WHat did Audiophiles hear during Tape deck era?

Cassettes were always for the car.  Or for when I didn't like an LP enough to buy it but somebody I knew had a copy that I could duplicate.  It didn't hurt that that a couple of buddies were in the record business during the heyday of the cassette, making it easy for me to borrow many hot new releases.  If I truly loved the music I'd buy the vinyl.  If I didn't, well, I would listen to the cassette a couple of times and then record something new over it.  It was truly rare...but it did happen a couple times...that I got a pre-recorded cassette that truly sounded good.

I don't miss cassettes one whit.  Some sounded pretty good but trouble with a capital T.  Unless, of course, you let them bake for six months on the dashboard.

I taped AM stations on my reel-to-reel in the mid 1960's, waiting for that Stones or Beatles or Supremes song to show up on KFWB and KHJ.  I'd always wait for the weekly Top 40 Countdown (or was it Top 30?) and press the pause button whenever there'd be a commercial...which, yes, was more than often.