What makes tape sound better than vinyl ?

" cool '" is an understatement - great !

Yes she is, appreciate the sentiments good people, long may she continue to "rock it out". 

The example I was thinking of is the way I put my reel to use; record vinyl to reel for convenience, this is constant with few variables, no matter how good the vinyl rig is, the reel playback will sound better.

I use 2 track recorded at 7 1/2 ips. The vinyl is recorded tape out on pre, to tape in on reel. As I explained, the reason the vinyl sounds better on playback, is because the sound is bigger because of the larger tape heads of a 2 track, not only does that mean more detail, but it also adds depth to the sound stage.

I know that's not the same situation as you might expect from the original statement, but I record my vinyl to reel for convenience, and that's what I get. When you compare different turntable setups to different reels, that's not valid because no constants have been stated.

Recording directly from phono stage to tape is better than using preamp out. Unless, of course, you can't do it because you use onboard phono stage. That's an additional advantage of having separate phono.
I rarely listen to entire album and often have to move the needle, I make compilations on tape, though in my case of a cassette deck turntable sounds better overall. If I had good two track open reel deck I would only touch turntable when recording to tape. Each record would be basically played once - to record. They would remain in top condition for the archive and cartridge would last for at least ten years. Yeah, it's Studer, mono blocks and speakers. Preamp is not needed.

In regards to a cassette deck, what would be your recommendations based on current good used equipment still in circulation?
Might be a fun worthwhile endeavour especially as I still have a huge pile of tapes from when I used to play them in my muscle cars before switching over to Hidden Stereo systems which were then cd/ fm based not cassette/fm based as the old indash spindle fit systems were.
Not sure on budget as have not considered tape in a long while but my guess is that $300 to $350 should get something halfway decent?

Thank you
Kevin