WHat did Audiophiles hear during Tape deck era?

The appeal of cassette decks versus other sources of yesteryear like vinyl and radio was always that they could make decent quality recordings.

I stopped using my cassette deck to record when vhs hifi recorders came out. Much better format! Less tape hiss and better dynamic range and much more durable.

I still have VHS hifi and cassette tapes around and occasionally play ones I want to hear and don’t have otherwise.

I had a lovely Aiwa ad6550 cassette deck for many years. Excellent build quality and feel. Sound quality was very good but not quite to level of the best. I gave it to my future wife when we were dating to use as she had tapes and nothing good to play them on. That Gained me a lot of brownie points with her to this day.

I don’t recall ever coming across a good quality pre-recorded cassette tape but maybe I didn’t try hard enough. The tapes Recorded and played on most good quality cassette decks of the late 70s and 80s and later always sounded much better.

I still have my 90s vintage Yamaha deck connected to my system and use it on occasion. Getting harder to play older tapes without issues though.

And speaking of bleating repeatedly..... Baa!  Baa!  🐑 

I was in Japan in '76 and heard the NAK Dragon "GOLD" edition.
Don't remember the amps or other details except for the JBL 4350 monitors.  Absolutely blew my head apart, never thought a cassette could sound that good. And, yes, the 'tables at the same location, Hiroshima,
blew the cassette away.  Interesting experience, I spent a lot of time there. But, was really never a cassette fan, not even in the car.  Couldn't
hear sheeit over the exhaust in the vette! 427 baby. 

I worked at a Tech Hifi back in what I suppose was part of the "cassette era" (1978-1980).

We sold a lot of cassette decks along with the receivers, amps, tuners and turntables.

Nobody that I recall ever demoed a system using a cassette deck by choice to show off the sound. Cassette decks were demoed only when someone wanted to buy a cassette deck.

I do not recall anyone ever demoing a system with any pre-recorded cassette tape of the time. I don’t recall ever hearing a good one. Plus they were not made well and prone to jam.

We sold lots of good brands, Nakamichi, Tandberg, Akai, TEAC, Pioneer, KEnwood, Aiwa (these were very good and very popular  back then), and others.

Uh, you can’t even buy cassettes from the 70s. They’re all gone Except for a few original Ampex clamshells, etc. which are nothing to write home about SQ wise. The really good well-made cassettes came much later. So please don’t bore us with tales of woe from the 70s. It was when the humble cassette had to compete head to head with the CD in the 80s and 90s that cassettes became reliable and high quality. The Golden Age for cassettes was circa 1986-1994. Much closer to the sound of the master tape than a CD ever thought of being. But I digress.