Reel to reel

This whole vinyl thing is a money making industry BS. All the big ticket tables, arms, cartridges, phono stages etc. All we need is good tape decks and good pre-recorded tapes. Even no separate preamp is needed, though external play head preamp could take it even further. Right tape with gentle handling will last for hundreds of plays and for at least 30-40 years. For archive records is a good idea but that's all.

Tbh of late I have never tried to tape any vinyl but I have taped hires streaming.
On 2 cassette decks and one r2r.

In all instances the taped replay of the hires stream sounds more alive,warmer, fuller and just more musical.

Now you can say it is distortion and that’s fine,I really do not know or care.

As to tape hiss, on my older Akai cassette I can hear slight hiss inbetween tracks at elevated levels but even in quiet passages I really cannot say as I hear any.
That is not to say it’s not there of course,just that it is not obtrusive to myself.

But even on my cheapo Sony r2r it is near impossible for me to detect any tape hiss recorded from hires streams onto Ampex tape ( all I have right now).

This has been a wonderful thread to read.  I have always loved R2R's, now I have a better idea as to why.  Thanks to all for both the technical and non-technical opinions and explanations.

Orpheus10, I have purchased a completely refurbed Otari MX5050Bii2 deck to enjoy while I refurbish my Old Faithful but aging Technics RS-1506US.  I would be most grateful if you could pass along your contact info for the good people at Panasonic.

Btw:  The gentlemen I purchased the Otari from is a pro and very approachable.  He does about 2 Otari R2R's a month.  My timing was perfect as he used 3 decks to make one pristine one, swapping parts between the 3 to make a near perfect machine.  I don't why he was so nice to me.  I'd guess it's partly due to the passion he has for refurbishing these machines.     And the asking price wasn't outrageous for such a prime example of this wonderful machine.

If anyone would like his contact info, let me know.  He has an account on the Reverb website.

Enjoy the ride while you can.  :)

Gusser, I don't recall any specific person; just contact them, and someone will lead you to where you want to go.

That Otari is a perfect deck for home use; especially when you have someone close who can work on it and get parts when you need them.

Using the Otari at 15ips, the recordings were as good as vinyl but never better. How can it get better or more info from the source? Every room at an audio show that played R2R always had a Tape Project tape, not a recording from an album. I think I heard a live recording onto R2R with very nice results.
If I wanted to record my vinyl albums today, I would get something like Pure Vinyl and record them to my computer.