WHat did Audiophiles hear during Tape deck era?

I had a pioneer system, A-80 amp. EQ, Tape deck with dolby b and c, DBX route selector, 3BX range expander, and DBX noise reduction. Also, a KLH active noise filter unit, that would quiet everything down when the signal was low and it would bypass when the music got cranking. This would pretty much make the tape hiss disappear . I still have the DBX units and KLH in storage..

In the early 70s I had one of everything.  R to R was used for recording new albums as well as long listening sessions so you did not have to get up all the time to change the record or cassette.  I even had a 4 channel R to R, content was hard to find, but I loved the sound.  50 years later +/- I still remember the opening bass line from Whipping Post by he Allman Bro’s. Live at the Fillmore in 4 channel.
I miss those days of sharing music, everyone had a favorite band or artist.  I loved having most of the recordings of many artists back in the day.  We listened to music, TV was an after thought, hardly ever on.

Replies to this query definitely confirm my age.  Naturally the goal of recording anything is to as closely as possible reproduce the original source.  High end cassette recorders my the likes of Nakamichi and Tandberg, when properly calibrated, did an excellent job in playback.  Frequency response and bias settings for the desired tape (Metal or CrO2), when performed by an above average dealer with proper test equipment, yielded outstanding performance. Many users saw the exercise as a way to preserve their record collections and prolong stylus life.      

To the OP’s question...I was not an “audiophile” as a teenager in the 70’s but became a big cassette fan that continues to this day.  Almost all recording at that point was vinyl that was played on a Pioneer Supertuner in my car or on my home system.  I didn’t have enough money to buy all vinyl in high school or college but benefited from taping LPs of my friends.  Today I own a Nak CR7-A and a Nak BX-300, both beautifully rebuilt by Willy Hermann.  Tapes recorded literally 40+ years ago and certainly the ones recorded in the late ‘80s thru today on metal tapes sound fabulous.  Not quite as good as vinyl but awfully darn good.  Case in point...I recently recorded 40+ of the Blue Note Jazz reissues (many at 45 RPM) that sound great on metal tapes that were new 30+ years ago.  No way I would invest the $ to buy all the vinyl but still enjoy via recording my friend’s collection.  With 1000+ cassettes and 3000+ LPs, I am very content.  

Head alignment was also critical which is why the "auto reverse" feature was often avoided by many.  Nakamichi introduced an auto reverse machine that thay called a "uni-directional auto reverse".  The playback head was fixed but the machine actually pulled the tape out of the deck, flipped it, and reinserted the tape.  The top of the line Dragon deck from Nakamichi electronically aligned the heads.  It was always important in top performers to have the record and playback heads independent.  The listener could then, with the push of a button, compare the tape recording to the original input signal.