WHat did Audiophiles hear during Tape deck era?

Just to put it in words that hopefully can explain my perspective a little.
I have to ask a couple of questions.
Do you own a top flight cassette deck in full working condition to factory specs?
Do you own a number of Chrome or Metal tapes that have been recorded on said cassette deck?

If you cannot answer yes to both then you just cannot understand or comprehend my viewpoint as you cannot hear what I hear.

And that is not meant as any insult or disrespect to anybody else here but I am not working of a possibly flawed 40 plus year old memory with my cassette tape experiences that I am posting.

I’m posting this strictly for interest. These are the most expensive cassettes sold this past week, the most recently one today. Enjoy 😊

http://www.valueyourmusic.com/most-valuable/cassette/last-week

The mid 80s reissue tapes like Zeppelin, Doors, Stones, Dylan, Beatles are great and they’re just ferrite tape, by then they had figured out the engineering. No tape hiss, amazing Sonics. Pure analog. Tape is a natural medium. It breathes. Check it out!! 🤗

Many of us didn't have audiophile quality. We just enjoyed the music without all the analyzing. Even when it was BTO fading out midsong so it could ker-chunk and fade back up on the in-car 8-track. Good times.

I actually recorded fm stations. I split my cable signal and ran a line into my tuner and got additional state side fm stations. So I would tape Seattle rock and then with my other tape deck I would record the tape I recorded editing out commercials and station announcements or pause tape, record LP song, pause, back to previous recorded tape, hit record. I would make my own various artist tapes to play in my truck, Walkman, and home stereo. A tedious and lengthy process, so was drinking alot of beer on a Saturday.