Cassettes still rock!

Agreed that the mass produced run of the mill tapes were elcheapo and could and did have their good and bad efforts.

Later as tapes popularity was waning they released some very good quality stuff, sort of like MoFi for vinyl.
I have a bunch of them and they are outstanding.
HX Pro , XDR and factory CRo2 are good ones to look for.

I have a high end system.  This means that my digital system is constructed along the same quality line as my analog.  It isn't SOTA.  I have heard this system as SOTA  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb_LBRSefvE   I brought two LPs and two CDs to hear on it.  It was a mesmerizing sonic experience of music.  In no way did the CDs sound inferior, compressed or limited compared to the LPs.  I can understand how awful digital sounded for decades with CD players until 2005 when I bought my EAR Acute, now superceded by 100% with my COS Engineering DAC D2.  The LPs I used were Urania - Breaking the Sound Barrier and EMI Bartok Concerto for Orchestra/Kubelik  The CDs I used were Mercury Down To Earth/Lewis and V.S.O.P. in a Jazz Orbit/Holman.  I didn't bring my Yello Touch CD which I love but will next show because it will really indicate what systems are up to the task of playing it well.  

Maybe I'm just a smart and lucky CD collector but probably 50% of my 7,000 CDs sound great.  With LPs, I've gone through multiple pressings of the same title often and would say about 15% of my LPs are great sounding.  What I noticed is that 1970s-1990s rock/modern pop CDs sound in general worse than their LP counterparts. 

Among my 550 pre-recorded cassettes, only a dozen sound great.  That's a bad comparison to CDs.  Many of my 78s sound more dynamic and alive.  I blame compression, inferior tape, hiss and with Dolby B, poor quality highs for the reason my pre-recorded cassettes sound mediocre (and I'm not alone-again, all my audio friends do not play cassettes for sonic reasons).  My 2 track 7.5 ips RRs, now that's where I have consistently great sound.

I feel sorry for those of you who can't enjoy great CD derived music sound.  DACs and players have greatly improved since their inception.  

I  feel sorry for those of you who can't enjoy great CD derived music sound. DACs and players have greatly improved since their inception.  

Hmm.
Maybe I missed something here?

I don’t remember saying I don’t enjoy superb digital replay, just the opposite in fact.

However I also vastly enjoy superb analog replay INCLUDING Cassette replay.
Now yes the numbers for consistency on Cassette are lower than vinyl or cd but that’s just on pre recorded tapes.

Some of my home recorded efforts sound quite a bit better than a fair percent of the pre recorded tapes. And some nearly on par with vinyl.
I don’t think anybody is claiming Cassette is superior media in any way, just that it’s not all bleak as some would have you believe.

But hey everyone has a different perspective and that’s just hunky dory.

Yes, I agree as to making one’s own live recordings on premium quality cassettes can render superb sound.  I recorded probably 300 LPs onto cassettes prior to 1995 and they sound very good, not as good as my RR LP transfers.  But as to nearly all of my 550 per-recorded cassettes-it’s bleak sound on a high end audio system.  I am addressing @geofkaitt.  

Agree about RR--my RR LP transfers are not only still good but far better than any of my recorded cassettes--unfortunately i had more cassettes than RR tapes but the cassettes i recorded that are still acceptable are preferable to me than taking a chance on buying the CD--i initially began to replace all of my destroyed vinyl with CD--this was early-mid-90s and i don't think they had yet made many good quality CDs yet--i stopped buying them when i became discouraged with the sound--so yes, you've been smart/lucky--but once i discovered streaming a couple years ago i can do that first and then play the cassette and see which i like better.  And much of the time the stream is better, esp with MQA--Besides, with Willy Hermann gone my decks will probably crater soon and forever in this dry AZ air...