? Not according to Soundesign, which achieved this feat in their 4645B stereo system in 1976. Correction: As several viewers pointed out, the circuitry does switch between different equalizations for 8-track and cassette playback. And the idler wheel and smaller flywheel do change the speed for playing cassettes, but not the direction of rotation; instead, that's accomplished by the 8-track and cassette capstans being on opposite sides of the tape. (Also, upon closer inspection I found a 1980 date code on the speakers.) Time flow: 0:00 The dilemma 1:37 Soundesign's solution 2:31 Overview 4:32 Cassette playback 5:41 Shared components 7:02 8-track mechanism 8:01 Cassette mechanism 8:56 Shiftable drive carriage 10:11 Bottom view 10:54 Direction & speed 12:01 Electronic design 12:42 Why it didn't catch on 13:58 Conclusion #cassette #8track #vintageaudio