Favorite obsolete formats.....

In my hi-fi retail days I worked at Pacific Stereo, here in Southern California.  That was from 1976 to 1982.  I sold some L-Cassette decks and also some of those BIC T-1 decks, mentioned above.  Both sounded remarkably good, for the day.  I also watched them disappear from the market, and rather quickly.  

It's rather interesting to see how recorded music has evolved and gone from cylinders and early 78 RPM records, to early R2R, to 4-track and 8-track (nobody mentioned 4-track above), to high quality vinyl, to CD, to DAT, etc., and of course to i-Tunes and the such of compressed MP3 formats.  And now, vinyl still seems to hold the attention of being the best in high end high-fidelity music playback.  Though R2R is still king in the department of analog playback.  And for the present we have added in streaming music.  It can be very good, providing a high quality DAC.

In my world, for the car I presently use CD and SXM.  For the home I am strictly analog, with vinyl.  I do plan on adding a streamer, a quality CD unit and DAC next year.  Though I will likely maintain my analog preference, adding a digital front end to my system is probably a good idea for exploring more music and to enjoy my CD collection in the home.

cd318 got it right.

 "The sound of some of those cassette car units (1980s/1990s) seemed to be a lot better than what I now hear in many car CD players.

That could just be my memory but there's no doubt that there were some very good car units back then."

The Alpine 7347 (circa 1985) skyrocketed the high-end car audio industry with some of the best sounding car audio systems to date. Of course, great amps and speakers played just as important of a role.  Even though the CD player offered a better signal to noise, the analog sound from the cassette was consistently smoother sounding.  DAC was only in its infancy back then so grainy sound was what you got with the CD.  High-end car audio systems today can be really good.  However, the industry has shrunken due to how cars are made with the OEM system being integrated into vehicle functions.  The audio enthusiast, however, will still pursue the products that integrate with the OEM designs and build some very impressive car audio systems.  Listening to a top flight car audio system is really a great experience.