if we have, say, 10 levels of vinyl playback goodness, the top 5 or 6 are all capable of doing wonder with great pressings. the media is the thing with vinyl and it clearly rises above the hardware. and as you say there are millions of really good Lps. so if we are into vinyl our odds of getting great sound is high. and these great pressings do have that open, delicate, refined sound.
most of us are capable of learning how to get much of what is in those grooves to our ears.
OTOH tape is mostly with vintage gear of various capabilities and condition. and few are even qualified to properly assess that hardware level of performance. and the media is limited, and many times of dubious provenance. so our tape experiences run the gamut. there are few clear references to check our progress. for myself, i use my vinyl to judge my tape. with my Studers, over time i've seen it go where about 2/3rds of my tapes were better than my vinyl version, to now maybe 1/3rd of my tapes are better than the vinyl version as my vinyl has improved. and as far as the sonic differences between tape and vinyl; my take in my system with my Studers with my solid state King Cello output electronics, is that while i do get greater tonal density and ambient info with tape, it's still quite lively and comparable to the vinyl. with better bass. when i hear some other tape repro electronics, i do hear a bit more of the more density at the expense of top end openness. i think most of these devices are not linear, but can sound very nice. then there are the variables of the tape sources. there is not much consistency.
