I don't miss 'em.
Philips developed the Compact Cassette in the early 1960s primarily for recording speech (dictation, "talking letters" and whatnot) -- the format was gradually stetched (and, it could be argued, violated, in terms of adherence to the standards*) to permit a very small tape running at very low speed to accommodate four tracks of relatively high-fidelity (in the sense of broadband) audio. It was a kludge, and
deserves to die.
Nakamichi, Tandberg (and a few others) notwithstanding.
Like building turbocharged racing Ladas. (and I am sure some folks did so
)
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* Heck, there were even double-speed (3-3/4 ips) and
half speed (15/16 ips)-compatible decks -- they would sound kind of funny played at the standard's 1-7/8 ips.