cassettes CAN sound better than vinyl.

Tape is still the very best medium but it is not any tape in any cassette deck, it is in higher end RTR decks. That said, and I use customized and aligned Nak 682ZX with Maxell Vertex tapes, it can and does sound real good. Biggest disappointment is a 'collapse' of a soundstage compared to the vinyl source. However, in the case of my system at least, tape sounds smoother and 'nicer'.
Soon I am going to try recording off the turntable onto Panasonic pro AG line SVHS video cassette recorder. Theoretically, it should sound better than the Nak or any other cassette deck, should be close to a good RTR. The 7350 Panasonic is coming my way from Quebec. I hope it works.

So, I got the Panasonic AG-7350 SVHS VCR and tried to record. To begin with, I decided to use my Nak 682ZX deck as a source not Nottingham turntable. Maxell Vertex cassette in the Nak and TDK XP Super Pro SVHS tape in the Panasonic. Was listening through Grado RS-1 headphones and the Panasonic's headphone amp which is quite good. The source and the recording sound a little different, I do prefer the way Panasonic sounds compared to Nak overall. There is a little more noise, as expected, but there is a bit more solidity and precision to the sound. Something this pro machine and premium 1/2" tape do very right, in the direction of good RTR deck. By the way, I compared various SVHS tapes. That TDK was the best followed by Quantegy. They were also best mechanically.  Next step will be recording off vinyl.
And it is two hours of uninterrupted music. Not to mention that its video performance is excellent. I have many VHS tapes to play. I like this machine. Needs good service and alignment, I guess, but even as it is, it is quite impressive.