I have fond memories of making or receiving mixed tapes. It was very labor intensive to produce and imperfect (start of the songs often cut off, no smooth transition between songs, last song might also be cut off on the end) but that was part of the charm.

I recently started collecting cassettes since a number of metal bands release on the format. Everyone always has an odd reaction when I start talking about why I think they're cool.

I also love both for their unique sounds, but i attribute that to having grown up with cassettes.

I collect both. I still have an old early-90s Sony system that I plunked a modern record player on top of and use almost every day. I also have a (factory) tape player in my old project car and will record CDs to a tape with the same system. Listening to modern music on tapes in an old car is just fun.

Cassettes also remember where you stopped listening so it's trivial to continue later from the exact spot.

I hate that I got rid of my tapes from the 80s.