Cassettes still rock!

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...

Why do you say “ with Willy Hermann  gone”??

Did you mean when he goes?

He literally just restored my zx7, like 6 weeks ago and I spoke to him on the phone 4 weeks ago.

?  I guess i believed an earlier poster who said he had retired.  I just fired off an email to him.

I'm sorry to hear you lost your LP collection.  I have 100s of excellent/superb jazz CDs mastered in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s.  About two dozen were done in Japan.  Many are Contemporary/Fantasy label.  Many are VSOP mastered by Bones Howe and the stereo CD versions were pressed on really bad vinyl in the early 60s.  Actually, most VSOPs sound better on CD than on the VSOP LPs, why I don't know.  Even classical 1980s CDs can sound better mastered (or just copied LP mastering) than the remasters in the past 10 years (the RCA opera series mono reissues a few years ago were TERRIBLE with boosted mids, chopped off highs, minimal bass and compressed sound).  This is not generally the case but it was then.  I have found 1980s Decca operas to sound inferior to the LPs.  So, depending on the genre and mastering, CDs can sound really bad or terrific from it's early manufacturing period.  

The Everest/Vanguard Ultra Analog classical issues of the 1994 that were 20 bit masterings sound slightly better than the 2008 24 bit remasterings.  Both are superb and faithful to the original silver/black LPs.