HiFi, much like 640k of RAM, was touted as being all you'd ever need. Words like "perfection" were used to describe it. Audiophiles would, as usual, make up nonsense to backup the nonsense.
HiFi isn't necessarily any better or worse than anything else. Like video, audio is complex, and quality is determined along the entire chain of workflow, from recording to storage medium.
(And for the record, the idea that "vinyl is better than CD" is stupid. Different, yes. Better, no. But it has more to do with the workflows on the media, not the physical media itself.)
VHS has torsion issues. Over time, it can change.
(Actually, new-at-the-time cheap media already had issues. So it's not solely a race against time, but a race against quality as well. Low quality stuff would be bad before you even used it!)
But I will add this: If you're using cheap consumer speakers on a computer, or lower-end TV speakers, you won't notice. The speakers are screwing up the audio more than the source is!
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