What makes tape sound better than vinyl ?

I love tape but i "believe" from a non-technical point of view that due to some smoothing (cut-off) of the high frequencies and excellent midrange and mid-bass response, that the sound is very pleasant and inviting to my ears.  Vinyl noise and some flaws in the original recording can often fall more into the background on tape (at a more typical 7.5ips) so 50-15,000Hz. "ends up" being easier on the ears.
CD's and vinyl have more extension and dynamics but also are more revealing, and can be more distracting/annoying.  I have not as yet heard a FULLY optimized tape front-end though- a second generation copy of a master tape played back on a Studer with specially designed EXTERNAL playback amps, or a UHA tricked-out Tascam Br-20 (unfortunately).  The guys at the audio shows are far luckier than I.  Again though, i was raised on R-t-Reel tape and I still love it for some strange reason. Like getting out microphones and playing guitar with a friend.  Lot's of fun.

french_fries - eggs ackley!! It isn’t really a technical argument in my opinion. If it was a technical argument the CD would always win. That’s what’s so frustrating!! 😛 It’s what you like to listen to. Music soothes the savage breast. By and large CDs are not soothing, they’re irritating. Tape is a natural medium. It breathes. The music is almost always more "beautiful" on tape than CD. CD by comparison, especially untweaked CD, sounds like paper mache, thin, rolled off, airless, thumpy and bland. Let’s compare Heifetz on CD to Heifetz on audio cassette. Same violin concerto. Same recording. What you will find is the CD version sounds super clean but threadbare and lifeless, whereas the humble cassette sounds rich, sweet and full, like Heifetz’ violin really sounds. CD doesn’t do air or sweet very well.

^ Exactly, Geoff ... My very ´eavy.... very ´umble Uriah Heep Island Tapes, UK c cassettes from the Golden Age of Recording Technology til 1972 before Noise Reduction outperform modern 24 bit digital Japanese UH CDs hands down, both in dynamics (natural flow of music) and details (nuances) not to mention musicality. Despite they are mass produced using high speed copying. They sound quite incredible in a car as well, still after 40+ years.
Noise reduction only lessens tape noise (as it was meant to do obviously) but flattens real dynamics. Practically noise reduction on tape is exacly the same thing as backround noise in vinyl play. I never cared either of them, they are just backround noise due to the media in question. The actual signal on tape/record (recorded music) is all I have cared for. I have never used noise reductions whatsoever. That´s other peoples´ fantasy.
Furthermore, I never couldn´t stand digital distortions (whatever they may be) but like analog ones because they sound quite natural (right) to my senses. For me noise reduction is just another form of compression. What a bloody waste of time  :^ )

@raymonda    

You can't share anything of your vast experience with Geoff (or get him to admit he is wrong) even though your experience with compresion and punch is standard audio industry practice. Geoff is as slippery as the snale oil he purveys liberally on this site.

@inna

In order to avoid confusion, why dont you make another thread as this one is stated to be about Cassette tape recordings of Vinyl and how they sound better.