WHat did Audiophiles hear during Tape deck era?

Cassette issues were horrible.

Still recordings on your own were missing something.

i had extremely good results with a Mits  hifi  VCR for recording albums.

Whoa! Opinions are all over the map. 😳

Reel-to-reel tapes really took hold in audiophile-land in the mid-late '50's, when stereo was introduced and it took an R2R recorder to buy and play stereo.  R2R decks stayed in many audiophile decks right up into the mid-to-late '70's, when stereo cassette decks started to become good enough (with new tape formulations and eq's) to be "acceptable" on a high-fi rig.  At all times during these eras there were both "audiophile quality" pre-recorded tapes sold and a lot of convenience copies of discs.
Take it from one who was an audiophile through it all.

harrylavo,

"R2R decks stayed in many audiophile decks right up into the mid-to-late '70's, when stereo cassette decks started to become good enough (with new tape formulations and eq's) to be "acceptable" on a high-fi rig."


Yes, and I can't shake the feeling that with them also went the chance of attaining Master Tape sound quality at home.

https://www.analogplanet.com/content/copies-beatles-master-tapes-played-ces-and-rmaf-2013