Studer vs Otari

Of course, directly off the head. Why do you need three tape head amps ? Just slightly different sound ? I suspected Ralph does these things, he also uses tape.
But I would start by using internal electronics as well. I took a look at ebay, both Orati and Technics can be had from $1k to $2k, condition not quite known and would certainly vary.
Yeah, blank tapes are probably around $50 a piece. I would not need many at once, and it is less expensive than Maxell Vertex cassettes. Still, a lot. That's why I call it a project, it's not just adding one more source component. In fact I would want to rebuild my entire system, and this would be huge. True, I could take it step by step over years but not too slowly or I'll get irritated.

Other than the MP-3 I guess I just lucked into the other two. A friend of mine bought the DeHavilland and was not happy with it, so I took it off his hands for pretty cheap. The attraction is that it has both IEC and NAB EQ, where the MP-3 has IEC only. I do have some pre-recorded tapes in NAB format so that helps. As for the MR, I work with Roger so for giggles we built one with both RIAA and IEC EQ. We actually presented it here locally at the SFAS meeting a few months back when Michael Fremer was a guest speaker.

I think your thought process here is sound. You do need to rebuild the system to an extent, especially if you are going to take the signal off the tape head. To that end it is why I have two Otari’s, one to record (it can playback through internal output) and one to playback through a tape head amp. As an FYI I bought a several cartons of amount of RMGI tape a while back on eBay.

Which one format sounds better, IEC or NAB, and in what way ? Can Technics play and record both ? I guess, there was a reason why Ralph chose IEC but maybe not only because of sound quality.
I saw a deck somewhere on the internet, I think it was Studer, that had a switch between internal electronics and outboard playback head preamp, so it could be used both ways. I heard that Germans are quite into tape, though there are people everywhere.