>I think I'm in the right vintage for that, but did cassettes ever sound good?

Compared to CDs? Definitely not! Not to mention how many people listened to homemade mixtapes and copies, which made the audio quality even worse.

Did they sound good enough that you could dance, relax, have a good time, be consoled when you were unhappy, or whatever people did with music? Absolutely.

Even when CDs did eventually come out, I far preferred a WalkMan to a Discman. I could put a Walkman in one pocket and a cassette in the other. That wasn't easy with CDs.