Can we finally put Reel to Reel out of its misery? Put it to rest people.

@elizabeth  caning? Audio kink? 

"Tape is a natural medium. It breathes."

It gets chewed up, too. Natural. Devoured by stronger formats. Feeding chain.

As I stated many moons ago Vinny, I do NOT rpt NOT call myself an " audiophile".
Never have and never will simply because what truly constitutes an " audiophile" is still an area of huge debate.

I enjoy music reproduction and have many forms of media to that end.

Fortunately I do NOT have a working 8 track or any tapes for it.
Or Elcaset or DAT tape or minidisc.

Do have and regularly use;
Vinyl, cassette, R2R, CD, SACD, BluRay, Streaming.

All have their plus and minus aspects.

If you do not care for R2R yourself that is just peachy but you should avoid denigrating those who do.

Not denigrating it but i just feel its a dead end format because the good techs and original critical parts are impossible to find like special heads, motors, mechanisms, high grade audio tape and so on.  True R2R Techs are the hardest to find and when you do they are handcuffed by no available original parts. 

I have to add to this conversation, yes many high line MFG PUT OUT A GREAT CASSETTE PRODUCT, BUT R2R 1/4 and 1/2 inch tape will always reproduce a top quality reproduction that cassette could not