Importance of warm up. I hope this helps someone

Drublin, Thanks for your comment. After the tube cd player warmed up there was virtually no difference between the CD and tape. I have a very good tape player. Clean and demagnetize after every tape. I use Kimber KCAG cables. Use silver SST contact enhancer. I correct azimuth for each side. After I have manually set rec current and bias per manual, I then make a test recording and then readjust until I am satisfied that there is little or no perceptible difference. When I go to the other side I then test again and make adjustments. I am a nut about AB comparisons. I do that all the time. I do flip fast from source to tape but leave it for 5-10 secs and then flip back fast. There was only one cassette recording I mentioned.above. I did not record a 2nd time. After CD player warmed up I could tell no discernable difference from the month old cassette. Sometimes when I record I do hear a difference. If I cant get it right I'll junk the tape if its an old one. I always warm up tape player several hours before making a recording. The headphone jack on tape player does sound shrill until it has warmed up a while. I dont need an AB comparison for that one. I know the cassette medium has virtually become extinct. I am a dying breed. It is something I like to do.

Shadorne. Thanks for the tech info about speakers. I was using headphones. I too have noticed loudness levels on begining and end of record. I see that on the tape vu meters. I know the importance of vol levels. I will adjust CD output to same loudness of record when doing AB. When I am recording I often find the correct recording level is when you cannot hear a loudness difference between tape and source. Thanks again for response

Very impressive. I retract my skepticism.

I totally understand your continuing pleasure in making tapes. It's like a ritual.
The digital age, for all the boon that it clearly is, seems to have made music
more of a consumable rather than an artistic expression to be considered at a
pace.

Tubes really need to warm up before use. Just ask any guitar player. The effect with solid state gear is much less pronounced (and even debatable), but tubes definitely need to warm up before sounding their best, or even listenable sometimes.

Oh, and most recording studios do NOT still use analog tape. Some big budget stuff will still mix to tape, or track to tape before dumping to digital for overdubs and mixing, but tape is slowly going the way of the dinosaur.