WHat did Audiophiles hear during Tape deck era?

The Denon tape in a 3 head Denon deck was really good :-)

Uberwaltz, I was just responding to the OP. I was not knocking anyone’s choice of playback hardware. I don’t use vinyl anymore either and was an early adopter of computer audio. I totally respect your choice to access music the way you like, although that’s not my choice for music reproduction. To each their own Brother.

If i hear tape hiss on an older record, I know I'm getting an even better recording without filtering.

Tuberist.
It's all good as I was not knocking your choice and I know you are in the land of digital now and enjoying every minute.
It was more just an observation and likely would have worked as well without your name in headlights.... Lol.
Peace!

But to all those who just bleat repeatedly cassettes are crap.
You need a modern day listening education.
True there were/ are some pretty poor pre recorded tapes and at the age of a lot of them big issues with frozen mechanisms etc.
However there were also a high number of glorious issues on chrome tape etc that with the right electronics could bring immense listening pleasure.
Nuff said, everyone entitled to their own opinion.