What makes tape sound better than vinyl ?

@inna 

The main problem with ever increasing budget is that pretty soon I will be approaching r2r prices and then its well just a bit more will get an even better model , repeat ad infinitum!
I am in no rush, tapes have sat in boxes for 6 or 7 years now so a while longer will not hurt.
Lets see if I can find any Xmas bargains!

That's actually what I was thinking of suggesting. You just got Nottingham, set it up, see how it sounds. What if you will want to upgrade your phono stage to make it right, or replace the Shelter cartridge it will come with ? I always do one source at a time.
orpheus10, you were helping with cassette decks because Kevin asked for an advice. He also has a lot of recorded tapes to play.
As for open reel decks ebay prices, I would say you need at least $1k to get Otari or better Revox, then you would have to pay a few hundreds or more to have it serviced, plus blank reels and plus good cables, XLR in case of Otari. I will not approach all this until I have at least $2.5k to spend. And Studers are usually around $5k or more, condition unknown.

I find that humble, simple in operation, Sony Walkman cassette players sound very good. I’m using several different models with Grado headphones and also titanium headphones from Radio Shack. I even have the Professional Walkman. There’s something about the elimination of power cords, house AC, AC ground, fuses, big honking capacitors, toxic transformers, speaker cables and interconnects that produces very low distortion and pure, dynamic sound. Cassettes were not (repeat not) the targets of overly aggressive compression. AND there’s no buyer’s remorse. Simplicity rules! 😀 Catch the wave! 🏄‍♂️

Funny that you should ask.  Let me suggest first that In most situations vinyl disks are made from master tapes.  Assuming that entropy works for audio too, information theory tells us that the process of tape to vinyl will cost us information, there will less in the vinyl media than the tape because the Law of Entropy says so.  The traditional solution to this has been direct-to-disk recordings.

Second is that the vinyl reproduction has a high level of 'surface noise' added to the signal, I jokingly call that 'clogging the holes between the notes".  Consider that the silence between notes is important to the illusion of our stereo systems.

Audio Entropy, lot's of if. I have written about this in the audio system at 
http://www.austinaudioworks.com/design-philosphy/audio-entropy

Relax, it is all an illusion anyway.

Actually I just wrote on the subject of audio and entropy in the last five days on one of the threads here. Oh, the Michael Fremer thread. What you’re describing is actually not really entropy. It’s simply losses in transfer from the master tape that depend quite a bit on the skill of the person doing the transfer. Entropy is measure of disorganization. It is a statistical thermodynamics principle. Gee, I must have taken Statistical Thermo in school. 😛

Furthermore, as I pointed out in my recent post on audio & entropy, on the Michael Fremer thread, the main problems - in terms of information retrieval - occur in the playback system and *the room* in which the recording is being played, with the local environment. It’s a long story. A very long story. As I pointed out, “room clutter” in quotes acts to reduce SQ. But not via the usual acoustic type things folks naturally think of. Other Feng Shui principles may or may not apply to audio SQ. Some do, some don’t.