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This extremely rare Toa MD-8 was produced in 1981 by TOA Corporation, a Japanese electronics company specialising in public address systems, intercom systems, microphones, loudspeakers and megaphones.
This device allows for the sequential playback of two cassette tapes and two Stereo 8s, a format unknown to most but which was all the rage in our car radios in the 1970s.
The history of the Stereo 8 began in the 1960s, when there was a growing need to create a practical, space-saving system that would allow people to take high-fidelity music with them wherever they went. The audio formats already on the market were reel-to-reel tapes and vinyl records.
From the mid-1950s, magnetic tape began to spread widely; the famous reel-to-reel recorders were all the rage, used to record speech and music onto tape. In Italy, one of the leading companies was Geloso, which had affordable devices of various sizes in its catalogue. These tape recorders, however, did not have the hi-fi quality of other brands on the market. At the same time, many foreign companies, such as Grundig, Philips and Sony, were already implementing stereo and 4-track mono recording. These devices offered hi-fi quality whilst remaining affordable.
As part of this technological research, the American inventor Bill Lear released his first prototypes of the 8-track cartridge – its original name – in the late 1960s. This magnetic tape cassette was convenient to carry in the car because, once inserted into the player, the programmes and tracks played automatically and on a loop. Its compact size made it perfect for taking anywhere. Stereo 8 players and recorders guaranteed excellent sound quality. Precisely because of this versatility, it quickly became popular and was used by record labels as a medium for distributing music.
Original 100 V model (required an external transformer for European mains connection).
