I suspect the frequency response of the cheaper tapes won't be as wide as the better tapes. Finer grain recording material is more expensive than coarse grain and fine grain is what you want for bandwidth.
On the other hand, a coarser grain recording media has greater dynamic range - it trades bandwidth for higher recording levels. But, for cheap tape, they use less recording media to trim costs, so cheap tapes are generally will not be as good.
And, then one still has the tape quality degradation over time problem...
However, given this is the year 2021. Given we have CD's, digital streaming, several hours of WAV files on our phones, etc. does cassette tape really matter anymore?
On the other hand, a coarser grain recording media has greater dynamic range - it trades bandwidth for higher recording levels. But, for cheap tape, they use less recording media to trim costs, so cheap tapes are generally will not be as good.
And, then one still has the tape quality degradation over time problem...
However, given this is the year 2021. Given we have CD's, digital streaming, several hours of WAV files on our phones, etc. does cassette tape really matter anymore?