Pre-recorded Reel-to Reel tapes

For whatever it’s worth, Amoeba Music stocks every format of tape except open reel. Go figure. 

I have said on other sites, if someone would issue tapes of classic rock or progressive rock albums/artists at say 7.5ips......I think they would sell like hot cakes, either on 7" or 10.5" reels.

Getting a really nice copy of Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, Rush, LZepp, Eagles would be really nice.
I don't have a 15ips deck and even if I did would never pay $450 for those Tape Project issues, mainly because its nothing I listen to and they are all sold out anyhow. If they made tapes more people wanted, they would sell more and be able to buy more tape at a lower price...more demand should lower their cost.

Pink Floyd WYWH/DSOTM on 10.5" @ 7.5ips one album on each side, sell for $200.....People would buy..."build it and they will come".

Buy blank media and record it yourself from Qobuz hires streaming.
That is what I have been doing as $500 plus for an original tape is plain lunacy.

I now have quite a collection of hires 7.5ips recordings that sound spectacular.

To get the very best out of R2R replay, you have to be an*l about set up. I have a reasonable size collection of 15 IPS 2 tr record company distribution masters (eg Beatles - Revolver; Miles - Sketches of Spain; Lou Reed - Transformer etc) and safety copies too (eg Floyd - DSOTM & The Wall; Michael Jackson - Thriller; Bowie - Ziggy Stardust etc).

Almost every tape in my collection contains line up tones at the head, so that I can check the repro head azimuth on my machine against the 15k tone (misadjusted repro azimuth leads to big losses of HF), and adjust the repro freq response on my machine to match the line up tones (typically 15k, 10k, 1k, 400) on the tape. That way I can be sure that my machine is replaying the tape in exactly the same way as the tape machine recorded the distribution master at the record company.

I always make a 15 IPS copy of the master tape with Dolby SR (Dolby 363 - 105 dB S/N ratio with tape) onto fresh RTM tape stock and have started to make a digital archive using a Prism Sound Lyra 2 interface. The master then gets stored and I can play the Dolby SR copy to my heart's content.

R2R is not cheap or the faint hearted. I have had to learn a fair bit along the way (mostly from my friend Stewart Emmings, who died 2 years ago). But get it right, and R2R replay is just stunning. :)