WHat did Audiophiles hear during Tape deck era?

Basically it started life as a rival to the dictaphone system that is true.
i remember having this crabby little portable cassette recorder in oh 1974 or so.
I am sure it sounded awful and made terrible tapes but as a new teen just discovering rock music I was in heaven with it.

Yep Uber my first music maker was a Hitachi portable cassette recorder ~ 1972 or so. BEfore that a Panasonic transistor radio.

I graduated to a $200 Sanyo compact system with radio, phono AND cassette a year later. Woohoo I was in heaven. Until I started to visit the "high end" hifi shops in the area a few years later..

Nowadays cassettes have all the air. See the irony? They are also the tone champs. I already mentioned dynamics, they’re the best at that too. What’s left? Not much. Whatever’s left you can have it, though. If you’re happy I’m happy. 😀  And as Bob Dylan sez at the end of all his cassettes, good luck to everyone.

Gk you might be mistaking hiss (noise) for air (which is part of the music).

"Air" refers to most of what you hear in music above ~15-16khz.

But that’s OK. If you are also truly hearing Bob Dylan say that as you repeatedly insist, you may have other much bigger issues to deal with. Good health brother!

Mapman
Thats too funny as I had a similar experience in about 1977 once I had motorized wheels I discovered a hifi  chain called Laskys in the big city of Nottingham.
That place blew my young mind and although I know most of it just low to mid fi Japanese stuff I spent so many hours there.
Eventually saved enough to buy a Trio turntable, Aiwa  Cassette deck, Trio integrated amp And Mission speakers.
For a 17 year old back in those days it was quite a good setup.