Why no interest in reel to reel if you're looking for the ultimate sound?

Recently restored a gorgeous TEAC X-1000R for a friend..... It runs and sounds fantastic of course. He has a big advantage in that the deck belonged to his late father so it also came with probably 100 or so prerecorded/self-recorded tapes. He now uses the deck almost daily. 

open reel is a great sounding format. better than most LPs and better than CD. Unfortunately you cannot get that better sound simply by buying a reel to reel deck from the 70s or early 80s connecting it to your system and pressing play.
doing this with open reel tape and expecting spectacular sound is akin to trading in your out board phono stage and reverting back to the phono preamp stage in  your 1970s Marantz, Pioneer, Yamaha receiver from that era. Just is not going to happen.

First you need to get the deck serviced, and recapped. then you need to start looking for outboard tape head pre-amplifier, either tube or solid state.

and if you really want to go to next step, a set of hgh performance heads from JRF.

once you have done all that, then even the 7 1/2 ips quarter track tapes can sound amazingly good.

 and when you play the 15 ips tapes, they become mind blowing

why would anybody consider tape recording an ultimate sound ? tape noise between recordings irritates a hell out  me... i do understand that in 1970-80s  there was no choice and reel to reel was the thing ... not any more ... now if you enjoy tape hissing and vinyl crackling  good for you...i prefer silence  where   it suppose to be 

Tape is a natural medium. It breathes. Tape has sparkle, air, warmth and musicality, you know, things that are conspicuously absent from tape’s digital brethren. Exceptions some digitally remastered cassettes such as the 1994 Jimmy Page Led Zeppelin remasters, digitally remastered Country Joe and the Fish on Vanguard.

geoffkait,
I agree with you. I read this thread very wistfully, because back in 1975, I bought  Sony TC 558 RTR, and I had a lot of fun making mix tapes with my turntable, and even recording off of the radio. Even at 7.5 ips, it sounded great; but I just think that for the average Joe, those days are over. At that time, it was still only for audio guys, but now it's only for wealthy audio guys.