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

I think people want the format to die because they don’t want to make the effort to get involved with it and they don’t want their ‘audiophile status’ in question because they don’t want to go that extra mile...

and I totally understand those feelings 

I made the commitment to tape after hearing a tape-based setup at AXPONA 2018. That setup was a custom refurbished 15 ips player with a Jeff Rowland amplifier...if I am not mistaken. I had never heard anything as magical and transparent as that. It was breathtaking.

Is my setup that good. Nope! But it’s also probably 1/10 of the cost, more appropriate for my room, but provides 90%-95% of that magic.

7 1/2 and even some 3 3/4 tape can accomplish a sense of cohesion and that oh so special ‘vanishing act’ more readily than other mediums. (And by vanishing act I mean your system disappears and it feels like the air itself is producing music.)

I own three RTR's, two are Teacs, one is the Akai GX-636. I enjoy the process of threading the tape (I worked in computers years ago when tape drives were commonplace), and the sound to me is still preferable in many aspects to some formats (FM for one, sometimes digital, although that medium has cleaned up its act a lot). Maintaining the heads by regularly cleaning them and demagnetizing them goes a long way toward avoiding performance issues. I think it's amazing that machines designed and built 40 years ago or more can still render music that can be enjoyed with a little effort and look very cool while doing it.

I've never owned a reel to reel, my friend has 2 refurbished ones and loves them, and can get them easily repaired...on the other hand, why bother worrying what gear other people like...

No.  

I’ve had no problem getting my RT-701 worked on. Likewise, I score reasonably-priced RTR tape all the time—at estate sales, vinyl record shops, on Craigslist, from hi-fi pals... And I live in the sticks. RTR is so much fun, and no cassette player can touch it soundwise (and I love cassettes!) So that makes you what? Wrong.