What should I be looking for when buying my 1st Reel To Reel ?

Spares availability, ease of maintenance, condition of unit and heads.

These were three things i checked when bought my Revox B77II (second hand).

A good technician is required to align and check the deck (for your preferred tape also) as most likely you will obtain it from the secondhand market.

If you opt for best sound quality 7,5 & 15 ips 2 track but 3,75 & 7,5 4 track is very convenient too.

Good luck.

Nostalgia

That’s all there is. I was primarily tape from 1967 to 1996.

If you can’t set bias to tape without a handhold don’t bother. My last machine has clear instructions and built in some wave generators

you want auto reverse, which means 6 heads,

Playing back pre-recorded tapes, 7" reels, you want a deck with 3-3/4 and 7-1/2 IPS speeds. 15 and 30 are for semi-pro, not pre-recorded, and often decks with 15 ips do not have 3-3/4.

7-1/2 IPS is preferred, sounds better, but sometimes you will still want a tape that you can only find in 3-3/4.

I love my Teacs, x1000r and x200r, their last pro-sumer decks.

Expensive and very time consuming. PARTS at a reasonable price for one.  A lot of the heads interchange. There are a lot of RtR nuts out there. I'm one of sorts. I use a direct head playback unit. It's still a matter of good source material. 

You're almost better off making your own. The biggie is when you finally get to hear a great 15ips recording like Roy Orbison, or Old Blue Eyes and you wonder why they ever stopped producing it. I'm not a huge county western fan but the old "Opry", and the Outlaws had some really great tapes at one time. CCR, Carlos, Steppenwolf and one of my favorites on tape is Momma Cass. 2-600.00 is not uncommon.

Did I mention RtR is time consuming and VERY expensive.

Thanks for the input everyone, good information!

Best

Robert