Theres no real reason 8-track tapes can't sound decent, At 3.75 inches per second it's about half the speed of a good reel to reel recording but twice as fast as the Compact Cassette, the main limitation was the mediocre nature of 98% of the players, that and the wow & flutter introduced by the crummy cartridges.

If you take the tape out and play it on a reel to reel it sounds quite good.

No 8 track tape is excellent!!!

My WOODSTOCK 69 records were originally recorded on 8 track tape Eric! (Then they were transferred to MASTER RECORDS then millions of copies were made)

Last week I finally saw the 2 cassettes of woodstock 69 (salvation army) but the cassettes WERE COMPROMISED!! (They are SR recordings (Spectral recording (Which to me sound like crap)))