WHat did Audiophiles hear during Tape deck era?

I was living La Vida Loca in Dade county in the mid 70s- mid 80s; sex, drugs and rock n roll. I woke up from a sex stoned night too many times with expensive needles (Fidelity Research, I think) scratching against the inner grooves. I had little choice but to record on cassette to save my records, cartridges, and styluses

Also, dade county was, and still is, one of the very worst areas for musical radio programming choices

I used vinyl to Tandberg 3041x rtr. They sounded indistinguishable from the source at only 3.75 ips. Compilation tapes were a time consuming affair. Worth it back then, but the challenge of not cutting off a song in the beginning of the track was always a challenge. I then moved on to DAT. Cassettes were only good enough for the car. 

Your responses are true and fun to recall.  Yes, cassettes started just for dictation, then with improvements and Dolby noise reduction, as a reliable replacement for 8-Track in cars, and people could then make their of mix tapes....but everyone had records first, then taped them, sometimes for friends and then the record companies tried to stop it.  Musicians were more likely to buy a reel-to-reel to record their own stuff and once the Teac 3340 simul-synch 4 channel came out to do our own multi-track recording,, even more so.  Younger audiophile folks could really enjoy the video "Tom Dowd and the Language of Music".  He and Les Paul deserve sainthood!

Owned a Revox A77 for awhile, but the cats found it too hypnotic to ignore...the *whirrr* of 10" reels....

Ended my 'serious cassette era' with a nicer Sony....

....then discovered one could use a VCR to make seriously good recordings, near CD quality...

...then CDs'....then 'puters.....

What's next? *G*

...I'd guess direct neural implants, but I think I'll pass on that....

Who knows what happens if you don't pay the monthly on that....