The Muntz Stereo-Pak, commonly known as the 4- track cartridge, is a

magnetic tape sound recording An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present ...

cartridge technology. The Stereo-Pak cartridge was inspired by the

Fidelipac The Fidelipac, commonly known as a "NAB cartridge" or simply "cart", is a magnetic tape sound recording format, used for radio broadcasting for playback of material over the air such as radio commercials, jingles, station identifications, and m ...

2-track monaural (audio & cue tracks, later 3-track for stereo) tape cartridge system invented by

George Eash George H. Eash (May 11, 1911 – July 6, 1980)Cartridge Inventor George Eash De ...

in 1954 and used by radio broadcasters for commercials and jingles in 1959. The Stereo-Pak was adapted from the Fidelipac cartridge design by

Earl "Madman" Muntz Earl William "Madman" Muntz (January 3, 1914 – June 21, 1987) was an American businessman and engineer who sold and promoted cars and consumer electronics in the United States from the 1930s until his death in 1987. He was a pioneer in televi ...

in 1962, in partnership with Eash, as a way to play pre-recorded tapes in cars.Jay Ehler
Earl Muntz Meets George Eash
Billboard vol. 84, No. 47, 18 November 1972, p. 62, 76, 78 The tape is arranged in an infinite loop that traverses a central hub and crosses a tape head, usually under a pressure pad to assure proper tape contact. The tape is pulled by tension, and spooling is aided by a lubricant, usually

graphite Graphite () is a Crystallinity, crystalline allotrope (form) of the element carbon. It consists of many stacked Layered materials, layers of graphene, typically in excess of hundreds of layers. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable ...

History

The endless loop tape cartridge was designed in 1952 by

Bernard Cousino Bernard August Cousino (August 1, 1902 – December 29, 1994) was an American audio technology inventor. He invented an endless loop tape cartridge design in 1952, known as the Audio Vendor, under U.S. Patent 2804401A. The tape is pulled from th ...

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...

. Previously, music in the car had been restricted mostly to radios. Records, due to their methods of operation and size, were not practical for use in a car, although several companies tried to market automobile record players such as the Highway Hi-Fi and the Auto-Com flexidisc. Entrepreneur

of Los Angeles, California, saw a potential in Fidelipac broadcast carts for an automobile music tape system, and in 1962 introduced his "Stereo-Pak 4-Track Stereo Tape Cartridge System" and pre-recorded tapes, initially in California and Florida. He licensed popular music albums from the major record companies and duplicated them on these 4-track cartridges, or CARtridges, as they were first advertised. Music came in four cartridge sizes. * AA (single) size was an inch wide by two inches long and carried the same amount of time per track (6 minutes) as one side of a 45 RPM EP. * A-size, 4 inches wide by 5 inches long, was the most common size. The same size as the vast majority of NAB (Fidelipac) carts, it was able to carry a 3-inch reel. * B-size, six inches wide by 7 inches long, was used infrequently for 2-LP sets and other extended programs. Able to carry a 5-inch reel. * C-size, able to carry a full 1800-foot 7-inch reel of one-mil tape, used infrequently for extremely extended 4-LP sets. Muntz developed and marketed a variety of mobile and stationary players and recorders for his 4-track tapes."Muntz"
"Tape Recorder Directory," ''

HiFi High fidelity (hi-fi or, rarely, HiFi) is the high-quality reproduction of sound. It is popular with audiophiles and home audio enthusiasts. Ideally, high-fidelity equipment has inaudible noise and distortion, and a flat (neutral, uncolored) f ...

'' / ''

Stereo Review ''Sound & Vision'' was an American magazine, purchased by AVTech Media Ltd. (UK) in March 2018, covering home theater, audio, video and multimedia consumer products. Before 2000, it had been published for most of its history as ''Stereo Review' ...

's'' ''Tape Recorder Annual 1968'', page 96, retrieved May 22, 2023. (Details on various Muntz 4-track players and recorders, with photos) The B- and C-size carts would have their stereo sound split to mono and be used for background music systems all the way up to the early 1990s, when digital took over. In the last part of that period, a last-ditch effort to reduce cost came in the form of reducing the tape speed first to 1-7/8 IPS and then to 15/16 IPS, while reducing the cartridge size first back to the standard widely available A-size and then to a hybrid size between the AA (single) size and the A-size. At first, chromium high-bias tape was used to offset the loss of fidelity from the lower speed, and then, when that proved too expensive, cobalt-based tape was substituted. After riding in Muntz's car and listening to his 4-track cartridge system, electronics and aerospace entrepreneur

Bill Lear William Powell Lear (June 26, 1902 – May 14, 1978) was an American inventor and businessman. He is best known for founding Learjet, a manufacturer of business jets. He also invented the battery eliminator for the B battery, and developed th ...

had an employee of Lear Jet Corporation create a modified derivative, resulting in the more convenient and long-playing

8-track cartridge The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic-tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s until the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, ...

system, which quickly supplanted and surpassed the 4-track in the market until being surpassed, itself, by the

cassette tape The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog audio, analog magnetic tape recording format for Sound recording and reproduction, audio recording and playback. Invented by L ...

system.

References

{{Audio format Audiovisual introductions in 1962 Audio storage History of sound recording Tape recording Discontinued media formats American inventions 1962 in music 1962 in technology Products introduced in 1962

History

See also

References