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

Reel To Reel holds no appeal to me.

Would I sit and listen to a system playing RTR?
Definitely!

Am I even remotely tempted to integrate RTR in my set up?No.
People may say the move from the ease of digital to getting in to vinyl is cumbersome - gotta find vinyl, physically handle it, put it on the turntable, get up to change sides etc. But for many like me, that’s actually part of the appeal - not the "work" per se, but I find the physical aesthetics of albums and turntables appealing and I enjoy looking at them and interacting with them.


For me RTR holds no such appeal. I don’t care for how the machines look, they are generally quite large and bulky, and having worked in film "forever" I sure as heck don’t care to go back to the hassle of handling/using magnetic tapes and RTR machines. And the tapes themselves...no aesthetic appeal.

Prof.

While I may agree that the physical beauty of many r2r machines can be lacking and the media is most definitely not sexy.
But there is absolutely something almost hypnotic about watching those reels spin at high speed and seeing one tape spool get smaller while the other grows.

And I do not need any eyes in all honesty, just my ears......

Although you have to admit some of the machines are nearly "steampunk" in appearance!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Indeed uberwaltz.

I've seen a few fancy RTR that look kind of cool.

But the physical aspects of using RTR tape has always been a turn-off for me. 

I have been using reel to reel since this last december and have only managed to destroy one $8 tape (which I cannot find a duplicate of...ugh). But other than that i prefer it to handling vinyl. Everything seems to affect vinyl playback--everything.

To do it right, you have to manage static, dust, rumble, people walking, keep the needle clean, don't bump anything, be careful how you slide the vinyl in and out of its selves, carefully drop the stylus, properly apply the RIAA curve (via one of a million different ways to do a phono preamp), dampen platter resonance, maintain tracking height, tracking weight, tracking angle, anti-skate, choose what type of stylus you want, how do you know if you have damaged your stylus or if it's gotten old, deep clean your vinyl....

Tape has pretty much none of this.   All you've got to do is get it calibrated once a year by a pro (or learn to do it yourself), degauss the metal parts occasionally, clean the tape path with lint free swaps and alcohol, clean the pinch roller with some distilled water every week or so and adjust tape position in or out if you happen upon a warped reel.

Nothing is near invisible with a tape player. Much is near invisible with vinyl. 

Plus vinyl has an additional mastering phase and by the time it gets to your turntable it's already like 3 more generations away from the master tape than commercially released tape is.  

Tape path to your home:
Master tape>dupe master>tape you listen to at home

Vinyl path to your home:
Master tape>RIAA EQ applied and bass phase aligned and summed to center remix for cutting and then cut lacquer>mother>stamper(s)>record you listen to at home