Cassettes still rock!

I have a high end system.  This means that my digital system is constructed along the same quality line as my analog.  It isn't SOTA.  I have heard this system as SOTA  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb_LBRSefvE   I brought two LPs and two CDs to hear on it.  It was a mesmerizing sonic experience of music.  In no way did the CDs sound inferior, compressed or limited compared to the LPs.  I can understand how awful digital sounded for decades with CD players until 2005 when I bought my EAR Acute, now superceded by 100% with my COS Engineering DAC D2.  The LPs I used were Urania - Breaking the Sound Barrier and EMI Bartok Concerto for Orchestra/Kubelik  The CDs I used were Mercury Down To Earth/Lewis and V.S.O.P. in a Jazz Orbit/Holman.  I didn't bring my Yello Touch CD which I love but will next show because it will really indicate what systems are up to the task of playing it well.  

Maybe I'm just a smart and lucky CD collector but probably 50% of my 7,000 CDs sound great.  With LPs, I've gone through multiple pressings of the same title often and would say about 15% of my LPs are great sounding.  What I noticed is that 1970s-1990s rock/modern pop CDs sound in general worse than their LP counterparts. 

Among my 550 pre-recorded cassettes, only a dozen sound great.  That's a bad comparison to CDs.  Many of my 78s sound more dynamic and alive.  I blame compression, inferior tape, hiss and with Dolby B, poor quality highs for the reason my pre-recorded cassettes sound mediocre (and I'm not alone-again, all my audio friends do not play cassettes for sonic reasons).  My 2 track 7.5 ips RRs, now that's where I have consistently great sound.

I feel sorry for those of you who can't enjoy great CD derived music sound.  DACs and players have greatly improved since their inception.  

Yes, I agree as to making one’s own live recordings on premium quality cassettes can render superb sound.  I recorded probably 300 LPs onto cassettes prior to 1995 and they sound very good, not as good as my RR LP transfers.  But as to nearly all of my 550 per-recorded cassettes-it’s bleak sound on a high end audio system.  I am addressing @geofkaitt.  

The Everest/Vanguard Ultra Analog classical issues of the 1994 that were 20 bit masterings sound slightly better than the 2008 24 bit remasterings.  Both are superb and faithful to the original silver/black LPs.

I'm sorry to hear you lost your LP collection.  I have 100s of excellent/superb jazz CDs mastered in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s.  About two dozen were done in Japan.  Many are Contemporary/Fantasy label.  Many are VSOP mastered by Bones Howe and the stereo CD versions were pressed on really bad vinyl in the early 60s.  Actually, most VSOPs sound better on CD than on the VSOP LPs, why I don't know.  Even classical 1980s CDs can sound better mastered (or just copied LP mastering) than the remasters in the past 10 years (the RCA opera series mono reissues a few years ago were TERRIBLE with boosted mids, chopped off highs, minimal bass and compressed sound).  This is not generally the case but it was then.  I have found 1980s Decca operas to sound inferior to the LPs.  So, depending on the genre and mastering, CDs can sound really bad or terrific from it's early manufacturing period.  

Okay, I currently use a Nakamichi ZX7 for playback only. My 150 classical London, Angel, DGG, Philips cassettes sit in a box along with many soundtracks and pop cassettes. They sound bad, either compressed, hissy, tonally wrong, etc. However, I made superb recordings on my former Tandberg 310 (it died) without dolby and they were quiet recordings. Better yet, I substituted my Tandberg 9000 RR deck and made superior recordings to the cassettes. I have about half a dozen great sounding private cassettes, some of organ music recorded outdoors in San Diego. I transfer cassettes of ethnic music to CDs. My high end system prefers RR, LPs and CDs to pre-recorded cassettes despite some of the latter being okay. I have 78s with really wonderful sound that mimic mastertape in that alive quality with real dynamics.  I had excellent results recording to SuperBeta tape as well.  Now I use a Tascam digital recorder.  Different from my Pioneer 1500 RR but I've made some professional quality recordings of chamber music by prominent musicians on the Tascam.

I would NOT go back to listening to pre-recorded cassettes in my life.  

The Harmon Kardon late cassette decks shared a warm and dynamic sound like Tandberg.  I found the Nakamichi more reliable (serviced twice in 20 years) versus the constant problems with the Tandberg (and RR as well).  I used only top quality Maxell and TDK tapes, at the end metal in ceramic housing.  This is the way I created great sounding cassettes.  As to pre-recorded, I now remember that I have about 400 more pop cassettes in boxes that had either way too much hiss, or with Dolby B, lacking in highs/compressed highs.  Unacceptable. 

As to CDs having a litany of faults by geofkaitt, I don't know what the heck he is hearing except that my mastering engineer friends and audiophile friends (pardoning my analog LP only friends) get magnificent sound out of correctly mastered CDs.  Jazz and classical are particularly well remastered whereas rock has had a worse record.  A 1985 Kyocera 310 or 410 CD player is superior cassette players based on my experience in a high end system.  My 2 track 7.5 ips RR pre-recorded tapes from the 50's slaughter the cassette.  If a jazz or classical music CD fails to breathe/recreate natural ambiance either the mastering, player or both are inadequate.

On my high end system, I get very good sound from my live recordings on a Tandberg 310.  It's the pre-recorded tapes that sound mediocre at best (10 great out of 500).  So, if one desires to use their cassette deck instead of an Alesis Masterlink (CD) or Sugarcube (thumb drive to HD type digital storage) for recording off LPs, fine.  But I will stick to the ease of use and high sound quality of my digital recording devices over cassettes.

Although I have purchased over 50 big multi-box classical CD sets, the individual CD or small sets and most of my Jazz sets have an abundance of recording and historical information concerning the music and artists, more than the typical LP had.  Yes, the print is small but I'm nearsighted and can easily read the fine print.  Some of the rock and pop CDs have difficult color on color print which is difficult to read but usually have less information anyway.  Cassettes, not so much.  They rarely had much information if any accompanying them.  Long live the LP and CD.