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

Can you say (or spell) STELLAVOX?  STUDER?

Better check it out before you declare R2R deceased.

ALSO, SOME older recording studios (Muscle Shoals, for example) still use analog (Scully 1", Ampex, etc).

SO, yes, not many use R2R today, but it has its place and is still used when needed i specific places.

Sorry to bust your digital ballon, but most digital recording is total garbage as anyone who has an ear or is a real musician will tell you.

Cheers,

Richard

mijostyn,

"The only thing worse than being old is being old and alone."

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.  
Given arthritic hands and bad eyes, thank goodness for CDs.
Now, l'm living alone with a wonderful 2 channel HD stereo system.

The Old Fud

When I finish my house move I look forward to setting up my Pioneer SX-1050, Pioneer PL-630 and Teac A-2300S RtR.  Can't wait for the 70s and 80s!  The Teac did not get that much use so I am sure the heads have plenty of life left. Just need to get a reasonably priced cartridge.

ATR Magnetics in York, PA is making tape in most formats- cassette, 7" 1/4" reel to reel, 10.5" in reels or pancakes, and also 1/2" and 1" for those with studio machines. Their tapes are made to match 456 Grand Master so no need with most reel to reel machines to re-calibrate.
https://www.atrtape.com/

Nortronics has long been a supplier of high quality replacement heads for a variety of consumer and studio machines:
http://www.jrfmagnetics.com/
Its easy enough to find new cassette tape heads on ebay. Finding rubber parts is a bit trickier, although Russell Industries has a large selection of belts, tires and idlers that fit a good number of machines:
http://russellind.com/

I have the impression that in fact more and more people are getting interested in tape, both RTR and cassettes. This might be a fashion moment and might be not, too early to tell. As for recording studios, that's how you record if you want quality - you use tape and analog recorder. Double that for acoustic music. Digital is consumer mass market medium, it can be listenable but that's all.  Instead of engaging in a futile task to make digital sound as analog, it would be better to invent better analog medium, better than tape.