Don't forget about quality loss from manufactured cassettes being high speed dubs. There's significant quality loss as you increase the dub speed.
Yeah mass-produced tapes were pretty bad but if you copied an album to cassette using a good tape and decent tape deck they could sound pretty good. Good enough for a Walkman or playing in the car anyway.
Pioneer, metal tape (TDK) and Dolby, man.
Maxell man!!! j/k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk71h2CQ_xM
even the tape hiss in the ad about a cassette tape is golden
One of the all-time great iconic ads. The photo of the guy in the chair was available as a poster and graced many a young man's bedroom or dorm room wall.