Return of the Record Collector: The Interesting Find

Ok, I'm back after a frustrating last few weeks. But I have managed to pick up a few more records and even found an interesting piece of audio history. 

I stopped by Goodwill a few weeks back dodging the rain. I found some nicer finds there before, and unlike some other stores they don't have two foot tall stacks on a bottom shelf to sort through. But on this day I found something really interesting.

This is a Juliette multi-function audio system. On the top a three speed record player, and a recordable cassette deck. On the front an 8-track player, and AM/FM stereo with all the extras. 

So I bet your asking, did you buy it? No! The reason being is that Goodwill wanted $125 for this system. For a piece of equipment from I'm guessing the late 70's, from a company I never heard of that is a bit too high. Although they would have found a buyer in me at $40. 

As for the company, Juliette I never heard of them. It occurred to me that it may be an old in-house Montgomery-Ward brand, but as I looked into it that is not the was not the case. 

What I found most interesting about this system is that its an interesting piece of transitional technology. Seeing both 8-track and cassette on the same system is kind of unique, especially considering cassette replaced 8-track as a portable audio media. As you look at this system it seems as if the 8-track and record player are the stars of the show, but it's interesting to think that a system like this would have allowed a user to create mixer tapes or just straight out copies of records and 8-tracks. So that tape player hidden on the record deck would as time went by, become the true star of the show or that is until CDs. 

As you know from my previous posts I do have an interest in old audio technologies, and this system peaked my interest in 8-track. To be honest it was ever so slightly before my time, and I had known it more as the butt of many jokes. I had to wonder though what did 8- track sound like? Luckily my brother in law came to the rescue, with some fairly fond memories of 8-track and of having 8-track and cassette at the same time. From what I understand 8-track audio was was actually superior to cassette, since 8-track was a descendent of 2-track a.k.a. Reel to Reel tape. 2-track was actually considered to have the highest fidelity, and was and in some cases still is, used by the recording industry to make the masters that everything from vinyl to nowadays electronic formats are based on. It was explained to me once how the "tracks" work, I forgot a lot of it but most of what I do remember is very technical and a bit more then I want to add here. 

To say the least I will continue on record shopping for now, and leave 8- track for another time. But I still have to admit this system was an interesting find.